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Optimization of fractured well performance of horizontal gas wells

In low-permeability gas reservoirs, horizontal wells have been used to increase the reservoir contact area, and hydraulic fracturing has been further extending the contact between wellbores and reservoirs. This thesis presents an approach to evaluate horizontal well performance for fractured or unfractured gas wells and a sensitivity study of gas well performance in a low permeability formation. A newly developed Distributed Volumetric Sources (DVS) method was used to calculate dimensionless productivity index for a defined source in a box-shaped domain. The unique features of the DVS method are that it can be applied to transient flow and pseudo-steady state flow with a smooth transition between the boundary conditions. In this study, I conducted well performance studies by applying the DVS method to typical tight sandstone gas wells in the US basins. The objective is to determine the best practice to produce horizontal gas wells. For fractured wells, well performance of a single fracture and multiple fractures are compared, and the effect of the number of fractures on productivity of the well is presented based on the well productivity. The results from this study show that every basin has a unique ideal set of fracture number and fracture length. Permeability plays an important role on dictating the location and the dimension of the fractures. This study indicated that in order to achieve optimum production, the lower the permeability of the formation, the higher the number of fractures.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:TEXASAandM/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-1955
Date02 June 2009
CreatorsMagalhaes, Fellipe Vieira
ContributorsZhu, Ding, Lima-Filho, Paulo, Valko, Peter
Source SetsTexas A and M University
Languageen_US
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typethesis, text
Formatelectronic, application/pdf, born digital

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