Spontaneous Countercurrent and Forced Imbibition in Gas Shales

In this study, imbibition experiments are used to explain the significant fluid loss, often more than 70%, of injected water during well stimulation and flowback in the context of natural gas production from shale formations. Samples from a 180 ft. long section of a vertical well were studied via spontaneous and forced imbibition experiments, at lab-scale, on small samples with characteristic dimensions of a few cm; in order to quantify the water imbibed by the complex multi-porosity shale system. The imbibition process is, typically, characterized by a distinct transition from an initial linear rate (vs. square root of time) to a much slower imbibition rate at later times. These observations along with contact angle measurements provide an insight into the wettability characteristics of the shale surface. Using these observations, together with an assumed geometry of the fracture system, has made it possible to estimate the distance travelled by the injected water into the formation at field scale. Shale characterization experiments including permeability measurements, total organic carbon (TOC) analysis, pore size distribution (PSD) and contact angle measurements were also performed and were combined with XRD measurements in order to better understand the mass transfer properties of shale. The experimental permeabilities measured in the direction along the bedding plane (10 –1–10–2 mD) and in the vertical direction (~10–4 mD) are orders of magnitude higher than the matrix permeabilities of these shale sample (10–5 to 10 –8 mD). This implies that the fastest flow in a formation is likely to occur in the horizontal direction, and indicates that the flow of fluids through the formation occurs predominantly through the fracture and micro-fracture network, and hence that these are the main conduits for gas recovery. The permeability differences among samples from various depths can be attributed to different organic matter content and mineralogical characteristics, likely attributed to varying depositional environments. The study of these properties can help ascertain the ideal depth for well placement and perforation. Forced imbibition experiments have been carried out to better understand the phenomena that take place during well stimulation under realistic reservoir conditions. Imbibition experiments have been performed with real and simulated frac fluids, including deionized (DI) water, to establish a baseline, in order to study the impact on imbibition rates resulting from the presence of ions/additives in the imbibing fluid. Ion interactions with shales are studied using ion chromatography (IC) to ascertain their effect on imbibition induced porosity and permeability change of the samples. It has been found that divalent cations such as calcium and anions such as sulfates (for concentrations in excess of 600 ppm) can significantly reduce the permeability of the samples. It is concluded, therefore, that their presence in stimulating fluids can affect the capillarity and fluid flow after stimulation. We have also studied the impact of using fluoro-surfactant additives during spontaneous and forced imbibition experiments. A number of these additives have been shown to increase the measured contact angles of the shale samples and the fluid recovery from them, thus making them an ideal candidate for additives to use. Their interactions with the shale are further characterized using the Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) technique in order to measure their hydrodynamic radius to compare it with the pore size of the shale sample