Modeling and Monitoring the Development of an Oil Field under Conditions of Mass Hydraulic Fracturing

In order to ensure the most complete recovery of hydrocarbons and to minimize costs in the production process, it is necessary to control the development of an oil field, even during production, through various geological and technological measures. In terms of the volume of additional oil extracted through the implementation of geological and technological measures, hydraulic fracturing (HF) operations occupy the top positions. This paper describes a modified method for accounting for hydraulic fractures in a geological and technological model of a hydrocarbon field. The method makes it possible to perform all calculations related to the modeling of fractures in the pre-processing phase and to use its results as input data for the hydrodynamic simulator. An example of the calculation on a real development object is given. The analysis of the results showed the correctness of this method. The geological and hydrodynamic model provided a satisfactory reproduction of the development history for the oil field under study. The predicted flow rates and bottomhole pressures of the wells were close to the actual values. The error in annual oil and fluid rates is no greater than 3 %. The results of the calculations can serve as indirect confirmation of the hypothesis of spontaneous growth of hydraulic fracturing cracks in injection wells. In fact, by increasing the half-length of the hydraulic fractures in the injection wells in the model to 250 m, the discrepancy between the calculated and actual bottomhole pressures was reduced to fractions of a percent. The half-length of the fracture was 70 - 140 m and the half-opening was 1.2 - 2.5 mm. The average permeability of the proppant package in the crack is 220 d. The calculated skin factor for the design wells according to proposed model was −4.58. HIGHLIGHTS Various geological and technological measures are taken to control the development of an oil field, even during production Enhancing oil recovery by accounting for hydraulic fractures in a geological and technological model of a hydrocarbon field Evidence of spontaneous crack growth in injection wells of hydrocarbon fields in indirect confirmation of the hypothesis of hydraulic fracturing GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT