Effect of Permeability Anisotropy on the Production of Multi-Scale Shale Gas Reservoirs

Shales or mudstones are fine grained and layered reservoirs, which leads to strong shale permeability anisotropy. Shale has a wide pore-size distribution, and pores with different diameters contribute differently to the apparent permeability of shales. Therefore, understanding the anisotropy of multiscale shale gas reservoirs is an important aspect to model and evaluate gas production from shales. In this paper, a novel model of permeability anisotropy for shale gas reservoirs is presented to calculate the permeability in an arbitrary direction in three dimensional space. A numerical model which is valid for the entire Knudsen’s range (continuum flow, slip flow, transition flow and free molecular flow) in shale gas reservoirs was developed, and the effect of gas-water flow and the simulation of hydraulic fracturing cracks were taken into consideration as well. The simulation result of the developed model was validated with field data. Effects of critical factors such as permeability anisotropy, relative permeability curves with different nanopore radii and initial water saturation in formation on the gas production rate of multi-stage fractured horizontal well were discussed. Besides, flow regimes of gas flow in shales were classified by Knudsen number, and the effect of various flow regimes on both apparent permeability of shales and then the gas production has been analyzed thoroughly