Fracturing Water-Sensitive Tuffaceous Reservoirs

摘要

We present successful hydraulic fracture treatment practices in water sensitive tuffaceous reservoirs in Hailar Basin, China. The reservoirs are of too low permeability to be placed onto production without massive hydraulic fracture treatments. The article describes the geological engineering framework, mineralogy investigation, hydrolytic weakening experiments, as well as application and results of new kinds of fracturing fluids. Rock mineralogy investigations indicated that rocks in the reservoir have a strong water sensitive property and a strong component of plastic behavior. Some tuffaceous rocks are rich in alkali minerals and become soft when exposed to aqueous fracture fluids. Although the fracture opening mechanism is the same as for normal sandstone, fracture extension is relatively suppressed and the fracture width is different from elastic predictions for normal sandstone. The analysis led to the changes in treatment stratages. The key difference from previous treatment is that clay content and concentration of different minerals were taken into consideration of fracture fluid design. Different kinds of emulsified fracturing fluid were designed used to mitigate swelling and hydrolytic weakening effects. By the end of 2005, 163 intervals in 66 wells have been treated using these new kinds of fracturing fluids, with a success rate of 97%.