Study on the optimal design of volume fracturing for shale gas based on evaluating the fracturing effect—A case study on the Zhao Tong shale gas demonstration zone in Sichuan, China

Hydraulic fracturing is the key technology in the development of shale gas reservoirs, and it mainly adopts volume fracturing technology to communicate hydraulic fractures with natural fractures to increase the drainage area. In view of the difficulty in characterizing the complex fractures created by multistaged fracturing in horizontal shale gas wells and the immaturity of fracturing optimization design methods, this study first evaluated the stimulation effect of fracturing technology based on treatment data and microseismic data. Then, the fracture characteristics after frac were considered, and a post-frac simulation was studied based on the discrete fracture network (DFN) model and the microseismic monitoring data as constraints. Finally, from the simulation results, an optimal design method of volume fracturing for shale gas was proposed based on the evaluation of the frac effects. The National Shale Gas Demonstration Zone in Zhaotong, Sichuan Basin was used as an example to study the optimal frac design of shale gas wells. The results show that (1) after optimizing the design, the optimal interval range is 50–70 m, the liquid volume of a single stage is 1800–2200 m3, the amount of sand is 80 m~120 t, and the slurry rate is 10–12 m3/min. (2) Two different frac design schemes were implemented in two wells on the same platform, and the production of the optimized design scheme was 14.7% greater than the original scheme. Therefore, the frac optimization design based on evaluating the fracturing effect can better guide the development of subsequent shale gas wells in this area.