How Effective Is Carbon Dioxide as an Alternative Fracturing Fluid?
- Authors
- Sanbai Li (Northeastern University, China) | Dongxiao Zhang (Peking University)
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.2118/194198-PA
- Document ID
- SPE-194198-PA
- Publisher
- Society of Petroleum Engineers
- Source
- SPE Journal
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 02
- Publication Date
- April 2019
- Document Type
- Journal Paper
- Pages
- 857 - 876
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 1086-055X
- Copyright
- 2019.Society of Petroleum Engineers
- Keywords
- hydraulic fracturing, breakdown pressure, leak-off, fractured reservoir, CO2-fracturing
- Downloads
- 34 in the last 30 days
- 249 since 2007
- Show more detail
- View rights & permissions
| SPE Member Price: | USD 10.00 |
| SPE Non-Member Price: | USD 30.00 |
Summary
Massive hydraulic fracturing requires an enormous consumption of water and introduces many potential environmental issues. In addition, water-based fluid tends to be trapped in formations, reducing oil/gas-phase relative permeability, and causes clay-mineral swelling, which lowers absolute permeability. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is seen as a promising alternative working fluid that poses no formation-damage risk, and it can stimulate more-complex and extensive fracture networks. However, very little, if any, extant research has quantitatively analyzed the effectiveness of CO2 fracturing, except for some qualitative fracturing experiments that are based on acoustic emissions. In this study, we systematically examine water and CO2 fracturing, and compare their performance on the basis of a rigorously coupled geomechanics and a fluid-heat-flow model. Parameters investigated include fluid viscosity, compressibility, in-situ stress, and rock permeability, illustrating how they affect breakdown pressure (BP) and leakoff, as well as fracturing effectiveness. It is found that (1) CO2 has the potential to lower BP, benefiting the propagation of fractures; (2) water fracturing tends to create wider and longer tensile fractures compared with CO2 fracturing, thereby facilitating proppant transport and placement; (3) CO2 fracturing could dramatically enhance the complexity of artificial fracture networks even under high-stress-anisotropy conditions; (4) thickened CO2 tends to generate simpler fracture networks than does supercritical CO2 (SC-CO2), but still more-complex fracture networks than fresh water; and (5) the alternative fracturing scheme (i.e., SC-CO2 fracturing followed by thickened-CO2 fracturing) can readily create complex fracture networks and carry proppant to keep hydraulic fractures open. This study reveals that, for intact reservoirs, water-based fracturing can achieve better fracturing performance than CO2 fracturing; however, for naturally fractured reservoirs, CO2 fracturing can constitute an effective way to stimulate tight/shale oil/gas reservoirs, thereby improving oil/gas production.
| File Size | 2 MB | Number of Pages | 20 |
References
Abedini, A. and Torabi, F. 2014. On the CO2 Storage Potential of Cyclic CO2 Injection Process for Enhanced Oil Recovery. Fuel 124: 14–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2014.01.084.
Bandis, S., Lumsden, A., and Barton, N. 1983. Fundamentals of Rock Joint Deformation. International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences & Geomechanics Abstracts 20 (6): 249–268. https://doi.org/10.1016/0148-9062(83)90595-8.
Barton, N., Bandis, S., and Bakhtar, K. 1985. Strength, Deformation and Conductivity Coupling of Rock Joints. International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining: Sciences & Geomechanics Abstracts 22 (3): 121–140. https://doi.org/10.1016/0148-9062(85)93227-9.
Bennour, Z., Ishida, T., Nagaya, Y. et al. 2015. Crack Extension in Hydraulic Fracturing of Shale Cores Using Viscous Oil, Water, and Liquid Carbon Dioxide. Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering 48 (4): 1463–1473. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-015-0774-2.
Coussy, O. 2004. Poromechanics. Chichester, England: John Wiley & Sons.
