Stress sensitivity of carbonate gas reservoirs and its microscopic mechanism

In order to evaluate the stress sensitivity of carbonate reservoirs,a series of rock stress sensitivity tests were carried out under in-situ formation temperature and stress condition.Based on the calibration of capillary pressure curve,the variable fractal dimension was introduced to establish the conversion formula between relaxation time and pore size.By using the nuclear magnetic resonance(NMR)method,the pore volume loss caused by stress sensitivity within different scales of pore throat was quantitatively analyzed,and the microscopic mechanism of stress sensitivity of carbonate gas reservoirs was clarified.The results show that fractures can significantly affect the stress sensitivity of carbonate reservoirs.With the increase of initial permeability,the stress sensitivity coefficient decreases and then increases for porous reservoirs,but increases monotonously for fractured-porous reservoirs.The pore volume loss caused by stress sensitivity mainly occurs for mesopores(0.02–0.50μm),contributing more than 50%of the total volume loss.Single high-angle fracture contributes 9.6%of the stress sensitivity and 15.7%of the irreversible damage.The microscopic mechanism of the stress sensitivity of carbonate gas reservoirs can be concluded as fracture closure,elastic contraction of pores and plastic deformation of rock skeleton.

Effect of stress sensitivity on displacement efficiency in CO_2 flooding for fractured low permeability reservoirs

Carbon dioxide flooding is an effective means of enhanced oil recovery for low permeability reservoirs. If fractures are present in the reservoir, CO2 may flow along the fractures, resulting in low gas displacement efficiency. Reservoir pore pressure will fluctuate to some extent during a CO2 flood, causing a change in effective confining pressure. The result is rock deformation and a reduction in permeability with the reduction in fracture permeability, causing increased flow resistance in the fracture space. Simultaneously, gas cross flowing along the fractures is partially restrained. In this work, the effect of stress changes on permeability was studied through a series of flow experiments. The change in the flowrate distribution in a matrix block and contained fracture with an increase in effective pressure were analyzed. The results lead to an implicit comparison which shows that permeability of fractured core decreases sharply with an increase in effective confining pressure. The fracture flowrate ratio declines and the matrix flowrate ratio increases. Fracture flow will partially divert to the matrix block with the increase in effective confining pressure, improving gas displacement efficiency.

Stress sensitivity of formation during multi-cycle gas injection and production in an underground gas storage rebuilt from gas reservoirs

Permeability sensitivity to stress experiments were conducted on standard core samples taken from Wen 23 Gas Storage at multi-cycle injection and production conditions of the gas storage to study the change pattern of stress sensitivity of permeability.A method for calculating permeability under overburden pressure in the multi-cycle injection and production process was proposed,and the effect of stress sensitivity of reservoir permeability on gas well injectivity and productivity in UGS was analyzed.Retention rate of permeability decreased sharply first and then slowly with the increase of the UGS cycles.The stress sensitivity index of permeability decreased with the increase of cycle number of net stress variations in the increase process of net stress.The stress sensitivity index of permeability hardly changed with the increase of cycle number of net stress variations in the decrease process of net stress.With the increase of cycle number of net stress variation,the stress sensitivity index of permeability in the increase process of net stress approached that in the decrease process of net stress.The lower the reservoir permeability,the greater the irreversible permeability loss rate,the stronger the cyclic stress sensitivity,and the higher the stress sensitivity index of the reservoir,the stronger the reservoir stress sensitivity.The gas zones with permeability lower than 0.3’10-3 mm2 are not suitable as gas storage regions.Stress sensitivity of reservoir permeability has strong impact on gas well injectivity and productivity and mainly in the first few cycles.

A Reasonable Approach for the Development of Shale Gas Wells with Consideration of the Stress Sensitivity

High-pressure deep shale gas reservoirs are usually highly stress-sensitive.When the reasonable production mode of shale gas well is built,the impact of strong stress sensitivity should be fully considered.First,this study calculated the relationship between permeability and formation pressure under different elastic modulus based on the shale lithology of Long Ma Xi formation in Sichuan Basin by testing and analysing the mechanical parameters of the rock.According to numerical simulation result,when the elastic modulus exceeds 14.0 GPa,the stress sensitivity of the matrix will slight affect the cumulative gas production of shale gas.Second,the changing relation between fracture conductivity and permeability with fracture pressure and the time of pressure acts were experimentally studied.The numerical simulation result suggested that the 30-year cumulative gas production considering the stress sensitivity was reduced by 13.5%compared with the 30-year cumulative gas production without considering the stress sensitivity.Finally,the production of different production modes under different stress sensitive characteristics was predicted using numerical simulation method.When the matrix and fractures are fixed with a same stress-sensitive curve,the initial production allocation will not significantly impact the cumulative gas production.When the fractured fractures are subjected to a varying stress sensitive curve,the lower production allocation will result in higher post-production and cumulative gas production.

