Study on Development of Shale Gas Horizontal Well With Time-Phased Staged Fracturing and Refracturing: Follow-Up and Evaluation of Well R9-2, A Pilot Well in Fuling Shale Gas Field

Abstract

In the development of the Fuling shale gas field, for the first time, Well R9-2 was selected for a test of time-phased staged fracturing and refracturing treatments to study the effectiveness of fracturing at each stage for a novel development approach exploration. This paper introduces the design of the experiments, analyzes the results, and provides a follow-up evaluation of the entire development process. As of 9 August 2020, the well had gone through three phases of development. Phase I: time-phased staged fracturing and development for Stages 1–2, 3–4, 5–6, and co-development for Stages 1–6; Phase II: Stages 1–6 were developed once more after refracturing; Phase III: sealing the sections in Stages 1–6, then fracturing and development of Stages 7–19. Pressure build-up tests were conducted during the development of Stages 1–2 and 3–4, and gas production profile logging and microseismic monitoring were performed during the co-development of Stages 1–6. The results show that the combination of time-phased staged fracturing and refracturing treatments can fracture each stage more effectively. The pressure build-up test can effectively obtain the reservoir parameters of developed shale gas wells. The potential of refracturing treatment in a developed well can be identified from the gas production profile logging and microseismic monitoring. The findings are of this study productive for enhanced shale gas recovery; the combined pattern of time-phased staged fracturing and refracturing acts as a direct guideline to future shale gas production.

Keywords

• Shale gas development
• time-phased staged fracturing
• refracturing
• pressure build-up test
• gas production profile logging
• Fuling shale gas field