《SPE-168780-MS》.pdf

SPE 168780 / URTeC 1580378 Optimization of Placement of Hydraulic Fracture Stages in Horizontal Wells Drilled in Shale Gas Reservoirs Xiaodan Ma, Tatyana Plaksina, and Eduardo Gildin, Texas AM University Copyright 2013, Unconventional Resources Technology Conference (URTeC) This paper was prepared for presentation at the Unconventional Resources Technology Conference held in Denver, Colorado, USA, 12-14 August 2013. The URTeC Technical Program Committee accepted this presentation on the basis of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). The contents of this paper have not been reviewed by URTeC and URTeC does not warrant the accuracy, reliability, or timeliness of any information herein. All information is the responsibility of, and, is subject to corrections by the author(s). Any person or entity that relies on any information obtained from this paper does so at their own risk. The information herein does not necessarily reflect any position of URTeC. Any reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper without the written consent of URTeC is prohibited. Summary Unconventional plays such as tight gas and shale gas reservoirs have potential of becoming the main source of cleaner energy in the 21th century. Development of unconventional fields requires engineered hydraulic fracturing that facilitates access to larger volumes of the reservoir rock and delivers more hydrocarbon to the production wells. While hydraulic fracturing technology has advanced considerably in application of materials, equipment, and procedures in the last thirty years, design of fracture systems still primarily relies on heuristic judgment of geoscience experts. This study closes the existing gap in computational tools and explores advantages of numerical optimization techniques in automatic design of hydraulic fracture