Correlstion between the volume of slurry and the volume of fracture in Barnett Shale

Microseismic fracture mapping has revealed that large fracture networks can be generated in many shale reservoirs and create multiple of plan complex structure. The ultra-low permeability in Barnett shale requires hydraulic fracturing to generate wellbore contact with the reservoir in order to achieve economic gas rates by the concept of a single fracture half-length. This is the reason for using fracture half-length of the hydraulic fracture area dimensions through the total fracture network length to estimate the volume of hydraulic fracture from a Dollie Thorell IV well in Barnett Shale. All data were released by Devon Energy for the purpose of this study. As a way to better evaluate the effective producing network of the shale reservoir, Surfer VI and discrete bin method were used to estimate of the volume of hydraulic fracture. The results of the analyses from Surfer VI were from (i) Trapezoidal rule; and (ii) Simpson’s rules, which gave an average result of 6.7 x 1010 cubic ft, the discrete bin method was calculated from the equation of fracture network half-length where length (2xf) and width (xn) represented the fracture spacing in the shale reservoir. The discrete bin method analysis gave a total result of 6.7 x 1010 cubic ft; this is the estimated figure for the volume of hydraulic fracture in very tight reservoirs. The correlation between the volume of slurry and the volume of the hydraulic fracture will establish the crack density. The graphic result of the correlation between the volume of slurry and the estimated volume of fracture showed that the crack density increases when the volume of the fracture increases. The crack density is always less than 1 due to leak-off of fracturing fluid into the reservoir during the hydraulic fracturing treatment.