NUMERICAL MODELING OF HYDRAULIC FRACTURING IN SHALE OIL FORMATION

Shale oil reservoir is one of the modern studies that oil and gas industries have started to concern about it. Although its permeability is very low, shale oil reservoirs can be produced by using many techniques such as hydraulic fracturing method. Since the shale oil reservoir is much complicated, it is challenging to study hydraulic fracturing in this reservoir. Among the literature review, basic theories of hydraulic fracturing technique, how the process is performed, equipment used, and some fracture geometry models, will be discussed.
There are several computer software programs that have been established to help petroleum engineers and planners to model hydraulic fracturing. These programs use numerical methods to model fracture propagation through the targeted formation. The user of this model will insert the necessary input parameters to that model. Eventually, the final output of these models will be the fracture geometry which is mainly the width and length of the fracture. The aim of this study is to analyze the two dimensional models which are Perkins-Kern-Nordgen, PKN and Geertsma de-Klerk, KGD fracture propagation models to obtain the geometry of the fracture based on the rock data as well as fracture treatment data.
The realization of this project will intensify the knowledge and it will help in the future researches of hydraulic fracturing for shale oil reservoir.