Blasingame decline analysis for variable rate/variable pressure drop: A multiple fractured horizontal well case in shale gas reservoirs.

Advanced production decline analysis methods have become more economic and efficient options due to technical and time limitations of well-testing operations in shale gas reservoirs. By normalizing rate with material balance pseudo-time, Blasingame type decline analysis can be applied to variable rate/variable pressure drop system, making the methodology more widely applicable. Blasingame decline analysis of variable rate/variable pressure drop case for multi-fractured horizontal well (MFHW) in shale has been less investigated, because of multi-scale storage spaces and multi-flow mechanisms. This article presents a semi-analytical Blasingame decline analysis model incorporating multi-flow mechanisms with shale's modified material balance pseudo-time. Laplace transformation, point source function, numerical discrete method, perturbation method, and Gaussian elimination method were employed to solve the mathematical problem caused by multi-flow mechanisms. Besides, the material balance pseudo-time was modified by considering adsorption and desorption. In this study, a workflow to investigate the effects of properties of hydraulic fracture (fracture half-length, number of fractures and fracture spacing) and multi-flow mechanisms (diffusion and desorption) on production decline behaviors through diagnostic Blasingame type curves is proposed. The results indicate that productivity is greater with a larger scale of fracture treatment, and better desorption of adsorbed gas is also beneficial to production. The decline rates affected by the fracture treatment scale and supplement capacity show two opposite trends, which is caused by interference between the fractures and boundary, respectively. Except that the data in the diffusion early flow period do not match very well, because the use of diffusion coefficient as a constant, the good fitting results on the whole verifies the model's validity and reliability. • A new Blasingame decline model of shale accommodating multi-mechanisms is established. • Effects of fracture and flow mechanism on production behaviors are analyzed. • Simulated result matches well with rate data. • Considering diffusivity as a constant may result in poor fitting result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]