Stress sensitivity of coal reservoir and its impact on coalbed methane production in the southern Qinshui Basin, north China

Stress sensitivity has significant negative effects on the permeability and production of coalbed methane(CBM)reservoirs.To effectively minimize these negative effects,the degree of stress sensitivity during the CBM production process should be carefully studied.In this work,the curvature of the stress-sensitivity curve was adopted to explore the degree of stress sensitivity,dividing the stress-sensitivity curve and the drainage process into five stress stages:sharp decrease,rapid decrease,low-speed decrease,slower decrease and harmless with four critical stress points—transition,sensitivity,relief and harmless.The actual stages were determined by the initial permeability,stress-sensitivity coefficient and difference between the reservoir pressure and desorption pressure.The four critical stress points did not completely exist in the stress-sensitivity curve.With an increase in the initial permeability of coal,the number of existing critical stresses increases,leading to different gas-water drainage strategies for CBM wells.For reservoirs with a certain stress-sensitivity coefficient,the permeability at the sensitive stress point was successively greater than that at the transition,relief and the harmless stresses.When the stress-sensitivity coefficient is different,the stage is different at the beginning of drainage,and with an increase in the stress-sensitivity coefficient,the decrease rate of the permeability increases.Therefore,the stress-sensitivity coefficient determines the ability to maintain stable CBM production.For well-fractured CBM reservoirs,with a high stress-sensitivity coefficient,permeability damage mainly occurs when the reservoir pressure is less than the relief stress;therefore,the depressurization rate should be slow.For CBM reservoirs with fewer natural fractures,the reverse applies,and the depressurization rate can be much faster.The higher the difference between the reservoir and desorption pressures,the higher the effective stress and permeability damage after desorption,resulting in a much longer drainage time and many difficulties for the desorption of coalbed methane.The findings of this study can help better understand and minimize the negative effects of stress sensitivity during the CBM production process.

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.

Impact of effective stress on permeability for carbonate fractured-vuggy rocks

To gain insight into the flow mechanisms and stress sensitivity for fractured-vuggy reservoirs,several core models with different structural characteristics were designed and fabricated to investigate the impact of effective stress on permeability for carbonate fractured-vuggy rocks(CFVR).It shows that the permeability performance curves under different pore and confining pressures(i.e.altered stress conditions)for the fractured core models and the vuggy core models have similar change patterns.The ranges of permeability variation are significantly wider at high pore pressures,indicating that permeability reduction is the most significant during the early stage of development for fractured-vuggy reservoirs.Since each obtained effective stress coefficient for permeability(ESCP)varies with the changes in confining pressure and pore pressure,the effective stresses for permeability of four representative CFVR show obvious nonlinear characteristics,and the variation ranges of ESCP are all between 0 and 1.Meanwhile,a comprehensive ESCP mathematical model considering triple media,including matrix pores,fractures,and dissolved vugs,was proposed.It is proved theoretically that the ESCP of CFVR generally varies between 0 and 1.Additionally,the regression results showed that the power model ranked highest among the four empirical models mainly applied in stress sensitivity characterization,followed by the logarithmic model,exponential model,and binomial model.The concept of“permeability decline rate”was introduced to better evaluate the stress sensitivity performance for CFVR,in which the one-fracture rock is the strongest,followed by the fracture-vug rock and two-horizontalfracture rock;the through-hole rock is the weakest.In general,this study provides a theoretical basis to guide the design of development and adjustment programs for carbonate fractured-vuggy reservoirs.

Influence of two-step aging on structure and stress corrosion sensitivity of friction stir welded 7050-T7451 aluminum alloys

3 mm thick 7050-T7451 aluminum alloy joint was obtained by friction stir welding, and the two-step aging treatment was performed at 121 ℃ × 5 h + 163 ℃× 27 h after welding. Microstructure, hardness profiles and stress corrosion sensitivity of the joint were measured and studied. The results indicate that through the two-step aging, the grain size is coarsened, the age-hardening precipitates and PFZ become wider at the same time, which results in the discontinuous grain boundary;the microhardness of the FSW joints decreased, but the heat-affected zone significantly narrowed, which increased the uniformity of the microhardness of the FSW joints;and the two-stage aging effectively reduced the stress corrosion sensitivity of the FSW joints. The joints with aging treatment were not broken after 60 days,however all the joints without aging treatment were broken within 1 day.

