Thermally Induced Microfractures and Improved Recovery from Shale

摘要

The feasibility of creating thermally induced microfractures in shale is investigated.The Ideal Gas Law withmodification for real gases and the Heat Transfer Equation in one-dimension are utilized to determine times,distances and temperature requirements needed to generate microfractures.Geologic and experimentaldata are gathered from the literature in support of our results.Heat sources are examined;operationalproblems are identified;and various applications are suggested.Emphasis is placed on creating zonesof microfractures(soft spots)which can be exploited by hydraulic fracturing,potentially increasing thehydrocarbon recovery of the shale formation.