An Integrated Numerical Simulation Scheme to Predict Shale Gas Production of a Multi-Fractured Horizontal Well
Authors: Zhan Jie , Lu Jing , Fogwill Allan , Ulovich Ivan , Cao Jili Paul , He Ruijian , Chen Zhangxin 
Published: November 2017

The application of horizontal well drilling coupled with the multistage fracturing technology enables commercial development of shale gas formations. To optimize the shale gas development, the transient gas flow in a shale formation is of great research interest. Due to anano-scale pore radius, the gas flow in shale matrix may fall in flow regimes which include viscous flow, slip flow and Knudsen diffusion. On top of that, gas adsorption/desorption and stress-sensitivity are some other important phenomena in shales. In this paper, we introduce a novel numerical simulation scheme to depict the above phenomena and predict the gas production from a multi-stage fractured horizontal well, which is crucial for the shale gas development.

Instead of Darcy's equation, we implement the apparent permeability in the continuity equation to depict the gas flow (viscous flow, slip flow and Knudsen diffusion) in shale matrix. An adsorption/desorption term is included in the continuity equation as an accumulation term. A sink which is based on Peaceman's well model is placed at the center of the fracture cell. Uniform fluid flow from matrix to fractures is assumed. Only viscous flow is considered in the fractures and the permeability of the fractures doesnot change with pressure. The model is validated via comparing with an infinity-conductivity fracture model. Moreover, the lab data of Eagle Ford shale which provides the relationship between matrix permeability and the effective stress is integrated into the two-way coupling geomechanical process to simulate a stress-sensitive shale formation. Furthermore, the Langmuir and BET models will be compared to investigate the detailed adsorption/desorption process.

This methodology examines the influence of each mechanism for the transient shale gas flow. Instead of conventional pressure-independent Darcy permeability, the apparent permeability increases with the development of a shale gas reservoir, which leads to higher productivity. With the gas adsorption/desorption, the reservoir pressure is maintained via the supply of released gas from nano-scale pore wall surfaces, which also leads to higher gas production. In addition, it yields a 5% difference for the cumulative production for one yearbetween the Langmuir and BET models. With the consideration of geomechanics, the apparent permeability is decreased due to the compaction of nano-scale pores, which leads to a decrease in productivity. Due to the difference of compaction magnitude for each grid block, geomechanics creates additional heterogeneity for anano-pore network in a shale formation, which we should pay more attention to.

A novel methodology is introduced to examine the crucial phenomena in a shale formation, which simultaneously takes into account the influence of flow regimes, gas adsorption/desorption and stresssensitivity. On top of that, the productivity of a multi-stage fractured horizontal well is quantified. We provide an effective way to quantify the above effects for the transient gas flow in shale formations.