scholarly journals A Novel Analytical Method to Calculate the Amounts of Free and Adsorbed Gas in Shale Gas Production

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qingyu Li ◽  
Peichao Li ◽  
Wei Pang ◽  
Quanfu Bi ◽  
Zonghe Du ◽  
...  

Shale gas has now become an important part of unconventional hydrocarbon resources all around the world. The typical properties of shale gas are that both adsorbed gas and free gas play important roles in gas production. Thus the contributions of free and adsorbed gas to the shale gas production have become a hot, significant, and challenging problem in petroleum engineering. This paper presents a new analytical method to calculate the amounts of free and adsorbed gas in the process of shale gas extraction. First, the expressions of the amounts of adsorbed gas, matrix free gas, and fracture free gas in shale versus the producing time are presented on the basis of Langmuir adsorption model and formation pressure distribution. Next, the mathematical model of multifractured horizontal wells in shale gas reservoirs is established and solved by use of Laplace transform and inversion to obtain the normalized formation pressure distribution. Finally, field case studies of two multifractured horizontal shale gas wells in China are carried out with the presented quantitative method. The amounts of adsorbed and free gas in production are calculated, and the adsorbed-to-total ratio is provided. The results show that the proposed method is reliable and efficient.

Geofluids ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Zhiming Hu ◽  
Xianggang Duan ◽  
Nan Shao ◽  
Yingying Xu ◽  
Jin Chang ◽  
...  

Adsorbed gas and free gas both exist in shale reservoirs simultaneously due to the unique nanoscale pore structure, resulting in the complex flow mechanism of gas in the reservoir during the development process. The dynamic performance analysis of shale reservoirs has mostly been conducted by the numerical simulation and theoretical model, while the physical simulation method for relevant research is seen rarely in the literature. Thus, in this paper, an experiment system was designed to simulate the degraded development experiments of shale, coal, and tight sandstone to reveal the output law of gas in different occurrence states of shale reservoirs and clarify the pressure propagation rules of different reservoirs, and then, adsorption gas and free gas production laws were studied by theoretical models. Research indicated the following: (1) The gas occurrence state is the main factor that causes the difference of the pressure drop rate and gas production law of shale, coal, and tight sandstone. During the early stage of the development of shale gas, the free gas is mainly produced; the final contribution of free gas production can reach more than 90%. (2) The static desorption and dynamic experiments confirm that the critical desorption pressure of adsorbed gas is generally between 12 and 15 MPa. When the gas reservoir pressure is lower than the critical desorption pressure in shale and coal formation, desorption occurs. Due to the slow propagation of shale matrix pressure, desorption of adsorbed gas occurs mainly in the low-pressure region close to the fracture surface. (3) The material balance theory of closed gas reservoirs and the one-dimensional flow model of shale gas have subsequently validated the production performance law of adsorbed gas and free gas by the physical simulation. Therefore, in the practical development of shale gas reservoirs, it is recommended to shorten the matrix supply distance, reduce the pressure in the fracture, increase the effective pressure gradient, and enhance the potential utilization of adsorbed gas as soon as possible to increase the ultimate recovery. The findings of this study can help for a better understanding of the shale reservoir utilization law so as to provide a reference for production optimization and development plan formulation of the shale gas reservoirs.


Geofluids ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Shijun Huang ◽  
Jiaojiao Zhang ◽  
Sidong Fang ◽  
Xifeng Wang

In shale gas reservoirs, the production data analysis method is widely used to invert reservoir and fracture parameter, and productivity prediction. Compared with numerical models and semianalytical models, which have high computational cost, the analytical model is mostly used in the production data analysis method to characterize the complex fracture network formed after fracturing. However, most of the current calculation models ignore the uneven support of fractures, and most of them use a single supported fracture model to describe the flow characteristics, which magnifies the role of supported fracture to a certain extent. Therefore, in this study, firstly, the fractures are divided into supported fractures and unsupported fractures. According to the near-well supported fractures and far-well unsupported fractures, the SRV zone is divided into outer SRV and inner SRV. The four areas are characterized by different seepage models, and the analytical solutions of the models are obtained by Laplace transform and inverse transform. Secondly, the material balance pseudotime is introduced to process the production data under the conditions of variable production and variable pressure. The double logarithmic curves of normalized production rate, rate integration, the derivative of the integration, and material balance pseudotime are established, and the parameters are interpreted by fitting the theoretical curve to the measured data. Then, the accuracy of the method is verified by comparison the parameter interpretation results with well test results, and the influence of parameters such as the half-length and permeability of supported and unsupported fractures on gas production is analyzed. Finally, the proposed method is applied to four field cases in southwest China. This paper mainly establishes an analytical method for parameter interpretation after hydraulic fracturing based on the production data analysis method considering the uneven support of fractures, which is of great significance for understanding the mechanism of fracturing stimulation, optimization of fracturing parameters, and gas production forecast.


