scholarly journals Hydraulic Fracturing and Shale Gas Production: Technology, Impacts, and Regulations

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corrie E. Clark ◽  
Andrew J. Burnham ◽  
Christopher B. Harto ◽  
Robert M. Horner
Keyword(s):  
Hydraulic Fracturing ◽  
Production Technology ◽  
Shale Gas ◽  
Gas Production

Study Evaluates Fracturing Interference for Multiwell Pads in Shale Gas Reservoirs

2021 ◽  
Vol 73 (08) ◽  
pp. 67-68
Author(s):  
Chris Carpenter
Keyword(s):  
Hydraulic Fracturing ◽  
Shale Gas ◽  
Technical Conference ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Gas Reservoirs ◽  
Well Drilling ◽  
Recovery Potential ◽  
Shale Gas Reservoirs ◽  
Well Spacing ◽  
Southwest Region

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 The paper has not been peer reviewed.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.

scholarly journals Economic Model-Based Controller Design Framework for Hydraulic Fracturing To Optimize Shale Gas Production and Water Usage

2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (27) ◽  
pp. 12097-12115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaiyu Cao ◽  
Prashanth Siddhamshetty ◽  
Yuchan Ahn ◽  
Rajib Mukherjee ◽  
Joseph Sang-Il Kwon
Keyword(s):  
Hydraulic Fracturing ◽  
Shale Gas ◽  
Economic Model ◽  
Controller Design ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Design Framework ◽  
Water Usage ◽  
Model Based

scholarly journals Investigation on Nonuniform Extension of Hydraulic Fracture in Shale Gas Formation

Geofluids ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Zhiheng Zhao ◽  
Youcheng Zheng ◽  
Yili Kang ◽  
Bo Zeng ◽  
Yi Song
Keyword(s):  
Hydraulic Fracturing ◽  
Flow Rate ◽  
Shale Gas ◽  
Simulation Method ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Fractional Flow ◽  
Cluster Number ◽  
Treatment Technology ◽  
Average Width ◽  
Shadowing Effect

Hydraulic fracturing with multiple clusters has been a significant way to improve fracture complexity and achieve high utilization of shale formation. This technology has been widely applied in the main shale area of North America. In Changning shale block of China, it, as a promising treatment technology, is being used in horizontal well now. Due to the anisotropy of mechanical property and the stress shadowing effect between multiclusters, fractures would extend nonuniformly and even some clusters are invalid, leading to a poor treatment performance. In this work, based on the geology and engineering characteristics of Changning shale block, different cluster number, cluster spacing, perforation distribution, and flow rate were discussed by the numerical simulation method to clarify multifracture propagation. It is implied that with the reduction of cluster number and the growth of cluster spacing and flow rate, the length and average width of interior fractures are inclined to increase due to the mitigation of stress shadowing effect, contributing to the lower standard deviation (SD) of fracture length, but too small cluster number or too large cluster spacing is not recommended. Besides, the perforation distribution with more perforations in interior fractures can get larger length and average width of interior fractures compared with another two perforation distributions because of more fractional flow rates obtained, which results in more even fracture propagations. In Changning shale block, multicluster hydraulic fracturing with 4-6 clusters in a stage has been employed in 300-400 m well spacing, and diversion technology, limited-entry perforation (36-48 perforations per stage), high flow rate (16 m3/min), and small-sized ceramic proppant (100 mesh) are used to get better shale gas production. To promote the even propagation of fractures further, nonuniform perforation distribution should be introduced in the target shale area.

State Support and Assessment of the Feasibility of Shale Gas Production

2021 ◽  
pp. 225-236
Author(s):  
Mikhail I. Khoroshiltsev
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Hydraulic Fracturing ◽  
Economic Efficiency ◽  
Shale Gas ◽  
The United States ◽  
Industrial Sector ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Technological Breakthrough ◽  
Tight Reservoirs ◽  
Hydrocarbon Deposits

The article analyzes shale gas production in the United States and calculates its economic efficiency. The development of shale gas production became possible due to the combination of tight reservoirs in a single technological process of drilling and hydraulic fracturing. A technological breakthrough in gas production made it economically attractive for investors (considering the prices of that period) to develop unconventional hydrocarbon deposits. At the same time, like any new industrial sector, the development of shale gas is associated with significant costs at various levels.

scholarly journals Review of USА legislation in the field of environmental and legal regulation of shale gas production: experience for Ukraine

2020 ◽  
pp. 505-513
Author(s):  
Mykhaiskyi Oleksii
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Hydraulic Fracturing ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Shale Gas ◽  
The United States ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
The State ◽  
Production Sharing ◽  
The Law

