Hydraulic Fracture Initiation and Propagation from Wellbore with Oriented Perforation

• Published in: Rock mechanics and rock engineering 2015-03, Vol.48 (2), p.585-601
• Main Authors: Zhu, Haiyan, Deng, Jingen, Jin, Xiaochun, Hu, Lianbo, Luo, Bo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Civil Engineering; Crack initiation; Crack propagation; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Errors; Fracture mechanics; Geoengineering; Geophysics/Geodesy; Hydraulic fracturing; Hydraulics; Mathematical models; Oil and gas fields; Original Paper; Perforation; Prediction models; Rock
• ISSN: 0723-2632; 1434-453X
• DOI: 10.1007/s00603-014-0608-7

Considering the influence of casing, analytical solutions for stress distribution around a cased wellbore are derived, based on which a prediction model for hydraulic fracture initiation with the oriented perforation technique (OPT) is established. Taking well J2 of Z5 oilfield for an example, the predicted initiation pressure with the OPT of our model is about 4.2 MPa higher than the existing model, which neglects the influence of casing. In comparison with the results of laboratory fracturing experiments with OPT on a 400 × 400 × 400 mm 3 rock sample for a cased well with the deviation of 45°, the fracture initiation pressure of our model has an error of 3.2 %, while the error of the existing model is 6.6 %; when the well azimuth angle is 0° and the perforation angle is 45°, the prediction error of the fracture initiation pressure of the existing model and our model are 3.4 and 7.7 %, respectively. The study verifies that our model is more applicable for hydraulic fracturing prediction of wells with OPT completion; while the existing model is more suitable for hydraulic fracturing with conventional perforation completion.