Oil & Gas Geology ›› 2022, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (3): 696-702.doi: 10.11743/ogg20220317

• Methods and Technologies • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Simulation of dynamic fracture network in fractured horizontal well for unconventional reservoirs: Theory and application

Chuanxi Liu(), Wenchao Fang, Xuejie Qin   

  1. Petroleum Exploration and Production Research Institute,SINOPEC,Beijing 100083,China
  • Received:2021-07-20 Revised:2022-01-12 Online:2022-06-01 Published:2022-05-06

Abstract:

When a fractured horizontal well in unconventional reservoirs is brought online, change in reservoir pressure may lead to fracture deformation, resulting in the formation of dynamic fracture network that greatly affects well productivity. To simulate the effect of dynamic fracture network on the development of unconventional reservoirs and improve the designation level of development strategy, the study builds a mathematical model to characterize the time variant and the heterogeneous distribution of fracture width, which can simultaneously simulate the changes of fracture width and fracture length in a reservoir. Then, the conductivity modification technique is adopted to couple the fracture deformation model with discrete fracture simulation model. A reservoir numerical simulator that can model dynamic fracture network is then developed. Finally, the simulator is applied to the simulation of a typical reservoir model and an actual fractured horizontal well model, respectively. Dynamic fracture network models for different production periods are thereby obtained, and the effect of dynamic fracture network on the well productivity is clarified. In all, the simulation results indicate that the simulated performance is in better agreement with practical well performance when the fracture deformation is considered in the simulator.

Key words: fracture deformation, numerical simulation, fractured horizontal well, dynamic fracture network, unconventional reservoir

CLC Number: