Developing models to better predict hydraulic fracture growth in Australian coal seams

[摘要] This report documents the development of numerical modelling for predicting fracture growth within coal seams in Australia. Predicting hydraulic fracture growth is fundamental to the design and optimisation of hydraulic fracture treatments with respect to hydrocarbon production. In addition, developing an understanding about the factors that control the hydraulic fracture growth process increases confidence in the accuracy of models used and can improve processes for assessing the risk of fracture growth into adjacent aquifers. In a coal basin, the adjacent aquifers may lie above or below the coal in a higher or lower stratigraphic sequence. For this reason, height growth of vertically oriented hydraulic fractures needs to be predicted for vertical or horizontal wells. However, any growth in height will directly affect the lateral or length growth of the fracture and vice versa. Therefore, it is equally important to be able to accurately predict growth of hydraulic fractures in both length (lateral growth) and height (vertical growth).

[发布日期] 2016-10-03 [发布机构] CSIRO

[学科分类] 地球科学(综合)