Gas Well Stimulation Studies

Abstract

The research described here is part of a program funded by Morgantown Energy Technology Center under the Eastern Gas Shale Program to determine if tailored pulse loading (TPL) offers a viable means for stimulating Devonian Shale Wells. This technique (TPL) relies on the detonation so deflagration of a chemical substance to create borehole pressures which are low in magnitude, have a relatively slow rise time, and last for an extended period of time so as to pressurize the created fractures. The pressure loading of the cracks is thought to result in fractures that are driven much farther from the borehole wall than cracks which result from detonation of an ordinary high explosive in the wellbore. Schmidt et al., [1] report that too fast a rise time in the pressure loading results in a plastic deformation in the vicinity of the charge and an ultimate residual compressive stress surrounding that borehole. This compressive stress shuts down not only gas flow into the propagating cracks but gas flow from the shale back into the wellbore.