Integration of Fracturing Dynamics and Pressure Transient Analysis for Hydraulic Fracture Evaluation

Most current pressure transient analysis techniques of hydraulically fractured wells are based on the fully penetrating assumption, which assumes equal thickness of hydraulic fracture and the formation. However, field application show that the fractures thickness can be shorter than the thickness of formation, which leads to vertical flow into the fracture. Thus applying the thickness equality assumption of current well test models to a partial penetrating fracture may give contradictory result. Further, there are very few studies concerning pressure transient analysis of partial penetrated wells. So it is important to develop analysis model and procedure to this type of fracture. In this paper, we presented an analytical model for partially penetrating hydraulic fracture in isotropic systems, along with the assumption that fracture is finite conductive. This model is then applied in the analysis of field production data, which verified validity of this new model.

Download Full-text

Pressure-Transient Analysis of a Well With an Inclined Hydraulic Fracture

SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering ◽

10.2118/120540-pa ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 13 (06) ◽

pp. 845-860 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Anh V. Dinh ◽

Djebbar Tiab

Keyword(s):

Flow Regime ◽

Hydraulic Fracture ◽

Transient Analysis ◽

Hydraulic Fractures ◽

Pressure Derivative ◽

Pressure Transient Analysis ◽

Pressure Transient ◽

Fracture Models ◽

Infinite Conductivity ◽

Conductivity Models

Summary Hydraulic fracturing is an important well-stimulation technique that has been widely used in the oil and gas industry. Most of the pressure-transient-analysis techniques to analyze pressure responses of fractured wells are based on the assumption that the fracture is either vertical or horizontal. However, a hydraulic fracture could be inclined with a nonzero angle with respect to the vertical direction. Field studies have shown that most hydraulic fractures are not perfectly vertical. Thus, for an inclined hydraulic fracture, the vertical-orientation assumption may lead to erroneous results in welltest analysis, especially when the inclination angle is significant. However, there are very few studies concerning pressure-transient analysis of inclined hydraulic fractures, and there is no applicable well-test-analysis procedure available for inclined fractures. The purpose of this study is to develop a technique, on the basis of the pressure-derivative concept, for interpreting pressuretransient tests in wells with an inclined hydraulic fracture. Detailed analysis of unsteady-state pressure behavior of a fully penetrating inclined fracture in an infinite-slab reservoir was provided. Both uniform-flux and infinite-conductivity models were considered. The study has shown that inclined-fracture pressure data exhibit flow regimes similar to those for vertical fractures. Those flow regimes are linear and pseudoradial flow for both uniform-flux and infinite-conductivity models. However, for the infinite-conductivity model, a biradial- (or elliptical) flow regime is also observed. In the case of a high formation-thickness/fracture-half-length ratio and high angle of inclination, both uniform-flux and infiniteconductivity inclined-fracture models exhibit an additional flow regime, called early radial (ER) flow in this paper. This ER-flow regime for an inclined hydraulic fracture has not been mentioned in the literature before. A type-curve-matching technique was developed in this study using both pressure and pressure-derivative curves. This typecurve-matching procedure can be used to obtain the following parameters: fracture half-length, inclination angle, formation permeability, and the pseudoskin factor. The results should be verified with other pressure plots such as the semilog plot of vs. t and the Δp-vs.-t1/2 plot. A set of type curves with associated data was also provided for uniform-flux and infinite-conductivity inclined- fracture models. Detailed explanations, tables, figures, and a numerical example are included in this paper.

