• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.403-430
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• 2014

Shale gas formations exhibit strong mechanical and strength anisotropies. Thus, it is necessary to study the effect of anisotropy on the hydraulic fracture initiation pressure. The calculation model for the in-situ stress of the bedding formation is improved according to the effective stress theory. An analytical model of the stresses around wellbore in shale gas reservoirs, in consideration of stratum dip direction, dip angle, and in-situ stress azimuth, has been built. Besides, this work established a calculation model for the stress around the perforation holes. In combination with the tensile failure criterion, a prediction model for the hydraulic fracture initiation pressure in the shale gas reservoirs is put forward. The error between the prediction result and the measured value for the shale gas reservoir in the southern Sichuan Province is only 3.5%. Specifically, effects of factors including elasticity modulus, Poisson's ratio, in-situ stress ratio, tensile strength, perforation angle (the angle between perforation direction and the maximum principal stress) of anisotropic formations on hydraulic fracture initiation pressure have been investigated. The perforation angle has the largest effect on the fracture initiation pressure, followed by the in-situ stress ratio, ratio of tensile strength to pore pressure, and the anisotropy ratio of elasticity moduli as the last. The effect of the anisotropy ratio of the Poisson's ratio on the fracture initiation pressure can be ignored. This study provides a reference for the hydraulic fracturing design in shale gas wells.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.50-57
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• 2017

Shale gas reservoir are composed of very fine grained particles, and their pores are very small, at the scale of nanometers. In this study, a parametric study was implemented to investigate the effect of knudsen diffusion, relative permeability and permeability reduction in shale gas reservoir. Shale gas reservoir model in Horn-River was developed to confirm the productivity for different design parameters such as diffusion, relative permeability, connate water saturation, and permeability reduction.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.99-117
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• 2017

Rock physics modeling of sandstone reservoir from gas fields of Krishna-Godavari basin represents the link between reservoir parameters and seismic properties. The rock physics diagnostic models such as contact cement, constant cement and friable sand are chosen to characterize reservoir sands of two wells in this basin. Cementation is affected by the grain sorting and cement coating on the surface of the grain. The models show that the reservoir sands in two wells under examination have varying cementation from 2 to more than 6%. Distinct and separate velocity-porosity and elastic moduli-porosity trends are observed for reservoir zones of two wells. A methodology is adopted for generation of Rock Physics Template (RPT) based on fluid replacement modeling for Raghavapuram Shale and Gollapalli Sandstones of Early Cretaceous. The ratio of P-wave velocity to S-wave velocity (Vp/Vs) and P-impedance template, generated for this above formations is able to detect shale, brine sand and gas sand with varying water saturation and porosity from wells in the Endamuru and Suryaraopeta gas fields having same shallow marine depositional characters. This RPT predicted detection of water and gas sands are matched well with conventional neutron-density cross plot analysis.

• 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%.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.359-373
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• 2013

Shale is considered as a source rock for conventional oil and gas exploration and development because shale is fine-grained detrital sedimentary rock which can preserve the organic matter better. Shale has a good sealing capacity for the petroleum trap due to its low permeability. Commercial recoveries of gas from shale in the North America based on the development of technologies of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing reveal that shale also function as a effective reservoir rock. Geochemical techniques to evaluate generation potential of the hydrocarbons from organic matter in the source rocks can be applied for the exploration of the shale gas resources. To evaluate shale gas resources, it is important to understand various geochemical processes and shale characteristics controlling generation, storage and estimation of shale gas reserves. In this paper, the generation mechanism of the oil and gas from organic matter is reviewed, and geochemical techniques which can be applied for the evaluation and characterization of shale gas are introduced.

• 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.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.645-667
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• 2015

Single treatment and staged treatments in vertical wells are widely applied in sandstone and mudstone thin interbedded (SMTI) reservoir to stimulate the reservoir. The keys and difficulties of stimulating this category of formations are to avoid hydraulic fracture propagating through the interface between shale and sand as well as control the fracture height. In this paper, the cohesive zone method was utilized to build the 3-dimensional fracture dynamic propagation model in shale and sand interbedded formation based on the cohesive damage element. Staged treatments and single treatment were simulated by single fracture propagation model and double fractures propagation model respectively. Study on the changes of fracture vicinity stress field during propagation is to compare and analyze the parameters which influence the interfacial induced stresses between two different fracturing methods. As a result, we can prejudge how difficult it is that the fracture propagates along its height direction. The induced stress increases as the pumping rate increasing and it changes as a parabolic function of the fluid viscosity. The optimized pump rate is $4.8m^3/min$ and fluid viscosity is $0.1Pa{\cdot}s$ to avoid the over extending of hydraulic fracture in height direction. The simulation outcomes were applied in the field to optimize the treatment parameters and the staged treatments was suggested to get a better production than single treatment.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.61-69
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• 2017

The commercial development of unconventional gas is pursued in North America because it is more feasible owing to the technology required to improve productivity. Shale reservoir have low permeability and gas production can be carried out through cracks generated by hydraulic fracturing. The decline rate during the initial production period is high, but very low latter on, there are significant variations from the initial production behavior. Therefore, in the prediction of the production rate using deterministic decline curve analysis(DCA), it is not possible to consider the uncertainty in the production behavior. In this study, production rate of the Eagle Ford shale is predicted by Arps Hyperbolic and Modified SEPD. To minimize the uncertainty in predicting the Estimated Ultimate Recovery(EUR), Monte Carlo simulation is used to multi-wells analysis. Also, kernel density function is applied to determine probability distribution of decline curve factors without any assumption.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.538-546
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• 2013

This paper deals with a hydraulic fracturing technique, which is one of the methods to maximize the recovery rate and productivity of oil and gas in the petroleum industry. In the hydraulic fracturing, typically water mixed with sand and chemicals is injected into a wellbore in order to create artificial fractures along which formation fluids migrate to the well. In recent years, it is widely used in non-conventional oil and gas such as oil shale and shale gas. Three main stages of the hydraulic fracturing process, the proposed design models for the effective hydraulic fracturing and diagnostics after fracturing treatment are introduced. In addition, this paper introduces reservoir geomechanics to solve various problems in the process of hydraulic fracturing.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.13-22
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• 2016

This paper presents development of an appropriate procedure and flow chart to analyze shale gas production data obtained from a multi-fractured horizontal well according to flow characteristics in order to calculate an estimated ultimate recovery. Also, the technical considerations were proposed when a rate transient analysis was performed with field production data occurred to only $1^{st}$ transient flow. If production data show the $1^{st}$ transient flow from log-log and square root time plot analysis, production forecasting must be performed by applying different method as before and after of the end of $1^{st}$ linear flow. It is estimated by an area of stimulated reservoir volume which can be calculated from analysis results of micro-seismic data. If there are no bottomhole pressure data or micro-seismic data, an empirical decline curve method can be used to forecast production performance. If production period is relatively short, an accuracy of production data analysis could be improved by analyzing except the early production data, if it is necessary, after evaluating appropriation with near well data. Also, because over- or under-estimation for stimulated reservoir volume could take place according to analysis method or analyzer's own mind, it is necessary to recalculate it with fracture modeling, reservoir simulation and rate transient analysis, if it is necessary, after adequacy evaluation for fracture stage, injection volume of fracture fluid and productivity of producers.