Characterization of 3D pore nanostructure and stress-dependent permeability of organic-rich shales in northern Guizhou Depression,China

The three-dimensional(3D)pore structures and permeability of shale are critical for forecasting gas production capacity and guiding pressure differential control in practical reservoir extraction.However,few investigations have analyzed the effects of microscopic organic matter(OM)morphology and 3D pore nanostructures on the stress sensitivity,which are precisely the most unique and controlling factors of reservoir quality in shales.In this study,ultra-high nanoscale-resolution imaging experiments,i.e.focused ion beam-scanning electron microscopy(FIB-SEMs),were conducted on two organic-rich shale samples from Longmaxi and Wufeng Formations in northern Guizhou Depression,China.Pore morphology,porosity of 3D pore nanostructures,pore size distribution,and connectivity of the six selected regions of interest(including clump-shaped OMs,interstitial OMs,framboidal pyrite,and microfractures)were qualitatively and quantitatively characterized.Pulse decay permeability(PDP)measurement was used to investigate the variation patterns of stress-dependent permeability and stress sensitivity of shales under different confining pressures and pore pressures,and the results were then used to calculate the Biot coefficients for the two shale formations.The results showed that the samples have high OM porosity and 85%of the OM pores have the radius of less than 40 nm.The OM morphology and pore structure characteristics of the Longmaxi and Wufeng Formations were distinctly different.In particular,the OM in the Wufeng Formation samples developed some OM pores with radius larger than500 nm,which significantly improved the connectivity.The macroscopic permeability strongly depends on the permeability of OM pores.The stress sensitivity of permeability of Wufeng Formation was significantly lower than that of Longmaxi Formation,due to the differences in OM morphology and pore structures.The Biot coefficients of 0.729 and 0.697 were obtained for the Longmaxi and Wufeng Formations,respectively.

Application of Heterogeneous Composite Model with Consideration of Stress Sensitive in Low Permeability Gas Reservoir

Stress sensitivity is a key factor affecting the productivity of single wells in low permeability gas reservoirs. A well test model for heterogeneous composite gas reservoirs under the influence of stress-sensitive effects was established. Based on the theoretical model, the well test was designed by gradually increasing the pressure difference. The relationship between abnormal high pressure and reservoir stress sensitivity was analyzed. Theoretical research shows that stress sensitivity will cause permeability damage during the production process, and the pressure drop test curve shows that the physical properties of the reservoir have gradually deteriorated. The pressure recovery test curve shows that the physical properties of the reservoir are getting better. Field practice shows that stress sensitivity is related to the formation of abnormally high pressure in the formation without considering the micro-cracks in the formation. Stress-sensitive reservoirs are generally unbalanced and compacted due to overpressure, for fluid expansion/conduction overpressure in Ledong Area. For these reservoirs, there is almost no stress sensitivity. The research results have significance for guiding the design and data interpretation of stress-sensitive reservoir.

In-situ observation and modeling approach to evolution of pore-fracture structure in coal

The characterisation of the pore-fracture structure(PFS)and its evolution in coal during mining are essential for preventing gas outbursts and improving gas extraction efficiency.In this study,the evolution of the PFS in coal samples under the condition of mining stress was directly captured in situ by combination of the mechanical testing system with high-precision visualisation nuclear magnetic resonance equipment.A fractional derivative model was established to describe the relationship between stress and porosity based on experimental results of the PFS under different stress states.The results showed that with an increase in the deviatoric stress,the adsorption pore content increases rapidly initially and then increases slowly or remains unchanged;the seepage pore and fracture(SPF)content decreases initially and then increases.The SPF compressibility coefficient decreases with an increase in the deviatoric stress.The fractional derivative model can accurately describe the stress sensitivity of the SPFs at the pre-peak stage,thus providing a new approach for accurately characterising the seepage characteristics of coal reservoirs.

