Hydraulically fractured wells in heterogeneous reservoirs: Interaction, interference, and optimization
Many petroleum reservoirs employ hydraulic fracturing for well completions. Reservoir flow patterns are significantly altered by these fractures. As more wells are drilled and longer fractures are created, the influence of the fractures on production and well testing responses increases. Existing approximate solutions to this interference problem have limited applicability. This dissertation presents techniques for the design and analysis of interference tests when the active and observation well are both hydraulically fractured. These techniques are based on a new mathematical solution that allows any value of dimensionless fracture conductivity, including infinite conductivity. The solution is presented in Laplace space; fracture skin, wellbore storage, naturally fissured matrix behavior, etc. are readily included. Any rate or pressure schedule of the active well can be analyzed. Compass orientation of the hydraulic fractures can be determined by interference testing. Relative fracture lengths, conductivities, and azimuth significantly affect well performance. The economic value of knowing hydraulic fracture azimuth can also be determined. Performance of a hydraulically fractured well near a large natural fracture or another hydraulically fractured well may also be evaluated. Values of fracture conductivity and fracture length for each fracture can not be determined uniquely from the interference response and must be determined separately. In addition to new analytic solutions, geostatistical techniques are used to generate conditionally simulated permeability fields. These permeability distributions honor local data, are unbiased, and retain the variance of the desired field. Flow simulations using finite difference methods illustrate the importance of the spatial correlation and level of heterogeneity in these fields.
- Research Organization:
- Stanford Univ., CA (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 6027100
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
OIL WELLS
HYDRAULIC FRACTURING
DATA ANALYSIS
DESIGN
FINITE DIFFERENCE METHOD
FLUID FLOW
GEOLOGIC FRACTURES
HETEROGENEOUS EFFECTS
HYDRAULIC FRACTURES
LENGTH
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
ORIENTATION
PERMEABILITY
PRODUCTION
RESERVOIR ENGINEERING
RESERVOIR FLUIDS
RESPONSE FUNCTIONS
TESTING
WELL COMPLETION
WELL DRILLING
WELL STIMULATION
COMMINUTION
DIMENSIONS
DRILLING
ENGINEERING
FAILURES
FLUIDS
FRACTURES
FRACTURING
FUNCTIONS
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
ITERATIVE METHODS
NUMERICAL SOLUTION
STIMULATION
WELLS
020300* - Petroleum- Drilling & Production