Semester

Fall

Date of Graduation

2012

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MS

College

Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources

Department

Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering

Committee Chair

Kashy Aminian

Committee Co-Chair

Samuel Ameri

Committee Member

Ilkin Bilgesu

Abstract

Natural gas extraction from shale is currently an expensive endeavor due to the tight reservoir rock with nano-darcy permeability. New technology in the form of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (fracturing through the use of high pressure liquids) has overcome the flow capacity problem of shale to achieve economic production. The low permeability shale formations, such Marcellus Shale, contain a natural fracture system with extremely low permeability. The characteristics of the natural fracture system are non-existent; therefore the application of single porosity model to predict the production performance of the shale formations can reduce the need for detail fracture system characteristics.;The objective of this research is to conduct a reservoir modeling study to investigate the applicability of the single porosity model to predict the performance of hydraulically fractured shale reservoirs. A commercial reservoir simulator (ECLIPSE) was employed to generate different production profiles for a hydraulically fractured shale reservoir using the dual porosity model. The production profiles were then history-matched with a single porosity model. The history matching results were then utilized to determine the single porosity model parameters that approximate the dual porosity behavior. The results suggested that the entire production history cannot be matched with a single set of parameters for single porosity model. The time over which the production can be approximated by single porosity model was also identified. The results are used to investigate the impact of hydraulic fractures at the early production period.

Download

Share

COinS