Study of the Seepage Mechanism in Thick Heterogeneous Gas Reservoirs

The seepage mechanism plays a crucial role in low-permeability gas reservoirs.Compared with conventional gas reservoirs,low-permeability sandstone gas reservoirs are characterized by low porosity,low permeability,strong heterogeneity,and high water saturation.Moreover,their percolation mechanisms are more complex.The present work describes a series of experiments conducted considering low-permeability sandstone cores under pressuredepletion conditions(from the Xihu Depression in the East China Sea Basin).It is shown that the threshold pressure gradient of a low-permeability gas reservoir in thick layers is positively correlated with water saturation and negatively correlated with permeability and porosity.The reservoir stress sensitivity is related to permeability and rock composition.Stress sensitivity is generally low when permeability is high or in the early stage of gas reservoir development.It is also shown that in sand conglomerates,especially the more sparsely filled parts,the interstitial materials among the conglomerates can be rapidly dislodged from the skeleton particles under stress.This material can therefore disperse,migrate,and block the pore throat producing serious,stress-sensitive damage.

Characterization and prevention of formation damage for fractured carbonate reservoir formations with low permeability

Stress sensitivity and water blocking in fractured carbonate reservoir formations with low permeability were determined as the main potential damage mechanisms during drilling and completion operations in the ancient buried hill Ordovician reservoirs in the Tarim Basin. Geological structure, lithology, porosity, permeability and mineral components all affect the potential for formation damage. The experimental results showed that the permeability loss was 83.8%-98.6% caused by stress sensitivity, and was 27.9%-48.1% caused by water blocking. Based on the experimental results, several main conclusions concerning stress sensitivity can be drawn as follows： the lower the core permeability and the smaller the core fracture width, the higher the stress sensitivity. Also, stress sensitivity results in lag effect for both permeability recovery and fracture closure. Aimed at the mechanisms of formation damage, a modified low-damage mixed metal hydroxide （MMH） drilling fluid system was developed, which was mainly composed of low-fluorescence shale control agent, filtration control agent, lowfluorescence lubricant and surfactant. The results of experimental evaluation and field test showed that the newly-developed drilling fluid and engineering techniques provided could dramatically increase the return permeability （over 85%） of core samples. This drilling fluid had such advantages as good rheological and lubricating properties, high temperature stability, and low filtration rate （API filtration less than 5 ml after aging at 120 ℃ for 4 hours）. Therefore, fractured carbonate formations with low permeability could be protected effectively when drilling with the newly-developed drilling fluid. Meanwhile, field test showed that both penetration rate and bore stability were improved and the soaking time of the drilling fluid with formation was sharply shortened, indicating that the modified MMH drilling fluid could meet the requirements of drilling engineering and geology.

Rhodamine Mechanophore Functionalized Mechanochromic Double Network Hydrogels with High Sensitivity to Stress

Mechanochromic hydrogels, a new class of stimuli-responsive soft materials, have potential applications in a number of fields such as damage reporting and stress/strain sensing. We prepared a novel mechanochromic hydrogel using a strategy that has been developed to prepare dual-network(DN) hydrogels. A hydrophobic rhodamine derivative(Rh mechanophore) was covalently incorporated into a first network as a cross-linker. This first network embedded with Rh mechanophore within the DN hydrogel was pre-stretched. This guaranteed that the stress could be transferred extensively to the Rh-crosslinked first network once the hydrogel was under an applied force. Interestingly, we found that the threshold stress required to activate the mechanochromism of the hydrogel was less than 200 kPa, and much less than those in previous reports. Moreover, because of the excellent sensitivity of the hydrogel to stress, the DN hydrogel exhibited reversible freezing-induced mechanochromism. Benefiting from the sensitivity of Rh mechanophore to both p H and force, the DN hydrogel showed p H-regulated mechanochromic behavior. Our experimental results indicate that the preparation strategy we used introduces sensitive mechanochromism into the hydrogel and preserves the advantageous mechanical properties of the DN hydrogel. These results will be beneficial to the design and preparation of mechanochromic hydrogels with high stress sensitivity, and foster their practical applications in a number of fields such as damage reporting and stress/strain sensing.

