Hydraulic Fracturing Pressure Curves as a Way for Determining Reservoir Parameters

Abstract

The paper describes the study of pressure drop curves in a fractured well, which were obtained in laboratory experiments on hydraulic fracturing. The aim of the study was to determine the fracture closure pressure, which is necessary for the correct numerical simulation of the hydraulic fracturing as well as for solving various geomechanical problems during oil field developments. The application of the G-function technique, which is based on plotting different graphs of dependence of the derivatives and logarithmic derivatives of the hydraulic fracture pressure on some time-dependent functions, is examined. This method is derived from analytical solutions of filtration problems for the system reservoir + well + fracture in various approximations. Applying this approach to experimental data, the fracture closure pressure is determined by the behavior of derivatives and semi-log derivatives of the fracture pressure. In the framework of the study, the plotting of various dependences of the pressure derivatives on G-function was carried out for two experimental pressure drop curves. The main results of the presented work include the determination of the fracture closure pressure in the experiments and comparison of the obtained values with the minimum horizontal stress created in the sample.