A semi-analytical model for coupled flow in stress-sensitive multi-scale shale reservoirs with fractal characteristics

A large number of nanopores and complex fracture structures in shale reservoirs results in multi-scale flow of oil. With the development of shale oil reservoirs, the permeability of multi-scale media undergoes changes due to stress sensitivity, which plays a crucial role in controlling pressure propagation and oil flow. This paper proposes a multi-scale coupled flow mathematical model of matrix nanopores, induced fractures, and hydraulic fractures. In this model, the micro-scale effects of shale oil flow in fractal nanopores, fractal induced fracture network, and stress sensitivity of multi-scale media are considered. We solved the model iteratively using Pedrosa transform, semi-analytic Segmented Bessel function, Laplace transform. The results of this model exhibit good agreement with the numerical solution and field production data, confirming the high accuracy of the model. As well, the influence of stress sensitivity on permeability, pressure and production is analyzed. It is shown that the permeability and production decrease significantly when induced fractures are weakly supported. Closed induced fractures can inhibit interporosity flow in the stimulated reservoir volume (SRV). It has been shown in sensitivity analysis that hydraulic fractures are beneficial to early production, and induced fractures in SRV are beneficial to middle production. The model can characterize multi-scale flow characteristics of shale oil, providing theoretical guidance for rapid productivity evaluation.

Characteristics and mechanisms of supercritical CO_(2) flooding under different factors in low-permeability reservoirs

In recent years,supercritical CO_(2)flooding has become an effective method for developing lowpermeability reservoirs.In supercritical CO_(2)flooding different factors influence the mechanism of its displacement process for oil recovery.Asynchronous injection-production modes can use supercritical CO_(2)to enhance oil recovery but may also worsen the injection capacity.Cores with high permeability have higher oil recovery rates and better injection capacity,however,gas channeling occurs.Supercritical CO_(2)flooding has a higher oil recovery at high pressure levels,which delays the occurrence of gas channeling.Conversely,gas injection has lower displacement efficiency but better injection capacity at the high water cut stage.This study analyzes the displacement characteristics of supercritical CO_(2)flooding with a series of experiments under different injection and production parameters.Experimental results show that the gas breakthrough stage has the fastest oil production and the supercritical CO_(2)injection capacity variation tendency is closely related to the gas-oil ratio.Further experiments show that higher injection rates represent significant ultimate oil recovery and injection index,providing a good reference for developing low-permeability reservoirs.

Tight gas production model considering TPG as a function of pore pressure,permeability and water saturation

Threshold pressure gradient has great importance in efficient tight gas field development as well as for research and laboratory experiments.This experimental study is carried out to investigate the threshold pressure gradient in detail.Experiments are carried out with and without back pressure so that the effect of pore pressure on threshold pressure gradient may be observed.The trend of increasing or decreasing the threshold pressure gradient is totally opposite in the cases of considering and not considering the pore pressure.The results demonstrate that the pore pressure of tight gas reservoirs has great influence on threshold pressure gradient.The effects of other parameters like permeability and water saturation,in the presence of pore pressure,on threshold pressure gradient are also examined which show that the threshold pressure gradient increases with either a decrease in permeability or an increase in water saturation.Two new correlations of threshold pressure gradient on the basis of pore pressure and permeability,and pore pressure and water saturation,are also introduced.Based on these equations,new models for tight gas production are proposed.The gas slip correction factor is also considered during derivation of this proposed tight gas production models.Inflow performance relationship curves based on these proposed models show that production rates and absolute open flow potential are always be overestimated while ignoring the threshold pressure gradients.

Meta-Analysis of the Association between Mir-196a-2 Polymorphism and Cancer Susceptibility

Objective MicroRNA plays a vital role in gene expression, and microRNA dysregulation is involved in carcinogenesis. The miR- 196a-2 polymorphism rs11614913 is reportedly associated with cancer susceptibility. This meta-analysis was performed to assess the overall association of miR-196a-2 with cancer risk. Methods A total of 27 independent case-control studies involving 10,435 cases and 12,075 controls were analyzed for the rs11614913 polymorphism. Results A significant association was found between rs11614913 polymorphism and cancer risk in four genetic models （CT vs. TT, OR-1.15, 95%CI=1.05-1.27; CC vs. TT, OR=1.23, 95%CI=1.08-1.39; Dominant model, OR=1.17, 95%CI=1.06-1.30; Additive model, OR-1.08, 95%CI=1.01-1.14）. In the subgroup analysis of different tumor types, the C allele was associated with increased risk of lung, breast, and colorectat cancer, but not with liver, gastric, or esophageal cancer. In the subgroup analysis by ethnicity, a significantly increased risk of cancer was found among Asians in all genetic models, but no associations were found in the Caucasian subgroup. Conclusions The meta-analysis demonstrated that the miR-196a-2 polymorphism is associated with cancer susceptibility, especially lung cancer, colorectal cancer, and breast cancer among Asian populations.

