An analytical model for multiple fractured shale gas wells considering fracture networks and dynamic gas properties

Multi-stage fractured horizontal wells play an important role in developing shale gas reservoirs by significantly improving productivity. By considering fracture networks, gas desorption, stress-sensitive fracture permeability, and pressure-dependent gas PVT properties, an analytical model is developed for shale gas wells. Fracture networks are handled based on transient linear flow, gas desorption is handled by defining a new total compressibility, stress-dependent hydraulic fracture permeability is handled by variable substitution, and pseudo-pressure and pseudo-time are used to handle pressure-dependent PVT properties. After obtaining the solution of the linearized model, a material balance method and successive substitution iteration procedure are proposed to convert the pseudo-time into real time and calculate the production contribution from gas desorption. The results show that induced fractures also have a great impact on the production of the well. Production contribution from free gas and adsorbed gas could be quantified using the proposed material balance principle and iterative method. The rank of parameters that influence the ultimate recovery is the following: half-length of hydraulic fracture, induced fracture length/hydraulic fracture spacing, hydraulic fracture spacing, conductivity of induced fractures, conductivity of hydraulic fracture, and induced fracture spacing.