Advances in Hydraulic Fracturing Simulation for Deep Shale Reservoirs

Researchers at PetroChina Liaohe Oilfield Company have published a groundbreaking study on the application of hydraulic fracturing in deep shale reservoirs. Their findings suggest that hydraulic fracturing plays a critical role in enhancing shale gas production in these complex reservoirs. The study proposes an efficient fracturing simulator that integrates the boundary element displacement discontinuity method and the finite volume method to model the fluid-solid coupling process.

Key Takeaways:

• The simulator achieved a 46.6% reduction in computation time compared to the Newton-Raphson method.
• High stress difference reservoirs have smaller stimulated reservoir areas than low stress difference reservoirs.
• High-density and long natural fracture zones play a significant role in enhancing the stimulated reservoir area.
• A higher natural fracture angle resulted in larger modification zones at low stress differences, while the effect of a natural fracture angle at high stress differences was not significant.
• The study highlights the importance of considering geological parameters such as horizontal stress differences, natural fracture density, and natural fracture angle when modeling hydraulic fracturing processes.

Statistics:

• Computation time reduction: 46.6%
• Stimulated reservoir area at high stress differences: smaller than at low stress differences
• Gain in modified zone area with high-density and long natural fracture zones: significant

Sources:

• The influence of stress and natural fracture on a stimulated deep shale reservoir using the boundary element method (Natural Gas Industry B, 2025,12(3):298-315)
• Songze Liao, Oil Production Technology Research Institute, PetroChina Liaohe Oilfield Company, Panjin, Liaoning 124010, People's Republic of China
• Ziming Zhang, Jinghong Hu, Yuan Zhang (additional authors)