Investigation of influence factors on CO_(2) flowback characteristics and optimization of flowback parameters during CO_(2) dry fracturing in tight gas reservoirs

CO_(2) dry fracturing is a promising alternative method to water fracturing in tight gas reservoirs,especially in water-scarce areas such as the Loess Plateau.The CO_(2) flowback efficiency is a critical factor that affects the final gas production effect.However,there have been few studies focusing on the flowback characteristics after CO_(2) dry fracturing.In this study,an extensive core-to-field scale study was conducted to investigate CO_(2) flowback characteristics and CH_(4) production behavior.Firstly,to investigate the impact of core properties and production conditions on CO_(2) flowback,a series of laboratory experiments at the core scale were conducted.Then,the key factors affecting the flowback were analyzed using the grey correlation method based on field data.Finally,taking the construction parameters of Well S60 as an example,a dual-permeability model was used to characterize the different seepage fields in the matrix and fracture for tight gas reservoirs.The production parameters after CO_(2) dry fracturing were then optimized.Experimental results demonstrate that CO_(2) dry fracturing is more effective than slickwater fracturing,with a 9.2%increase in CH_(4) recovery.The increase in core permeability plays a positive role in improving CH_(4) production and CO_(2) flowback.The soaking process is mainly affected by CO_(2) diffusion,and the soaking time should be controlled within 12 h.Increasing the flowback pressure gradient results in a significant increase in both CH_(4) recovery and CO_(2) flowback efficiency.While,an increase in CO_(2) injection is not conducive to CH_(4) production and CO_(2) flowback.Based on the experimental and field data,the important factors affecting flowback and production were comprehensively and effectively discussed.The results show that permeability is the most important factor,followed by porosity and effective thickness.Considering flowback efficiency and the influence of proppant reflux,the injection volume should be the minimum volume that meets the requirements for generating fractures.The soaking time should be short which is 1 day in this study,and the optimal bottom hole flowback pressure should be set at 10 MPa.This study aims to improve the understanding of CO_(2) dry fracturing in tight gas reservoirs and provide valuable insights for optimizing the process parameters.

Relative permeability estimation of oil-water two-phase flow in shale reservoir

Oil-water two-phase flow is ubiquitous in shale strata due to the existence of connate water and the injection of fracturing fluid.In this work,we propose a relative permeability model based on a modified Hagen-Poiseuille(HP)equation and shale reconstruction algorithm.The proposed model can consider the nanoconfined effects(slip length and spatially varying viscosity),oil-water distribution,pore size distribution(PSD),total organic matter content(TOC),and micro-fracture.The results show that the increasing contact angles of organic matters(OM)and inorganic minerals(iOM)increase the relative permeability of both oil and water.As the viscosity ratio increases,the relative permeability of oil phase increases while that of water phase decreases,due to the different water-oil distribution.The effective permeability of both oil and water decreases with the increasing TOC.However,the relative permeability of water phase increases while that of oil phase decreases.The increasing number and decreasing deviation angle of micro-fracture increase the effective permeability of oil and water.However,microfracture has a minor effect on relative permeability.Our model can help understand oil-water twophase flow in shale reservoirs and provide parameter characterization for reservoir numerical simulation.

A new model for predicting irreducible water saturation in tight gas reservoirs

The irreducible water saturation(Swir) is a significant parameter for relative permeability prediction and initial hydrocarbon reserves estimation.However,the complex pore structures of the tight rocks and multiple factors of the formation conditions make the parameter difficult to be accurately predicted by the conventional methods in tight gas reservoirs.In this study,a new model was derived to calculate Swir based on the capillary model and the fractal theory.The model incorporated different types of immobile water and considered the stress effect.The dead or stationary water(DSW) was considered in this model,which described the phenomena of water trapped in the dead-end pores due to detour flow and complex pore structures.The water film,stress effect and formation temperature were also considered in the proposed model.The results calculated by the proposed model are in a good agreement with the experimental data.This proves that for tight sandstone gas reservoirs the Swir calculated from the new model is more accurate.The irreducible water saturation calculated from the new model reveals that Swir is controlled by the critical capillary radius,DSW coefficient,effective stress and formation temperature.

Performance-based fractal fracture model for complex fracture network simulation

The paper presents a novel hydraulic fracturing model for the characterization and simulation of the complex fracture network in shale gas reservoirs. We go beyond the existing method that uses planar or orthogonal conjugate fractures for representing the ＇＇complexity＇＇ of the network. Bifurcation of fractures is performed utilizing the Lindenmayer system based on fractal geometry to describe the fracture propagation pattern, density and network connectivity. Four controlling parameters are proposed to describe the details of complex fractures and stimulated reservoir volume（SRV）. The results show that due to the multilevel feature of fractal fractures, the model could provide a simple method for contributing reservoir volume calibration. The primary-and second-stage fracture networks across the overall SRV are the main contributions to the production, while the induced fracture network just contributes another 20% in the late producing period. We also conduct simulation with respect to different refracturing cases and find that increasing the complexity of the fracture network provides better performance than only enhancing the fracture conductivity.