Warmback analysis to determine fracture geometry of a single-stage hydraulic fracturing stimulation

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

1-1-2020

Abstract

Significant variation in hydraulic fracturing efficiency over the length of horizontal wells has been observed in the field. Monitoring and diagnosis of the fracture treatment is a critical step to evaluate the efficiency of the fracturing stimulation and the fracture geometry. Different diagnostic tools have been used to determine fracture placement and fracture effectiveness such as pressure decline analysis, microsystemic, and tiltmeter fracture mapping technology. Recently, temperature monitoring has been evolved as a new technique can be analyzed to infer fracturing zone and fracture characteristics. Temperature behavior during fracture propagation and the subsequent warm-back period can reveal important information about the dimensions and flow characteristics of developed fracture. In this work, we present forward and inverse modeling approaches to determine the fracture geometry using the temperature measured at the horizontal lateral. An analytical model is first developed to obtain the transient temperature in the fracture-matrix system during injection/propagation and the subsequent warm-back period. The analytical solutions are developed by solving mass conservation equation along with energy balance equation in the fracture and the surrounding matrix. The developed solutions are validated against a thermally coupled numerical reservoir simulator. The solutions for warm-back period are obtained and presented in the form of graphical type curves. The solutions are developed assuming negligible leak-off effect which can be feasible for ultra-tight formations with low filtration coefficient. The temperature measurements obtained during warm-back period along with the developed solutions are used to estimate fracture width, fracture half-length, and geothermal reservoir temperature. The analytical results provide good agreement with the numerical results during forward and inverse modelling.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Society of Petroleum Engineers - SPE Canada Unconventional Resources Conference 2020, URCC 2020

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