Ensuring energy security has always been one of Ukraine's main problems. Now the level of shale gas production in Ukraine allows to cover only half of the country's needs in this type of fuel. According to the Energy Strategy of Ukraine until 2035, one of the priorities of development in the fuel and energy sector is to increase the level of gas production to 30–35 billion m3 of gas per year, including at the expense of non-traditional hydrocarbons, among which shale gas can be allocated. However, it should be noted that Ukraine's modern mining industry does not provide an adequate level of environmental protection. This problem becomes even more acute in the context of the possible production of shale gas, which requires state-of-the-art production technologies and a flexible regulatory system. Today, the United States is the most developed country in shale gas production. It is the United States that has the largest experience of shale gas production among all countries of the world, and its legislation has been shaped by the realities of shale gas production since the 1980s. The article analyzed U.S. legislation in terms of environmental and legal regulation of shale gas production. Consideration has been given to U.S. legislation that regulates the protection of water, air, soil from pollution, as well as waste management legislation and the disclosure of confidential information related to shale gas extraction necessary to protect the environment, as well as human life and health. The US legislative structure is analyzed and it is revealed that federal legislation does not provide the proper level of environmental protection, which is why the environmental and legal regulation of shale gas production occurs mainly at the state level. The main problem of regulating shale gas production at the federal level is the so-called «Halibarton loophole», due to which operations using hydraulic fracturing are removed from the regulation of most federal environmental standards. There is no such norm in Ukrainian legislation, but the Law of Ukraine "On Agreements on Division of Products" is not regulated by the Law of Ukraine "On Oil and Gas," this makes it possible to fix in the agreement on division of products all nuances related to shale gas production. At the same time, this is a significant risk of the occurrence of a case in which the agreement, contrary to Ukrainian legislation, will neglect the interests of the environment. That is why Ukraine needs standards like NAAQS, which also apply to legal relations arising from the signing of a production sharing agreement, which would avoid disregard of Ukrainian legislation when signing a production sharing agreement. The article also addresses the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act and states that it requires an operator using hydraulic fracturing to provide information necessary for medical diagnosis, treatment or emergency response. In doing so, the operator, once such information has been disclosed to the State or health worker, may require a written declaration of the need for disclosure and a confidentiality agreement as soon as possible after it has been determined by the State or medical institution. It is proposed to develop a similar bill and introduce it into Ukrainian legislation.

Zipper Fracturing of Horizontal Cluster Wells: Game Changing Unconventional Fracturing in UAE

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yang Wu ◽  
Ole Sorensen ◽  
Nabila Lazreq ◽  
Yin Luo ◽  
Tomislav Bukovac ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Hydraulic Fracturing ◽  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Shale Gas ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Operational Efficiency ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Hydraulic Fractures ◽  
Fluid Viscosity ◽  
Fracture Width ◽  
Friction Reducer

Abstract Following the increase in demand for natural gas production in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), unconventional hydraulic fracturing in the country has grown exponentially and with it the demand for new technology and efficiency to fast-track the process from fracturing to production. Diyab field has historically been a challenging field for fracturing given the high-pressure/high-temperature (HP/HT) conditions, presence of H2S, and the strike-slip to thrust faulting conditions. Meanwhile, operational efficiency is necessary for economic development of this shale gas reservoir. Hence "zipper fracturing" was introduced in UAE with modern technologies to enable both operational efficiency and reservoir stimulation performance. The introduction of zipper fracturing in UAE is considered a game changer as it shifted the focus from single-well fracturing to multiple well pads that allow for fracturing to take place in one well while the adjacent well is undergoing a pumpdown plug-and-perf operation using wireline. The overall setup of the zipper surface manifold allowed for faster transitions between the two wells; hence, it also rendered using large storage tanks a viable option since the turnover between stages would be short. Thus, two large modular tanks were installed and utilised to allow 160,000 bbl of water storage on site. Similarly, the use of high-viscosity friction reducer (HVFR) has directly replaced the common friction reducer additive or guar-based gel for shale gas operation. HVFR provides higher viscosity to carry larger proppant concentrations without the reservoir damage, and the flexibility and simplicity of optimizing fluid viscosity on-the-fly to ensure adequate fracture width and balance near-wellbore fracture complexity. Fully utilizing dissolvable fracture plugs was also applied to mitigate the risk of casing deformation and the subsequent difficulty of milling plugs after the fracturing treatment. Furthermore, fracture and completion design based on geologic modelling helped reduce risk of interaction between the hydraulic fractures and geologic abnormalities. With the application of advanced logistical planning, personnel proficiency, the zipper operation field process, clustered fracture placement, and the pump-down plug-and-perforation operation, the speed of fracturing reached a maximum of 4.5 stages per day, completing 67 stages in total between two wells placing nearly 27 million lbm of proppant across Hanifa formation. The maximum proppant per stage achieved was 606,000 lbm. The novelty of this project lies in the first-time application of zipper fracturing, as well as the first application of dry HVFR fracturing fluid and dissolvable fracturing plugs in UAE. These introductions helped in improving the overall efficiency of hydraulic fracturing in one of UAE's most challenging unconventional basins in the country, which is quickly demanding quicker well turnovers from fracturing to production.

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