2012 ◽  
Vol 15 (01) ◽  
pp. 51-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morteza Nobakht ◽  
C.R.. R. Clarkson

Summary Hydraulically fractured vertical and horizontal wells completed in shale gas and some tight gas plays are known to exhibit long periods of linear flow. Recently, techniques for analyzing this flow period using (normalized) production data have been put forth, but there are known errors associated with the analysis. In this paper, linear flow from fractured wells completed in tight/shale gas reservoirs subject to a constant-production-rate constraint is studied. We show analytically that the square-root-of-time plot (a plot of rate-normalized pressure vs. square root of time that is commonly used to interpret linear flow) depends on the production rate. We also show that depending on production rate, the square-root-of-time plot may not be a straight line during linear flow; the higher the production rate, the earlier in time the plot deviates from the expected straight line. This deviation creates error in the analysis, especially for flow-regime identification. To address this issue, a new analytical method is developed for analyzing linear-flow data for the constant-gas-rate production constraint. The method is then validated using a number of numerically simulated cases. As expected, on the basis of the analytical derivation, the square-root-of-time plots for these cases depend on gas-production rate and, for some cases, the plot does not appear as a straight line during linear flow. Finally, we found that there is excellent agreement between the fracture half-lengths obtained using this method and the input fracture half-lengths entered in to numerical simulation.


Geofluids ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheng Dai ◽  
Liang Xue ◽  
Weihong Wang ◽  
Xiang Li

Due to the ultralow permeability of shale gas reservoirs, stimulating the reservoir formation by using hydraulic fracturing technique and horizontal well is required to create the pathway of gas flow so that the shale gas can be recovered in an economically viable manner. The hydraulic fractured formations can be divided into two regions, stimulated reservoir volume (SRV) region and non-SRV region, and the produced shale gas may exist as free gas or adsorbed gas under the initial formation condition. Investigating the recovery factor of different types of shale gas in different region may assist us to make more reasonable development strategies. In this paper, we build a numerical simulation model, which has the ability to take the unique shale gas flow mechanisms into account, to quantitatively describe the gas production characteristics in each region based on the field data collected from a shale gas reservoir in Sichuan Basin in China. The contribution of the free gas and adsorbed gas to the total production is analyzed dynamically through the entire life of the shale gas production by adopting a component subdivision method. The effects of the key reservoir properties, such as shale matrix, secondary natural fracture network, and primary hydraulic fractures, on the recovery factor are also investigated.


Minerals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 63
Author(s):  
Weidong Xie ◽  
Meng Wang ◽  
Hongyue Duan

Adsorbed gas is one of the crucial occurrences in shale gas reservoirs; thus, it is of great significance to ascertain the adsorption capacity of shale and the adsorption characteristics of CH4. In this investigation, the Taiyuan–Shanxi Formations’ coal-measure shale gas reservoir of the Carboniferous–Permian era in the Hedong Coalfield was treated as the research target. Our results exhibit that the shale samples were characterized by a high total organic carbon (TOC) and over to high-over maturity, with an average TOC of 2.45% and average Ro of 2.59%. The mineral composition was dominated by clay (62% on average) and quartz (22.45% on average), and clay was mainly composed of kaolinite and illite. The Langmuir model showed a perfect fitting degree to the experimental data: VL was in the range of 0.01 cm3/g to 0.77 cm3/g and PL was in the range of 0.23–8.58 MPa. In addition, the fitting degree depicted a linear negative correlation versus TOC, while mineral composition did not exhibit a significant effect on the fitting degree, which was caused by the complex pore structure of organic matter, and the applicability of the monolayer adsorption theory was lower than that of CH4 adsorption on the mineral’s pore surface. An apparent linear positive correlation of VL versus the TOC value was recorded; furthermore, the normalized VL increased with the growth of the total content of clay mineral (TCCM), decreased with the growth of the total content of brittle mineral (TCBM), while there was no obvious correlation of normalized VL versus kaolinite, illite and quartz content. The huge amount of micropores and complex internal structure led to organic matter possessing a strong adsorption capacity for CH4, and clay minerals also promoted adsorption due to the development of interlayer pores and intergranular pores.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (20) ◽  
pp. 5427
Author(s):  
Boning Zhang ◽  
Baochao Shan ◽  
Yulong Zhao ◽  
Liehui Zhang

