Fully coupled fluid-solid productivity numerical simulation of multistage fractured horizontal well in tight oil reservoirs

A mathematical model, fully coupling multiple porous media deformation and fluid flow, was established based on the elastic theory of porous media and fluid-solid coupling mechanism in tight oil reservoirs. The finite element method was used to determine the numerical solution and the accuracy of the model was verified. On this basis, the model was used to simulate productivity of multistage fractured horizontal wells in tight oil reservoirs. The results show that during the production of tight oil wells, the reservoir region close to artificial fractures deteriorated in physical properties significantly, e.g. the aperture and conductivity of artificial fractures dropped by 52.12% and 89.02% respectively. The simulations of 3000-day production of a horizontal well in tight oil reservoir showed that the predicted productivity by the uncoupled model had an error of 38.30% from that by the fully-coupled model. Apparently, ignoring the influence of fluid-solid interaction effect led to serious deviations of the productivity prediction results. The productivity of horizontal well in tight oil reservoir was most sensitive to the start-up pressure gradient, and second most sensitive to the opening of artificial fractures. Enhancing the initial conductivity of artificial fractures was helpful to improve the productivity of tight oil wells. The influence of conductivity, spacing, number and length of artificial fractures should be considered comprehensively in fracturing design. Increasing the number of artificial fractures unilaterally could not achieve the expected increase in production. © 2022, The Editorial Board of Petroleum Exploration and Development. All right reserved.