Imbibition of hydraulic fracturing fluids into partially saturated shale

Water Resources Research

Volumn 51, Issue 8, 2015, Pages 6787-6796

  Birdsell, Daniel T ^a   Rajaram, Harihar ^a   Lackey, Greg ^a  

^a University of Colorado at Boulder   (United States)

Author keywords

flowback water; fracking; hydraulic fracturing; imbibition; two phase flow

Indexed keywords

GROUNDWATER; GROUNDWATER POLLUTION; HYDRAULIC FRACTURING; IONIZATION OF GASES; OIL SHALE; POROUS MATERIALS; SHALE; SHALE OIL; TWO PHASE FLOW;

FLOWBACK; FRACKING; GROUNDWATER CONTAMINATION; IMBIBITION; INITIAL WATER SATURATION; QUANTITATIVE ESTIMATES; SEMI-ANALYTICAL SOLUTION; SPONTANEOUS IMBIBITION;

FRACTURING FLUIDS;

COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS; FLUID FLOW; FRACTURE FLOW; GROUNDWATER; GROUNDWATER POLLUTION; HYDRAULIC FRACTURE; IMBIBITION; POROUS MEDIUM; QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS; RISK ASSESSMENT; SHALE; TWO PHASE FLOW; VISCOSITY;

EID: 84941996812     PISSN: 00431397     EISSN: 19447973     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1002/2015WR017621     Document Type: Article

References (41)

