The 3rd Faculty of Engineering (FENG) Postgraduate Research Colloquium 2015

Detar Putra, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS)

April 14, 2015
A SIMULATION STUDY FOR OPTIMUM PRODUCTION STRATEGY IN TIGHT GAS RESERVOIRS
Arshad Raza1, Reza Rezaee2, Muhammad Arif2, Omer Anwar3
1Department of Petroleum Engineering, Curtin Sarawak Research Institute, Curtin University Sarawak, Malaysia, CDT 250, 98009 Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia
2Department of Petroleum Engineering, Curtin University, Kensington, 6151, Western Australia
3Department of Petroleum Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore 54890, Pakistan

INTRODUCTION
Tight gas reservoirs represent a significant portion of natural gas reservoirs worldwide. Particularly, production at economical rates from tight gas reservoirs is very challenging due to the very low intrinsic
permeability. Resource triangle as shown in Figure 1, describes how different is to explore and produce from unconventional reservoirs as compared to conventional reservoirs. As moving downward in resource
triangle, unconventional reservoirs become larger and difficult to exploit, there is a need for more advanced technology to explore them. Specifically, the tight gas reservoirs generally do not allow flow gas to
surface at commercial rates, unless the well is efficiently completed and stimulated using advanced technologies. With the advent of modern reservoir simulators, the studies involving reservoir models are
gaining importance, providing better understanding of production behavior of tight gas reservoirs. Although many researchers have done work in this area but there is a need to review integrated effect of the
type of well and completion in the selection of optimum production technique. The prime aim of this paper is to consider the application of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling in tight gas reservoir by
taking into account the effect of well completion and well type.
SIMULATION MODELING Figure 1: Resource Triangle

Based on reservoir data, dynamic numerical modeling was done to estimate the recovery. It has been done by considering the following four cases:
(i) Vertical Well without Hydraulic Fracture (Base Case) (ii) Vertical Well with one Hydraulic Fracture (iii) Horizontal Well without Hydraulic Fracture (iv) Horizontal Well with Multiple Hydraulic Fractures

Simulation Cumulative Calculation of

Static Well & Dynamic Volume Run Comparative
Completion Production Recovery Case: (i) Case: (ii) Case: (iii) Case: (iv)
Modeling Modeling Calculations Analysis
Type For 26 years versus time Factor

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Different scenarios were considered such as the vertical well, vertical well with one fracture, horizontal well without fracture and horizontal well with multiple
fractures in tight gas reservoir. Results of study shows that the pressure and rate decline very sharply during production for case (i), and ultimate cumulative production
is not significant due to intensive pressure drop near well bore as can be seen in Figure 2. On the other hand, there is a significant improvement in cumulative
production in case of the vertical well with one hydraulic fracture because of less pressure drop in relative to the case (i) as shown in Figure 3. Figure 4 reveals that
horizontal well without hydraulic fracture gives the cumulative production approximately similar as predicted in the case (ii). The pressure and rate are declining
uniformly in case of horizontal well with multiple hydraulic fracturing, and overall performance in term of cumulative production is higher than that obtained in other
considered cases as can be seen in Figure 5. Recovery factors with respect to time of all cases were calculated using cumulative production and gas in place can be seen
in Figure 6 &7. Results anticipate that horizontal well without fracture exposes almost similar outcome to the vertical well with one fracture due to similar drainage
area. Finally, horizontal well with multi-fracture is showing maximum recovery of gas. This improvement in recovery of well is due to large drainage area.
0.25 35
Cumulative Production (MScf)

Horizontal well with 4 multi frac

Horizontal well with 4 multi frac
30 Horizontal well with no frac
0.2 Horizontal well with no frac
25 vertical well with 1 frac
Figure 2: Production History versus Time (case i) Figure 3: Production History versus Time (case ii) 0.15 Vertical well with 1 frac Vertical well with no frac

Factor (%)
20

Recovery
Vertcial well with No frac
0.1 15
10
0.05
5
0
2014 2019 2024 2029 2034 2039 2044 0
2014 2019 2024 2029 2034 2039 2044
Time (years) Time (years)

Figure 6: Cumulative Production versus Time

Figure 7: Recovery Factor versus Time

CONCLUSION
Horizontal well with multiple fractures proved to be an effective method to promote the development performance in tight gas reservoir due to the reduction
in the flow resistance, consequently improving the well deliverability.

Figure 4: Production History versus Time (case iii) Figure 5: Production History versus Time (case iv)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The first author acknowledges Schlumberger, Pakistan and University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan for providing the licensed Petrel tool, and
Curtin University, Sarawak, Malaysia especially to provide the traveling funding.