• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.20-29
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• 2021

During multi-stage fracturing in a low permeable shale formation, stress interference occurs between the stages which is called the "stress shadow effect(SSE)". The effect may alter the fracture propagation direction and induce ununiform geometry. In this study, the stress shadow effect on the hydraulic fracture geometry and the well productivity were investigated by the commercial full-3D fracture model, GOHFER. In a homogeneous reservoir model, a multi-stage fracturing process was performed with or without the SSE. In addition, the fracturing was performed on two shale reservoirs with different geomechanical properties(Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio) to analyze the stress shadow effect. In the simulation results, the stress change caused by the fracture created in the previous stage switched the maximum/minimum horizontal stress and the lower productivity L-direction fracture was more dominating over the T-direction fracture. Since the Marcellus shale is more brittle than more dominating over the T-direction fracture. Since the Marcellus shale is more brittle than the relatively ductile Eagle Ford shale, the fracture width in the former was developed thicker, resulting in the larger fracture volume. And the Marcellus shale's Young's modulus is low, the stress effect is less significant than the Eagle Ford shale in the stage 2. The stress shadow effect strongly depends on not only the spacing between fractures but also the geomechanical properties. Therefore, the stress shadow effect needs to be taken into account for more accurate analysis of the fracture geometry and for more reliable prediction of the well productivity.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.62-72
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• 2020

This study presents a methodology of history matching to evaluate the productivity of shale gas reservoir with high reliability and predict future production rate in the Horn-River basin, Canada. Sensitivity analysis was performed to analyze the effect of physical properties of shale gas reservoir on productivity. Based on the results, reservoir properties were classified into 4 cases and history matching were performed considering the classified 4 cases as objective function. The blind test was conducted using additional field production data for 3 years after the history matching period. The error of gas production rate in Case 1(all reservoir parameters), Case 2(influenced parameters for productivity), Case 3(controllable parameters), and Case 4(uncontrollable parameters) were 7.67%, 7.13%, 17.54%, and 10.04%, respectively. This means that it seems to be effective to consider all reservoir parameters in early period for 4 years but Case 2 which considered influenced parameters for productivity shows the highest reliability in predicting future production. The estimated ultimate recovery (EUR) of production well predicted using the Case 2 model was estimated to be 17.24 Bcf by December 2030 and the recovery factor compared to original gas in place (OGIP) was 32.2%.