TITLE:
A Technical Review on Shale Gas Production and Unconventional Reservoirs Modeling
AUTHORS:
Liang Wang, Armando Torres, Li Xiang, Xu Fei, Akhona Naido, Wensi Wu
KEYWORDS:
Unconventional Shale Gas Reservoirs, Modeling and Simulation, Production Forecast
JOURNAL NAME:
Natural Resources,
Vol.6 No.3,
March
5,
2015
ABSTRACT: During the past several years, natural gas production from shale gas is increased and has adsorbed much attention worldwide. The reason behind this is because of advances gained in shale gas recovery techniques from this ultra-low permeability/porosity rock. These techniques are considered the horizontal drilling of the length of 3000 to 5000 ft long and conducting multi-stage hydraulic fracturing along the horizontal portion of the wells. The successful application of above has also driven down the gas prices worldwide and also culminated the security of gas supply for the upcoming decades. This paper is a technical literature review of shale gas production and modeling for future performance evaluation that identifies the current challenges in different stages. Several different and complex physics of gas flow in such a low permeability formation is also explained and the state of the art of the challenges encountered in the modeling process is also explained. As such, gas desorption phenomena, non-Darcy Flow, gas Klinkenberg effect are investigated for different shale formations in the US. This technical review also takes a look over the hydraulic fracturing effects on the economics of shale gas wells due to its straight tie to the production from shale and also the overall recovery from such reservoirs.