An Integrated Equation-of-State Compositional Hydraulic Fracturing and Reservoir Simulator

TitleAn Integrated Equation-of-State Compositional Hydraulic Fracturing and Reservoir Simulator
Publication TypeConference Paper
Year of Publication2020
AuthorsZheng, S., and M. M. Sharma
Conference NameSPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition
Date Published10/2020
PublisherSociety of Petroleum Engineers
Conference LocationVirtual, October 26-29, 2020
Other NumbersSPE-201700-MS
Abstract

In this paper, we present an integrated equation-of-state based compositional hydraulic fracturing and reservoir simulator. The goal of this research is to develop a general simulator that can simulate the lifecycle of wells, which includes hydraulic fracturing treatment using water-based or energized fracturing fluid, post-frac shut-in and flowback with fracture closure and proppant settling, primary production with proppant embedment and fluid reinjection in a multiple well pad. This simulator fully couples the reservoir, fracture, and wellbore domains with multiple physics in each domain. The rock deformation, porous flow and temperature change in the reservoir domain, fluid and proppant transport in the fracture domain, and wellbore slurry flow and fluid/proppant distribution among clusters are fully coupled together and solved fully implicitly using the Newton-Raphson method. The phase behavior of hydrocarbon phases is modeled using Peng-Robinson Equation-of-state. The fracture propagation is modeled by mesh topology change (dynamic remeshing and local refinement) and the propagation direction is evaluated using the stress intensity factors. This simulator has been fully parallelized using MPI. We show two applications of this simulator for lifecycle analysis in US unconventional oil reservoirs on frac-hits and CO 2 fracturing. In the first field application, we simulate a multi-well fracture diagnostics. We used the parent well to monitor the child well fracture growth. Child well fracture growth is correctly interpreted using the monitoring data. In the second field application, we perform lifecycle analysis of hydraulic fracturing treatment using hybrid CO 2 -slick water-crosslinked gel fracturing fluids and 100/30-50 mesh proppants and the following production phase from a well in the Bakken formation. We successfully match the complex surface treating pressure data from the field. We also successfully matched the cumulative production of oil, gas and water and explained the long-term CO 2 flowback phenomenon in the field. The novelty of this simulator comes from its unique modeling capability in the well lifecycle analysis. Fully coupled reservoir-fracture-wellbore framework allows accurate modeling of hydraulic fracture propagation in multiple well pads using multiple fracturing fluids and proppants, fracture closure during shut-in, primary production, refracturing, and pre-loading for parent well protection, and huff-n-puff improved oil recovery, all in one simulation. This simulator can be used as a reliable and efficient tool by operators in well lifecycle analysis.

DOI10.2118/201700-MS