Research

The research in this consortium is driven by field observations, focuses on hydraulic fracture and reservoir characterization, and lands on optimization of production and injection. The consortium develops theoretically sound but practical approaches to characterize created and effective fracture geometry, reservoir drainage volume, and fluid plume in subsurface formations and optimizes energy exploitation and fluid injection. We demonstrate the practical feasibility of our models and theories through a variety of field applications using datasets obtained from our sponsors and open sources. In the next three years, we are working on improving the interpretation and modeling of distributed fiber optic strain measurements during fracturing and production and utilizing hydraulic fracture modeling for completion design optimization.

What we are doing

The current active research topics include:

Interpretation of in-well distributed fiber optic strain measurements
Interpretation of monitoring well strain during well interference test and during injection
Data interpretation and forward geomechanics modeling of cross-well strain measurements during fracturing
Hybrid physics and data-driven modeling of hydraulic fracturing propagation

10 current datasets we are working on include:

Dataset 1: Hydraulic Fracturing Test Site – 2, Delaware Basin
Dataset 2: Hydraulic Fracture Test Site 1 Analysis – Eagle Ford
Dataset 3: Cross-well strain data from disposable fiber in Anadarko basin
Dataset 4: Cross-well strain data in Permian basin
Dataset 5: In-well fiber strain data and related production and completion data in a horizontal well during production in Delaware basin
Dataset 6: Cross-well strain data from disposable fiber
Dataset 7: Cross-well strain data from wireline fiber in Eagle Ford with Faults
Datasets 8-10: Three EGS field: Blue Mountain/CAPE/FORGE

Proposed and Ongoing Research Projects

Project 1

Production profile evaluation from in-well production strain

Comparison of field observation and simulation result for in-well production strain change during shut-in

Project 2

Estimation of effective fracture geometry and drained reservoir volume based on monitoring well production strain during shut-in

Simulation result of strain change along a monitoring well during well interference test

Project 3

Predict fluid migration and plume using monitoring well production strain during injection

Sketch of injection well and monitoring well with fiber

Project 4

Investigate impacts of completion designs on cross-well strain and stress shadow

Strain change and stress shadow monitored by low-frequency distributed fiber optic sensing

Project 5

Improve understanding of field observations of cross-well strain during fracturing

Comparison of field observation and modeling result for cross-well strain monitored by low-frequency distributed fiber optic sensing

Project 6

Efficient data interpretation of cross-well strain to analyze stage leakage and fracture geometry

Fracture height prediction by matching cross-well strain using our inversion model

Project 7

Characterization of proppant distribution in complex fracture geometry

Proppant distribution (proppant concentration) in fractures with different geometries modeled by our high-fidelity proppant transport simulator

Project 8

Hybrid physics and data-driven modeling of hydraulic fracturing propagation

Automatic history match treatment pressure during hydraulic fracturing

Research datasets

Map view of wells in HFTS 2
(Zhang et al., 2021)

Dataset 1

Hydraulic Fracturing Test Site – 2, Delaware Basin

4 horizontal wells with over 100 stimulated stages and varying completion designs
2 existing parent wells
2 new observation wells

Data list

Cross-well LF DAS data during fracturing
In-well DTS and DAS data during fracturing
Well trajectories
Completion data
Pumping curves
Bottom hole and surface pressure data

Map view of wells in HFTS 1-phase III

Dataset 2

Hydraulic Fracturing Test Site – 1, Phase 3, Eagle Ford

10 existing wells (re-frac two of them)
3 infill wells: (one of them has wireline fiber installed)
1 monitoring well with permanent fiber and 10 pressure gauges

Data list:

Completion data of all wells
Bottom hole pressure and wellhead pressure
Pumping curves
Well trajectories
Surface production data of all wells
A 14H external gauge pressure data, during preload period, refrac period, and during the interference test
Distributed Fiber optic sensing data of DTS, DSS, and DAS during pre-load, refracturing, fracturing, and production