Hydraulic fracturing technology can significantly increase oil production from tight oil formations, but performance data show that production declines rapidly. In the long term, it is necessary to increase the development efficiency of block matrix, surfactant-aided imbibition is a potential way. The current work aimed to explain comprehensively how surfactants can enhance the imbibition rate. Laboratory experiments were performed to investigate the effects of wettability, interfacial tension (IFT), and relative permeability as the key parameters underlying surfactant solution imbibition. Two different types of surfactants, sodium dodecyl sulfate and polyethylene glycol octylphenol ether, at varied concentrations were tested on reservoir rocks. Experimental results showed that the oil recovery rate increased with increased wettability alteration and IFT and decreased residual oil saturation. A mechanistic simulator developed in previous studies was used to perform parametric analysis after successful laboratory-scale validation. Results were proven by parametric studies. This study, which examined the mechanism and factors influencing surfactant solution imbibition, can improve understanding of surfactant-aided imbibition and surfactant screening.

Recently, the well-industry-production-scheme (WIPS) has attracted more and more attention to improve tight oil recovery. However, multi-well pressure interference (MWPI) induced by well-industry-production-scheme (WIPS) strongly challenges the traditional transient pressure analysis methods, which focus on single multi-fractured horizontal wells (SMFHWs) without MWPI. Therefore, a semi-analytical methodology for multiwell productivity index (MPI) was proposed to study well performance of WIPS scheme in tight reservoir. To facilitate methodology development, the conceptual models of tight formation and WIPS scheme were firstly described. Secondly, seepage models of tight reservoir and hydraulic fractures (HFs) were sequentially established and then dynamically coupled. Numerical simulation was utilized to validate our model. Finally, identification of flow regimes and sensitivity analysis were conducted. Our results showed that there was good agreement between our proposed model and numerical simulation; moreover, our approach also gave promising calculation speed over numerical simulation. Some expected flow regimes were significantly distorted due to WIPS. The slope of type curves which characterize the linear or bi-linear flow regime is bigger than 0.5 or 0.25. The horizontal line which characterize radial flow regime is also bigger 0.5. The smaller the oil rate, the more severely flow regimes were distorted. Well rate mainly determines the distortion of MPI curves, while fracture length, well spacing, fracture spacing mainly determine when the distortion of the MPI curves occurs. The bigger the well rate, the more severely the MPI curves are distorted. While as the well spacing decreases, fracture length increases, fracture spacing increases, occurrence of MWPI become earlier. Stress sensitivity coefficient mainly affects the MPI at the formation pseudo-radial flow stage, almost has no influence on the occurrence of MWPI. This work gains some addictive insights on multi-well performance for WIPS scheme in tight reservoir, which can provide considerable guidance on fracture properties estimation as well as well adjustment of production operation for WIPS scheme.

As a promising technology to improve shale gas (SG) recovery and CO₂ storage capacity, the multi-well pads (MWPs) scheme has gained more and more attention. The semi-analytical pressure-buildup method has been used to estimate CO₂ storage capacity. It focuses on single multi-fractured horizontal wells (SMFHWs) and does not consider multi-well pressure interference (MWPI) induced by the MWPs scheme. This severely limits the application of this method as incidences of multi-well pressure interference have been widely reported. This paper proposed a new methodology to optimize the injection strategy of the MWPs scheme and maximize CO₂ storage capacity. The new method implements numerical discretization, the superposition theory, Gauss elimination, and the Stehfest numerical algorithm to obtain pressure-buildup solutions for the MWPs scheme. The solution by the new method was validated with numerical simulation and pressure-buildup curves were generated to identify MWPI. Using the new method, we observed that the fracture number and fracture half-length have a positive influence on CO₂ storage capacity. Both can be approximately related to the CO₂ storage capacity by a linear correlation. For a given injection pressure, there is an optimal fracture number; the bigger the limited injection pressure, the smaller the optimal fracture number. Stress sensitivity has positive influences on CO₂ storage capacity, thus extending the injection period would improve CO₂ storage capacity. This work gains some insights into the CO₂ storage capacity of the MWPs scheme in depleted SG reservoirs, and provides considerable guidance on injection strategies to maximize CO₂ storage capacity in depleted SG reservoirs.