Investigation of the Effects of Influencing Factorson Shale Gas Production using Reservoir Simulation

Shale gas production has been increasing rapidly in the past few years due to its potential as a huge resource. However, since shale gas reservoirs have very low permeabilities, there is a great challenge for an economic large scale shale gas production. Knowledge of the effects of influential factors on shale gas production can make us have a better understanding of how shale gas can be effectively and efficiently produced from the shale gas reservoirs, which can help us design an economic development plan for shale gas production. In this paper, a simulation based method is used to investigate the effect of several influencing factors such as well orientation, penetration length of horizontal well, natural fracture permeability and hydraulic fracture permeability on shale gas production. The simulations show that in the simulated period, the gas production rate and total gas production of the horizontal well (HW) are much higher than those of vertical well (VW). Further simulations show that in the simulated period, the gas production rate increases with increasing the penetration length of horizontal well in the beginning, even though the total gas production is the same. Further simulations also show that in the simulated period, the gas production rate increases with increasing the natural fracture permeability and hydraulic fracture permeability in the beginning, even though the total gas production is the same.