A Simple Analytical Model for Estimating Long-term Productivity of Multi-fractured Shale Gas Wells

Abstract

Shale gas production has been successful developed over the past several years. The horizontal well with multistage hydraulic fracturing has proven to be an effective operation of development these unconventional reservoirs. Most of modeling effort has been made for earlier liner flow. A simple analytical model for long-term shale gas production evaluation is still lacking. This work fill this gap. A simple and accurate mathematical model are developed which considering linear flow in both shale matrix and fracture. It can describe the longterm shale gas production with pseudo steady state flow. The model is verified against a Fayetteville field case data. The difference between the production rate given by the model and measured data was found to be less than 10%. The effect of fracture geometry parameter on long-term production rate are also investigated. The results show the fracture spacing and fracture length is the most dominant factors on thelong-term shale gas production performance.This model provides reservoir engineers a simple and accurate tool for predicting, evaluating and optimizing the long-term performance of shale gas wells.