Experimental study on the coupling effect of pore-fracture system and permeability controlled by stress in high-rank coal

During the coalbed methane(CBM)exploitation,the reservoir permeability can be affected by the effective stress that varies with the reservoir fluid pressure,which is a complex,dynamic and significant engineering problem.To analyze the response characteristics of the pore-fracture system by the changing stress,this work simulated reservoir and fluid pressures during the exploitation by adjusting confining pressure and displacement pressure.Stress sensitivity experiments under different effective stresses were conducted to systematically study the stage variation characteristics of porosity and permeability of coal.The results show that the permeability decreases exponentially with the increase in effective stress,consistent with previous studies.However,the porosity shows a V-shaped trend,which is different from the traditional understanding that it would decrease continuously with rising effective stress.These variation characteristics(of porosity and permeability above)therefore result in a phased porosity sensitivity of coal permeability(PPS).Moreover,the stress sensitivity of the samples was evaluated using the permeability damage rate method(MPDR)and the stress sensitivity coefficient method(MCSS),both of which showed that it ranges from the degree of strong to extremely strong.When the effective stress is lower than 5–6 MPa,the stress sensitivity of the coal reservoir drops rapidly with effective stress rising;when it is higher than 5–6 MPa,the change in stress sensitivity tends to flatten out,and the stress sensitivity coefficient(CSS)goes down slowly with rising effective stress.Finally,suggestions are proposed for the drainage scheme of CBM wells based on the experimental results.

Laboratory investigation of coal sample permeability under the coupled effect of temperature and stress

The stress and temperature sensitivities of coal reservoirs are critical geological factors affectingcoalbed methane(CBM)well exploitation;in particular it is important to reduce or eliminate their influence on coal reservoir permeability.To investigate coal permeability behavior at various effective stresses and temperatures,CH4 permeability tests were conducted on raw coal samples under a varying effective stress of 2.0-8.0 MPa under five different temperatures(25℃-65℃)in the laboratory.The results show that the permeability of the coal samples exponentially decreases with increasing effective stress or temperature,which indicates obvious stress and temperature sensitivity.Through a dimension-less treatment of coal permeability,effective stress,and temperature,a new stress sensitivity index S and tempera-ture index ST are proposed to evaluate coal stress and temperature sensitivity evaluation parameters.These new parameters exhibit integrality and uniqueness,and,in combination with stress sensitivity coefficient αk,tempe-rature sensitivity coefficient αT,and the permeability damage rate PDR,the sensitivities of coal permeability to stress and temperature are evaluated.The results indicate that coal sample stress sensitivity decreases with increasing effective stress,while it first decreases and then increases with increasing temperature.Additionally,coal sample temperature sensitivity shows a downward trend when temperature increases and fluctuates when effective stress increases.Finally,a coupled coal permeability model considering the impacts of effective stress and temperature is established,and the main factors affecting coal reservoir permeability and their control mechanism are explored.These results can provide some theoretical guidance for the further development of deep CBM.

Evaluation of Well Spacing for Primary Development of Fractured Horizontal Wells in Tight Sandstone Gas Reservoirs

Methods for horizontal well spacing calculation in tight gas reservoirs are still adversely affected by the complexity of related control factors,such as strong reservoir heterogeneity and seepage mechanisms.In this study,the stress sensitivity and threshold pressure gradient of various types of reservoirs are quantitatively evaluated through reservoir seepage experiments.On the basis of these experiments,a numerical simulation model(based on the special seepage mechanism)and an inverse dynamic reserve algorithm(with different equivalent drainage areas)were developed.The well spacing ranges of Classes I,II,and III wells in the Q gas field are determined to be 802–1,000,600–662,and 285–400 m,respectively,with their average ranges as 901,631,and 342.5 m,respectively.By considering both the pairs of parallel well groups and series well groups as examples,the reliability of the calculation results is verified.It is shown that the combination of the two models can reduce errors and provide accurate results.

Research on Magnetomechanical Coupling Effect of Q235 Steel Member Specimens

In this study,magnetomechanical coupling tests were performed on Q235 solid round steel model specimens in NIM-200HF magnetomechanical coupling equipment.Hysteresis loops were obtained in different magnetic fields and stresses.Magnetization curves were also achieved at different stresses.Influence of the applied stresses on the hysteresis loops was investigated.The stress sensitive region and linear stress sensitive region of magnetic induction were determined for the model specimen according to the experimental data.The dependence relation of magnetic induction versus applied stresses was established,and the optimum magnetic field was determined in the stress sensitive range of magnetic induction,which builds a basis for nondestructive testing(NDT) of stress with the total magnetic flux for steel structure.Based on modified Jiles-Atherton's model of magnetic hysteresis,the hysteresis loop for Q235 steel 4-mm diameter model specimen was numerically simulated,which was well consistent with the experimental results.