Effect of ground stress on hydraulic fracturing of methane well

Abstract

Most of the coal reservoirs in China are of low-permeability, so hydraulic fracturing is widely used to improve the permeability in the extraction of gas by ground drilling. The ground stress around the well was analyzed by using theory of elasticity. The pressure when the well fractured is formulated and the effect of ground stress on pressure is discussed. The effect of ground-stress-differences on hydraulic fracturing was analyzed by using the numerical software RFPA^2D-Flow in reference to the tectonic stress in Jincheng coal area. The results show that: 1) the position where initial fracture appears is random and fracture branches emerge when the fractures expand if ground stresses in any two directions within a horizontal plane are equal; 2) otherwise, the fractures expand in general along the direction of maximum ground stress and the critical pressure decreases with increasing ground-stress-differences and 3) the preferred well-disposition pattern is diamond shaped. The preferred well spacing is 250 m × 300 m. This study can provide a reference for the design of wells.