1. Brooks, R. H., and, A. T. Corey, (1964), Hydraulic properties of porous media, Hydrology Papers, No. 3, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colo.
2. Burdine, N., (1953), Relative permeability calculations from pore size distribution data, J. Pet. Technol., 5 (03), 71-78.
3. Byrnes, A. P., (2011), Role of induced and natural imbibition in frac fluid transport and fate in gas shales, paper presented U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Technical Workshops for Hydraulic Fracturing Study, Arlington, Va.
4. Cheng, Y., (2010), Impact of water dynamics in fractures on the performance of hydraulically fractured wells in gas-shale reservoirs, SPE International Symposium and Exhibition on Formation Damage Control, 10-12 February, Lafayette, La, doi: 10.2118/127863-MS.
5. Cipolla, C., and, J. Wallace, (2014), Stimulated reservoir volume: A misapplied concept?, paper presented at SPE Hydraulic Fracturing Technology Conference, Soc. of Pet. Eng., Woodlands, Tex.
6. Dehghanpour, H., Q. Lan, Y. Saeed, H. Fei, and, Z. Qi, (2013), Spontaneous imbibition of brine and oil in gas shales: Effect of water adsorption and resulting microfractures, Energy Fuels, 27 (6), 3039-3049, doi: 10.1021/ef4002814.
7. Engelder, T., (2012), Capillary tension and imbibition sequester frack fluid in marcellus gas shale, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A., 109 (52), E3625-E3625, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1216133110.
8. Engelder, T., L. M. Cathles, and, L. T. Bryndzia, (2014), The fate of residual treatment water in gas shale, J. Unconventional Oil Gas Resour., 7, 33-48, doi: 10.1016/j.juogr.2014.03.002.
9. Fichter, J. K., K. French, K. Johnson, and, R. Oden, (2009), Biocides control Barnett shale fracturing fluid contamination, Oil Gas J., 107(19), 38-44.
10. Flewelling, S. A., and, M. Sharma, (2015), Comment on "Hydraulic fracturing in faulted sedimentary basins: Numerical simulation of potential contamination of shallow aquifers over long time scales" by Claire Gassiat et al., Water Resour. Res., 51, 1872-1876, doi: 10.1002/2014WR015904.
11. Gassiat, C., T. Gleeson, R. Lefebvre, and, J. McKenzie, (2013), Hydraulic fracturing in faulted sedimentary basins: Numerical simulation of potential contamination of shallow aquifers over long time scales, Water Resour. Res., 49, 8310-8327, doi: 10.1002/2013WR014287.
12. Gerhard, J., and, B. Kueper, (2003a), Influence of constitutive model parameters on the predicted migration of dnapl in heterogeneous porous media, Water Resour. Res., 39 (10), 1279, doi: 10.1029/2002WR001570.
13. Gerhard, J., and, B. Kueper, (2003b), Relative permeability characteristics necessary for simulating dnapl infiltration, redistribution, and immobilization in saturated porous media, Water Resour. Res., 39 (8), 1213, doi: 10.1029/2002WR001490.
14. King, G. E., (2012), Hydraulic fracturing 101: What every representative, environmentalist, regulator, reporter, investor, university researcher, neighbor and engineer should know about estimating frac risk and improving frac performance in unconventional gas and oil wells, paper presented at SPE Hydraulic Fracturing Technology Conference, Soc. of Pet. Eng., Woodlands, Tex.
15. King, G. E., (2014), 60 years of multi-fractured vertical, deviated and horizontal wells: What have we learned?, paper presented at SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Soc. of Pet. Eng., Amsterdam, Netherlands.
16. Kissinger, A., R. Helmig, A. Ebigbo, H. Class, T. Lange, M. Sauter, M. Heitfeld, J. Klünker, and, W. Jahnke, (2013), Hydraulic fracturing in unconventional gas reservoirs: Risks in the geological system, part 2, Environ. Earth Sci., 70 (8), 3855-3873.
17. Kostenuk, N. H., and, D. J. Browne, (2010), Improved proppant transport system for slickwater shale fracturing, paper presented at Canadian Unconventional Resources and International Petroleum Conference, Soc. of Pet. Eng., Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
18. Leverett, M., (1941), Capillary behavior in porous media, Trans. AIME, 142, 341-358.
19. Londono, F., R. Archer, and, T. Blasingame, (2002), Simplified correlations for hydrocarbon gas viscosity and gas density-validation and correlation of behavior using a large-scale database, paper presented at SPE Gas Technology Symposium, Soc. of Pet. Eng., Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
20. Makhanov, K., A. Habibi, H. Dehghanpour, and, E. Kuru, (2014), Liquid uptake of gas shales: A workflow to estimate water loss during shut-in periods after fracturing operations, J. Unconventional Oil Gas Resour., 7, 22-32, doi: 10.1016/j.juogr.2014.04.001.
21. McWhorter, D. B., and, D. K. Sunada, (1990), Exact integral solutions for two-phase flow, Water Resour. Res., 26 (3), 399-413, doi: 10.1029/WR026i003p00399.
22. Mirchi, V., S. Saraji, L. Goual, and, M. Piri, (2015), Dynamic interfacial tension and wettability of shale in the presence of surfactants at reservoir conditions, Fuel, 148, 127-138, doi: 10.1016/j.fuel.2015.01.077.
23. Moniz, E. J., H. D. Jacoby, A. Meggs, R. Armtrong, D. Cohn, S. Connors, J. Deutch, Q. Ejaz, J. Hezir, and, G. Kaufman, (2011), The Future of Natural Gas, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass. [Available at http://mitei.mit.edu/publications/reports-studies/future-natural-gas.]
24. Mualem, Y., (1976), A new model for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated porous media, Water Resour. Res., 12 (3), 513-522, doi: 10.1029/WR012i003p00513.
25. Myers, T., (2012), Potential contaminant pathways from hydraulically fractured shale to aquifers, Groundwater, 50 (6), 872-882, doi: 10.1111/j.1745-6584.2012.00933.x.
26. Philip, J., (1957), The theory of infiltration: 1. the infiltration equation and its solution, Soil Sci., 83 (5), 345-358.
27. Philip, J., (1969), Theory of infiltration, Adv. Hydrosci., 5, 215.
28. Reagan, M. T., G. J. Moridis, N. D. Keen, and, J. N. Johnson, (2015), Numerical simulation of the environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing of tight/shale gas reservoirs on near-surface groundwater: Background, base cases, shallow reservoirs, short-term gas, and water transport, Water Resour. Res., 51, 2543-2573, doi: 10.1002/2014WR016086.
29. Roychaudhuri, B., T. T. Tsotsis, and, K. Jessen, (2011), An experimental investigation of spontaneous imbibition in gas shales, paper presented at SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Soc. of Pet. Eng., Denver, Colo.
30. Saiers, J. E., and, E. Barth, (2012), Potential contaminant pathways from hydraulically fractured shale aquifers, Groundwater, 50 (6), 826-828, doi: 10.1111/j.1745-6584.2012.00990.x.
31. Schmid, K., and, S. Geiger, (2012), Universal scaling of spontaneous imbibition for water-wet systems, Water Resour. Res., 48, W03507, doi: 10.1029/2011WR011566.
32. Tavassoli, Z., R. W. Zimmerman, and, M. J. Blunt, (2005), Analysis of counter-current imbibition with gravity in weakly water-wet systems, J. Pet. Sci. Eng., 48 (1), 94-104, doi: 10.1016/j.petrol.2005.04.003.
33. U.S. Energy Information Administration (2015), Drilling Productivity Report, Washington, DC [Available at http://www.eia.gov/petroleum/drilling/pdf/dpr-full.pdf.]
34. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (2012), Study of the Potential Impacts of Hydraulic Fracturing on Drinking Water Resources: Progress Report, Washington, DC [Available at http://www2.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/hf-report20121214.pdf.]
35. U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (2011), Thermophysical Properties of Fluid Systems, Gaithersburg, Md. [Available at http://webbook.nist.gov/chemistry/fluid/.]
36. van Genuchten, M. T., (1980), A closed-form equation for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soils, Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 44 (5), 892-898.
37. Warner, N. R., R. B. Jackson, T. H. Darrah, S. G. Osborn, A. Down, K. Zhao, A. White, and, A. Vengosh, (2012a), Geochemical evidence for possible natural migration of marcellus formation brine to shallow aquifers in Pennsylvania, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A., 109 (30), 11,961-11,966, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1121181109.
38. Warner, N. R., R. B. Jackson, T. H. Darrah, S. G. Osborn, A. Down, K. Zhao, A. White, and, A. Vengosh, (2012b), Reply to engelder: Potential for fluid migration from the marcellus formation remains possible, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A., 109 (52), E3626, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1217974110.
39. Zimmerman, R. W., and, G. S. Bodvarsson, (1989), An approximate solution for one-dimensional absorption in unsaturated porous media, Water Resour. Res., 25 (6), 1422-1428.
40. Zimmerman, R. W., and, G. S. Bodvarsson, (1991), A simple approximate solution for horizontal infiltration in a Brooks-Corey medium, Transp. Porous Media, 6 (2), 195-205.
41. Zimmerman, R. W., G. S. Bodvarsson, and, E. M. Kwicklis, (1990), Absorption of water into porous blocks of various shapes and sizes, Water Resour. Res., 26 (11), 2797-2806.