An accurate understanding of formation and gas properties is crucial to the efficient development of shale gas resources. As one kind of unconventional energy, shale gas shows significant differences from conventional energy ones in terms of gas accumulation processes, pore structure characteristics, gas storage forms, physical parameters, and reservoir production modes. Traditional experimental techniques could not satisfy the need to capture the microscopic characteristics of pores and throats in shale plays. In this review, the uniqueness of shale gas reservoirs is elaborated from the perspective of: (1) geological and pore structural characteristics, (2) adsorption/desorption laws, and (3) differences in properties between the adsorbed gas and free gas. As to the first aspect, the mineral composition and organic geochemical characteristics of shale samples from the Longmaxi Formation, Sichuan Basin, China were measured and analyzed based on the experimental results. Principles of different methods to test pore size distribution in shale formations are introduced, after which the results of pore size distribution of samples from the Longmaxi shale are given. Based on the geological understanding of shale formations, three different types of shale gas and respective modeling methods are reviewed. Afterwards, the conventional adsorption models, Gibbs excess adsorption behaviors, and supercritical adsorption characteristics, as well as their applicability to engineering problems, are introduced. Finally, six methods of calculating virtual saturated vapor pressure, seven methods of giving adsorbed gas density, and 12 methods of calculating gas viscosity in different pressure and temperature conditions are collected and compared, with the recommended methods given after a comparison.


2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 207-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongling Zhang ◽  
Jing Wang ◽  
Haiyong Zhang

Shale gas is one of the primary types of unconventional reservoirs to be exploited in search for long-lasting resources. Production from shale gas reservoirs requires horizontal drilling with hydraulic fracturing to achieve the most economic production. However, plenty of parameters (e.g., fracture conductivity, fracture spacing, half-length, matrix permeability, and porosity,etc) have high uncertainty that may cause unexpected high cost. Therefore, to develop an efficient and practical method for quantifying uncertainty and optimizing shale-gas production is highly desirable. This paper focuses on analyzing the main factors during gas production, including petro-physical parameters, hydraulic fracture parameters, and work conditions on shale-gas production performances. Firstly, numerous key parameters of shale-gas production from the fourteen best-known shale gas reservoirs in the United States are selected through the correlation analysis. Secondly, a grey relational grade method is used to quantitatively estimate the potential of developing target shale gas reservoirs as well as the impact ranking of these factors. Analyses on production data of many shale-gas reservoirs indicate that the recovery efficiencies are highly correlated with the major parameters predicted by the new method. Among all main factors, the impact ranking of major factors, from more important to less important, is matrix permeability, fracture conductivity, fracture density of hydraulic fracturing, reservoir pressure, total organic content (TOC), fracture half-length, adsorbed gas, reservoir thickness, reservoir depth, and clay content. This work can provide significant insights into quantifying the evaluation of the development potential of shale gas reservoirs, the influence degree of main factors, and optimization of shale gas production.


2021 ◽  
Vol 73 (08) ◽  
pp. 67-68
Author(s):  
Chris Carpenter

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper SPE 201694, “Interwell Fracturing Interference Evaluation of Multiwell Pads in Shale Gas Reservoirs: A Case Study in WY Basin,” by Youwei He, SPE, Jianchun Guo, SPE, and Yong Tang, Southwest Petroleum University, et al., prepared for the 2020 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, originally scheduled to be held in Denver, Colorado, 5–7 October. The paper has not been peer reviewed. The paper aims to determine the mechanisms of fracturing interference for multiwell pads in shale gas reservoirs and evaluate the effect of interwell fracturing interference on production. Field data of 56 shale gas wells in the WY Basin are applied to calculate the ratio of affected wells to newly fractured wells and understand its influence on gas production. The main controlling factors of fracturing interference are determined, and the interwell fracturing interacting types are presented. Production recovery potential for affected wells is analyzed, and suggestions for mitigating fracturing interference are proposed. Interwell Fracturing Interference Evaluation The WY shale play is in the southwest region of the Sichuan Basin, where shale gas reserves in the Wufeng-Longmaxi formation are estimated to be the highest in China. The reservoir has produced hydrocarbons since 2016. Infill well drilling and massive hydraulic fracturing operations have been applied in the basin. Each well pad usually is composed of six to eight multifractured horizontal wells (MFHWs). Well spacing within one pad, or the distance between adjacent well pads, is so small that fracture interference can occur easily between infill wells and parent wells. Fig. 1 shows the number of wells affected by in-fill well fracturing from 2016 to 2019 in the basin. As the number of newly drilled wells increased between 2017 and 2019, the number of wells affected by hydraulic fracturing has greatly increased. The number of wells experiencing fracturing interaction has reached 65 in the last 4 years at the time of writing.


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