Download Full-text

A Semianalytical Model for Pressure-Transient Analysis of Fractured Wells in Unconventional Plays With Arbitrarily Distributed Discrete Fractures

SPE Journal ◽

10.2118/187290-pa ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 23 (06) ◽

pp. 2041-2059 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Zhiming Chen ◽

Xinwei Liao ◽

Kamy Sepehrnoori ◽

Wei Yu

Keyword(s):

Fluid Flow ◽

Hydraulic Fracture ◽

Transient Analysis ◽

Fractured Reservoirs ◽

Naturally Fractured Reservoirs ◽

Hydraulic Fractures ◽

Natural Fractures ◽

Fracture Networks ◽

Pressure Transient Analysis ◽

Pressure Transient

Summary In this paper, we present an efficient semianalytical model for pressure-transient analysis in fractured wells by considering arbitrarily distributed fracture networks. The semianalytical model included three domains: matrix, hydraulic-fracture networks, and discrete natural fractures. Using the line-source function, we developed the diffusivity equation for fluid flow in matrix. By applying the vertex-analysis technique, we eliminated the flow interplay at fracture intersections and established the diffusivity equations for fluid flow in hydraulic-fracture networks and isolated natural fractures. The pressure-transient solution of these diffusivity equations was obtained using Laplace transforms and the Stehfest numerical inversion. Results showed that with the discrete natural fractures, a “V-shaped” pressure derivative (the classical dual-porosity feature of naturally fractured reservoirs) emerged. With the hydraulic-fracture networks, the reservoir system would exhibit pressure behaviors such as “pseudoboundary-dominated flow,” “fracture-interference flow,” and “fluid-feed flow.” All these pressure characteristics were dependent on the properties and geometries of natural/hydraulic fractures. In addition, through synthetic field application, we found that different (natural/hydraulic) fracture distributions and geometries had distinct behaviors of pressure derivatives, which may provide an effective tool to identify the properties of randomly distributed natural fractures as well as complex hydraulic fractures in unconventional plays.

Download Full-text

State of the Art in Characterization of Frac Stage Geometry and Conductivity Using Pressure Leakoff

10.2118/200882-ms ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Mohamed Ibrahim Mohamed ◽

Erdal Ozkan

Keyword(s):

Hydraulic Fracturing ◽

Hydraulic Fracture ◽

Transient Analysis ◽

State Of The Art ◽

Low Cost ◽

Pressure Data ◽

Pressure Transient Analysis ◽

Fracture Conductivity ◽

Pressure Transient ◽

Half Length

Abstract Pressure-transient analysis (PTA) is widely used in the industry to estimate fracture half-length, height, and skin due to hydraulic fracturing as well as reservoir parameters. PTA studies focus on pressure data from long shut-in periods and diagnostic fracture injection tests (DFITs), while analyzing the pressure data recorded during the hydraulic fracture treatment has been overlooked. This paper details the state-of-the-art in applying pressure transient analysis to better estimate hydraulic fracture conductivity and dimensions and improve treatment designs stage by stage. The initial portion of this paper describes the application of a novel and low-cost diagnostic method for post-fracture analysis. The bulk of the paper is dedicated to present case histories that illustrate the PTA of the recorded pressure data during treatment to obtain estimates of fracture dimensions and conductivity. The pressure recorded during each stage is processed to ensure the proper data quality and the pressure falloff at the end of the stage is filtered out. The pressure is then analyzed for multi-cluster, finite-conductivity fractures, to obtain the fracture half-length, conductivity, and leakoff. Calculated parameters from each stage are compared to provide insights into the hydraulic fracture design and confirm the adequacy of the treatment design along the well. The results from stage leakoff pressure analysis are very valuable in confirming relative fracture conductivity and providing a qualitative measure of fracture length and height. The total stimulated reservoir area (SRA) calculated using the proposed method yields comparable values to SRA obtained from buildup analysis. The information provided is as valuable and comparable as that from direct near-wellbore diagnostics, such as radioactive traces, temperature logging, real-time micro-seismic monitoring, and production logging. The paper proposes a novel, low-cost analytical PTA method for estimating fracture dimensions, skin, and leakoff coefficient. We illustrate – with several field cases – that conventional post-fracture techniques can be integrated with the stage by stage PTA analysis to provide not only a more consistent and systematic analysis but also a more accurate assessment of treatment effectiveness. The findings of this paper help improve the efficiency of multistage hydraulic fracturing stimulation of horizontal wells.

Download Full-text