Abstract
Hydraulic fracturing has been known as a pioneering technique of boosting oil production from wells. Although its was primarily invented as a well treatment method, hydraulic fracturing, in recent decades, has become an essential step and integral part of the production from tight formations. Combined with horizontal drilling, hydraulic fracturing has served as the cornerstone of the field development in unconventional resources which could not otherwise be produced commercially.Growing application of hydraulic fracturing has required and encouraged tremendous research and development of the technique, resulting in extensive innovations in terms of equipment, materials, modeling of the process, and prediction of the outcomes. This, in turn, has increased the number of disciplines involved and the level of complexities of the process and its modeling, particularly in heterogeneous rock formations.
This research is conducted in an attempt to elucidate the need to a holistic approach that integrates the data and analyses from different disciplines, and to propose one such comprehensive analysis workflow for evaluation of the hydraulic fracturing in heterogeneous reservoirs and prediction of its performance and degree of success. A novel method for quantification of heterogeneity impact is proposed through defining a new parameter called heterogeneity impact factor (HIF). Further extending the application of HIF, a predictive technique (DCH) for well performance evaluation is formulated to forecast production from hydraulically fractured wells in heterogeneous reservoirs in a time and cost-efficient manner. To provide a complete picture of the fracking process and its outcomes, the proposed HIF and DCH analyses are supplemented by an innovative economic evaluation component called the analysis of the risk of commercial failure (RCF).
| Date of Award | 1 Mar 2018 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Supervisor | Sina Rezaei Gomari (Supervisor) & Farhad Nabhani (Supervisor) |