Elsworth, D., Gan, Q., Marone, C. et al. 2014. Key Coupled Processes Related to Gas-Fracturing in Unconventional Reservoirs. Presented at the ISRM International Symposium–8th Asian Rock Mechanics Symposium, Sapporo, Japan, 14–16 October. ISRM-ARMS8-2014-004.
Enick, R. M. and Ammer, J. 1998. A Literature Review of Attempts to Increase the Viscosity of Dense Carbon Dioxide. Presented on Website of the National Energy Technology Laboratory. https://doi.org/10.1.1.167.1728&rep=rep1&type=pdf.
Fang, C., Chen, W., and Amro, M. 2014. Simulation Study of Hydraulic Fracturing Using Super Critical CO2 in Shale. Presented at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference, Abu Dhabi, 10–13 November. SPE-172110-MS. https://doi.org/10.2118/172110-MS.
Fenghour, A., Wakeham, W. A., and Vesovic, V. 1998. The Viscosity of Carbon Dioxide. Journal of Physical and Chemical Reference Data 27 (1): 31–44. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.556013.
Friehauf, K. E. and Sharma, M. M. 2009, A New Compositional Model for Hydraulic Fracturing With Energized Fluids. SPE Prod & Oper 24 (4): 562–572. SPE-115750-PA. https://doi.org/10.2118/115750-PA.
Fu, P., Johnson, S. M., and Carrigan, C. R. 2014. An Explicitly Coupled Hydro-Geomechanical Model for Simulating Hydraulic Fracturing in Arbitrary Discrete Fracture Networks. International Journal for Numerical & Analytical Methods in Geomechanics 37 (14): 2278–2300. https://doi.org/10.1002/nag.2135.
Gale, J. F., Reed, R. M., and Holder, J. 2007. Natural Fractures in the Barnett Shale and Their Importance for Hydraulic Fracture Treatments. AAPG Bull. 91 (4): 603–622. https://doi.org/10.1306/11010606061.
Gan, Q., Elsworth, D., Alpern, J. et al. 2015. Breakdown Pressures Due to Infiltration and Exclusion in Finite Length Boreholes. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 127: 329–337. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.petrol.2015.01.011.
Gandossi, L. 2013. An Overview Production of Hydraulic Fracturing and Other Formation Stimulation Technologies for Shale Gas. Report EUR 26347 EN, Joint Research Centre Technical Report, Institute for Energy and Transport, Petten, The Netherlands.
Goulet, G. C. 2009. Validation and Application of Iterative Coupling to Poroelastic Problems in Bone Fluid Flow. Bull. of Applied Mechanics 5 (17): 6–17. http://www.bulletin-am.cz/index.php.
Gu, H., Weng, X., Lund, J. B. et al. 2012. Hydraulic Fracture Crossing Natural Fracture at Nonorthogonal Angles: A Criterion and Its Validation. SPE Prod & Oper 27 (1): 20–26. SPE-139984-PA. https://doi.org/10.2118/139984-PA.
Ishida, T., Chen, Y., Bennour, Z. et al. 2016. Features of CO2 Fracturing Deduced From Acoustic Emission and Microscopy in Laboratory Experiments. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth 121 (11): 8080–8098. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016JB013365.
Jacobs, T. 2014. The Shale Revolution Revisits the Energized Fracture. J Pet Technol 66 (6): 48–56. SPE-0614-0048-JPT. https://doi.org/10.2118/0614-0048-JPT.
Jing, L., Nordlund, E., and Stephansson, O. 1994. A 3D Constitutive Model for Rock Joints With Anisotropic Friction and Stress Dependency in Shear Stiffness. International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences & Geomechanics Abstracts 31 (2): 173–178. https://doi.org/10.1016/0148-9062(94)92808-8.
Kelkar, S., Lewis, K., Karra, S. et al. 2014. A Simulator for Modeling Coupled Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical Processes in Subsurface Geological Media. International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences 70: 569–580. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrmms.2014.06.011.
