LIST OF FIGURES

1.1 1.2 1.3 2.1 Natural Gas Resource Triangle ..... U.S. Tight Gas Sand Basins (Law, 2003) ..... Decline Curve - Rate vs. Time - exponential, harmonic, hyperbolic. Illustration of Capillary Pressure and Relative Permeability Relationships in Conventional Gas Reservoir and in Tight Gas Sand Reservoir (Shanley et al., 2004) Conceptual Representation of Hydraulically Fractured Reservoir Model that Uses Separate Objects - DCN Model (Hoffman and Chang, 2009) ... Example of Fracture Model Output Showing Fracture Conductivity Distribution and Fracture Dimensions (Shaoul et al., 2007) . Detail of Fracture Properties for two Longitudinal Fractures along a Horizontal Wellbore, corresponding to the Fracture Model Result from Figure 2.3 (Shaoul et al., 2007) . 2 3 7

10 13 15

2.2 2.3 2.4

16

2.5 2.6

Integrated Reservoir Modeling and Decision Making Tools for Spacing Optimization (Turkarslan et al. 2010) ... 18

Thermodynamic Properties of the Gas (Volume Formation Factor and Viscosity) .. 19 2.7 Relative Permeability of Tight Gas Sand from Brooks and Corey Equations .. 20 3.1 Base Case 16 Vertical Wells with 40 Acres Spacing (Exodus ) .. 22 3.2 Schematic Illustration of Scenarios with Vertical Wells . 23 3.3 Schematic Illustration of 2 Vertical Wells with 500 ft half-length Hydraulic fracture placed in parallel -Top View .. 24 3.4 3.5 Schematic Illustration of 2 Vertical Wells with 500 ft half-length Hydraulic fracture placed on the same line Top View ... 25

Schematic Illustration of 2 Horizontal Wells with 3 Transverse Hydraulic Fractures each .. 26 3.6 Transverse Hydraulic Fracture Moving along the Horizontal Well Length 27 3.7 Wells and Hydraulic Fractures Displaced Horizontally .. 28 Production Performance for Hydraulically Fractured well in a Single-layer Reservoir (Cheng et al., 2008) . 31 Reservoir Simulation Validation Results . 31 Exodus Base Case Scenario Showing Well Locations and Porosity Distribution. Illustration of Hydraulic Fracture Local Grid Refinement Top View and 3-D View 35 Gas Rate of the 5 Cases with 500 ft Half-length Hydraulic Fracture and the Base Case ........... 37

4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 5.1

5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 5.9 5.10 5.11 5.12 5.13 5.14 5.15 5.16

Cumulative Gas Production of the 5 Cases with 500 ft Half-length Hydraulic Fracture and the Base Case ... Cumulative Gas Production as function of the Number of Wells with Hydraulic Fractures Cumulative Gas Production as function of the Number of Wells with Hydraulic Fractures Semilog .. Gas Recovery as function of the Number of Wells with Hydraulic Fractures .... Gas Recovery as function of the Number of Wells with Hydraulic Fractures Semilog ... Pressure Distribution after 30 years of Production for all the Cases Mentioned in Section . Pressure Distribution for 2 Wells Analysis after Production .... Gas Production Rate for 2 Wells Analysis .... Gas Cumulative Production for 2 Wells Analysis ..... Radial Flow Around the Well .... Potential lines and Streamlines for Pressure after 30 years of production .... Schematic Illustration of Fracture Distance Effect .... Cumulative Gas Production at Various Fracture Distance .... Relationship of Cumulative Gas and Distance Between 2 Transverse Fractures on a Horizontal Well .. Schematic Illustration of Fracture Distance Effect between 2 Fractured Vertical Wells ....

38 39 39 41 41 42 43 44 44 45 46 47 48 49 50

5.17 Cumulative Production at Various Distances between 2 Vertical Fractured Wells . 51 5.18 Relationship of Cumulative Gas Production and Distance between Fracture Planes of 2 Vertical Wells ..... 52 5.19 Schematic Illustration of the Proposed Scheme .... 53 5.20 Pressure Distribution of the Proposed Scheme at the End of the Project Lifetime .. 54

5.21 Cumulative Discounted Cash Flow for Vertical Wells . 5.22 Cumulative Discounted Cash Flow Comparing Completions ... 5.23 Cumulative Cash Flow for the Proposed Case Showing Payout Time .. 58

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
b: Bg: cp: D: Dp: FOI: ft: h: k: Kf: Kfi: krg : Krw: md: Arps decline curve constant or decline exponent
volume gas formation factor

CBM: Coalbed Methane centipoise Non-Darcy gas flow constant

diameter of the pipe

DCN: Discrete connection of nodes ECL: Economic limit Folds of increase feet thickness of the net pay zone absolute permeability fracture permeability grid block fracture permeability gas relative permeability water relative permeability

KfWf: fracture conductivity

LGR: Local grid refinement milliDarcy

Mscf/d: thousand standard cubic feet per day NPV: Net Present Value P: PI: psi: psia: Pwf: qg: Pressure Productivity index pounds per square inch pounds per square inch, absolute
bottom hole flowing pressure

PVT: Pressure, Volume and Temperature gas production rate

qi: Initial gas production rate qt : Gas production rate at time t rcf: Reservoir cubic feet

R e: Rw: s: scf: Sgc : Sw*: Sw: Swc: Swirr: T: t:

Equivalent drainage radius

Wellbore radius Skin factor standard cubic feet Critical gas saturation Normalized water saturation Water saturation Critical water saturation Irreducible gas saturation or S wr Reservoir temperature Time

Tcf: Trillion cubic feet Tw: Well transmissibility Wf: Fracture width WPImult: Productivity index multiplier Xf: Fracture half length Zpg: : : fi: Gas compressibility factor at pressure P Pore distribution index Porosity Fractured gridblock porosity

yf: Gridblock fracture width : Viscosity g: Gas viscosity