SPE-179967

What Factors Control Shale Gas Production Decline

Trend: A Comprehensive Analysis and Investigation

HanYi Wang, The University of Texas at Austin

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Presentation Outline
 Introduction

 Unique Mechanisms of Shale Gas Production and Decline

 Methodology and Modeling Approach

 Results, Analysis and Interpretation

 Conclusions and Discussions

SPE179967 • What Factors Control Shale Gas Production Decline Trend• HanYi Wang
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Problem Statement
Why decline trend different for
different shales ?

Can DCA give us useful information

to guide completion designs or
optimize field development ?

Arps （1945）：

SPE179967 • What Factors Control Shale Gas Production Decline Trend• HanYi Wang
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Adsorption Gas

SPE179967 • What Factors Control Shale Gas Production Decline Trend• HanYi Wang
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Matrix Apparent Permeability and Its Evolution

SPE179967 • What Factors Control Shale Gas Production Decline Trend• HanYi Wang
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Fracture Networks and Pressure Dependent Conductivity

SPE179967 • What Factors Control Shale Gas Production Decline Trend• HanYi Wang
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Non-Stimulated Reservoir Volume (Non-SRV)

Horizontal Wellbore Hydraulic Fracture

Ideal Reality
Sub-optimal Completion Design (Stress Interference )
Reservoir Heterogeneity (Brittle/Ductile)

SPE179967 • What Factors Control Shale Gas Production Decline Trend• HanYi Wang
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Methodology and Modeling
Horizontal Wellbore Natural Fractures

Hydraulic Fracture

SPE179967 • What Factors Control Shale Gas Production Decline Trend• HanYi Wang
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Base Case Simulation

K=100 nd
constant matrix permeability
constant fracture conductivity

SPE179967 • What Factors Control Shale Gas Production Decline Trend• HanYi Wang
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Impact of Adsorption gas
Remove all initial adsorption gas in place (From 60% to 0%)

SPE179967 • What Factors Control Shale Gas Production Decline Trend• HanYi Wang
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Impact of Matrix Permeability

SPE179967 • What Factors Control Shale Gas Production Decline Trend• HanYi Wang
 25 Hydraulic Fracture Only, Km=100 nd
Hydraulic Fracture Only, Km=100 nd 100%
Hydraulic Fracture Only, Km=100 nd with evolution
Hydraulic Fracture Only, Km=100 nd with evolution 90%

Normalizedd Production Rate

20 80%
Cumulative Production (million m3)

70%

15 60%

50%

10 40%

30%

5 20%

10%

0 0%
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Production Time (month) Production Time (month)
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Impact of Non-Stimulated Reservoir Volume

SPE179967 • What Factors Control Shale Gas Production Decline Trend• HanYi Wang
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Impact of Non-Stimulated Reservoir Volume

SPE179967 • What Factors Control Shale Gas Production Decline Trend• HanYi Wang
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Impact of Fracture Networks Density and Conductivity

SPE179967 • What Factors Control Shale Gas Production Decline Trend• HanYi Wang
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Impact of Fracture Networks Density and Conductivity

SPE179967 • What Factors Control Shale Gas Production Decline Trend• HanYi Wang
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Impact of Fracture Networks Connectivity

SPE179967 • What Factors Control Shale Gas Production Decline Trend• HanYi Wang
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Field Data Interpretation

SPE179967 • What Factors Control Shale Gas Production Decline Trend• HanYi Wang
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Conclusion and Discussion

 Adsorption gas increase production and decreases production decline

rate, but play a more important role in early transient flow stage

 Even though higher matrix permeability contributes to higher production

rate, it also leads to steeper production decline trend in bounded SRV

 The evolution of shale matrix apparent permeability during production

can increase overall production, but has limited impact on production
decline trend

 When SRV is surrounded by Non-SRV, production rate declines more

gradually

SPE179967 • What Factors Control Shale Gas Production Decline Trend• HanYi Wang
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Conclusion and Discussion

 The density, conductivity and connectivity of fracture networks have

dominant impacts on gas production and its decline trend

 Pressure/stress dependent fracture conductivity does impair the overall

production, but it actually reduce production decline rate

 If the fractures are sparsely distributed in the SRV and not hydraulically
well connected, then these fractures have negligible influence on well
performance

 The reason for much higher production decline rate in unconventional

reservoirs than that in conventional reservoirs is due to larger contact
area

SPE179967 • What Factors Control Shale Gas Production Decline Trend• HanYi Wang
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Problem Statement

Time dependent rock

deformation

SPE179967 • What Factors Control Shale Gas Production Decline Trend• HanYi Wang
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Thank You

Q/A