Kim, J. 2010. Sequential Methods for Coupled Geomechanics and Multiphase Flow. PhD dissertation, Stanford University, Stanford, California (February 2010).
King, G. E. 2010. Thirty Years of Gas Shale Fracturing: What Have We Learned? Presented at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Florence, Italy, 19–22 September. SPE-133456-MS. https://doi.org/10.2118/133456-MS.
Latham, J.-P., Xiang, J., Belayneh, M. et al. 2013. Modelling Stress-Dependent Permeability in Fractured Rock Including Effects of Propagating and Bending Fractures. International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences 57: 100–112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrmms.2012.08.002.
Lee, J., Cummings, S., Dhuwe, A. et al. 2014. Development of Small Molecule CO2 Thickeners for EOR and Fracturing. Presented at the SPE Improved Oil Recovery Symposium, Tulsa, 12–16 April. SPE-169039-MS. https://doi.org/10.2118/169039-MS.
Lee, T., Bocquet, L., and Coasne, B. 2016. Activated Desorption at Heterogeneous Interfaces and Long-Time Kinetics of Hydrocarbon Recovery From Nanoporous Media. Nature Communications 7: 11890. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms11890.
Li, S., Li, X., and Zhang, D. 2016a. A Fully Coupled Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical, Three-Dimensional Model for Hydraulic Stimulation Treatments. Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 34: 64–84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jngse.2016.06.046.
Li, X., Feng, Z., Han, G. et al. 2016b. Breakdown Pressure and Fracture Surface Morphology of Hydraulic Fracturing in Shale With H2O, CO2 and N2. Geomechanics and Geophysics for Geo-Energy and Geo-Resources 2 (2): 63–76. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40948-016-0022-6.
Li, S. and Zhang, D. 2018. A Fully Coupled Model for Hydraulic-Fracture Growth During Multiwell-Fracturing Treatments: Enhancing Fracture Complexity. SPE Prod & Oper 33 (2): 235–250. SPE-182674-PA. https://doi.org/10.2118/182674-PA.
Li, S., Zhang, D, and Li, X. 2017. A New Approach to the Modeling of Hydraulic-Fracturing Treatments in Naturally Fractured Reservoirs. SPE J. 22 (4): 1064–1081. SPE-181828-PA. https://doi.org/10.2118/181828-PA.
Likhachev, E. 2003. Dependence of Water Viscosity on Temperature and Pressure. Technical Physics 48 (4): 514–515. https://doi.org/10.1134/1.1568496.
Liu, H., Wang, F., Zhang, J. et al. 2014. Fracturing With Carbon Dioxide: Application Status and Development Trend. Petroleum Exploration & Development Online 41 (4): 513–519. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1876-3804(14)60060-4.
Lu, Y., Cui, W., Ding, Y. et al. 2016. A New Liquid CO2 Based Gel Fracturing Fluid With Cylinder Micelles Structure. Presented at the SPE Asia Pacific Hydraulic Fracturing Conference, Beijing, 24–26 August. SPE-181836-MS. https://doi.org/10.2118/181836-MS.
Mayerhofer, M. J., Lolon, E., Warpinski, N. R. et al. 2010. What Is Stimulated Reservoir Volume? SPE Prod & Oper 25 (1): 89–98. SPE-119890-PA. https://doi.org/10.2118/119890-PA.
Meng, S., Liu, H., Xu, J. et al. 2016a. The Evolution and Control of Fluid Phase During Liquid CO2 Fracturing. Presented at the SPE Asia Pacific Hydraulic Fracturing Conference, Beijing, 24–26 August. SPE-181790-MS. https://doi.org/10.2118/181790-MS.
Meng, S., Liu, H., Xu, J. et al. 2016b. Optimisation and Performance Evaluation of Liquid CO2 Fracturing Fluid Formulation System. Presented at the SPE Asia Pacific Oil & Gas Conference and Exhibition, Perth, Australia, 25–27 October. SPE-182284-MS. https://doi.org/10.2118/182284-MS.
Middleton, R. S., Clarens, A. F., Liu, X. et al. 2014. CO2 Deserts: Implications of Existing CO2 Supply Limitations for Carbon Management. Environmental Science & Technology 48 (19): 11713–11720. https://doi.org/10.1021/es5022685.
Middleton, R. S., Carey, J. W., Currier, R. P. et al. 2015. Shale Gas and Non-Aqueous Fracturing Fluids: Opportunities and Challenges for Supercritical CO2. Applied Energy 147: 500–509. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.03.023.
Raziperchikolaee, S., Alvarado, V., and Yin, S. 2013. Effect of Hydraulic Fracturing on Long-Term Storage of CO2 in Stimulated Saline Aquifers. Applied Energy 102: 1091–1104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2012.06.043.
Sinal, M. L. and Lancaster, G. 1987. Liquid CO2 Fracturing: Advantages and Limitations. J Can Pet Technol 26 (5): 26–30. PETSOC-87-05-01. https://doi.org/10.2118/87-05-01.
Span, R. and Wagner, W. 1996. A New Equation of State for Carbon Dioxide Covering the Fluid Region From the Triple-Point Temperature to 1100 K at Pressures up to 800 MPa. Journal of Physical and Chemical Reference Data 25 (6): 1509–1596. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.555991.
Valko, P. and Economides, M. J. 1995. Hydraulic Fracture Mechanics. New York: Wiley Chichester.
Wagner, W. and Kretzschmar, H.-J. 2007. International Steam Tables—Properties of Water and Steam Based on the Industrial Formulation IAPWSIF97: Tables, Algorithms, Diagrams, and CD-ROM Electronic Steam Tables—All of the Equations of IAPWS-IF97 Including a Complete Set of Supplementary Backward Equations for Fast Calculations of Heat Cycles, Boilers, and Steam Turbines. Springer Science & Business Media.
Warpinski, N. R., Mayerhofer, M. J., Vincent, M. C. et al. 2009. Stimulating Unconventional Reservoirs: Maximizing Network Growth While Optimizing Fracture Conductivity. J Can Pet Technol 48 (10): 39–51. SPE-114173-PA. https://doi.org/10.2118/114173-PA.
Weng, X., Kresse, O., Cohen, C. E. et al. 2011. Modeling of Hydraulic Fracture Network Propagation in a Naturally Fractured Formation. Presented at the SPE Hydraulic Fracturing Technology Conference, The Woodlands, Texas, 24–26 January. SPE-140253-MS. https://doi.org/10.2118/140253-MS.
Weng, X. 2015. Modeling of Complex Hydraulic Fractures in Naturally Fractured Formation. Journal of Unconventional Oil and Gas Resources 9: 114–135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.juogr.2014.07.001.
Zhang, J., Xiao, B., Zhang, G. et al. 2015. A New Thickener for CO2 Anhydrous Fracturing Fluid. Presented at the MATEC Web of Conferences. https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/20153101002.
Zhang, F., Dontsov, E., and Mack, M. 2017a. Fully Coupled Simulation of a Hydraulic Fracture Interacting With Natural Fractures With a Hybrid Discrete-Continuum Method. International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics 41 (13): 1430–1452. https://doi.org/10.1002/nag.2682.
Zhang, X., Lu, Y., Tang, J. et al. 2017b. Experimental Study on Fracture Initiation and Propagation in Shale Using Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Fracturing. Fuel 190: 370–378. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2016.10.120.
Zhou, X. and Burbey, T. J. 2014. Fluid Effect on Hydraulic Fracture Propagation Behavior: A Comparison Between Water and Supercritical CO2-Like Fluid. Geofluids 14 (2): 174–188. https://doi.org/10.1002/nag.2682.
Zoback, M. D. 2010. Reservoir Geomechanics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
