Multi-fracture interactions during two-phase flow of oil and water in deformable tight sandstone oil reservoirs

Abstract Tight oil reservoirs are complex geological materials composed of solid matrix, pore structure, and mixed multiple phases of fluids, particularly for oil reservoirs suffering from high content of in situ pressurized water found in China. In this regard, a coupled model considering two-phase flow of oil and water, as well as deformation and damage evolution of porous media, is proposed and validated using associated results, including the oil depletion process, analytical solution of stress shadow effect, and physical experiments on multi-fracture interactions and fracture propagation in unsaturated seepage fields. Then, the proposed model is used to study the behavior of multi-fracture interactions in an unsaturated reservoir in presence of water and oil. The results show that conspicuous interactions exist among multiple induced fractures. Interaction behavior varies from extracted geological profiles of the reservoir due to in situ stress anisotropy. The differential pressures of water and that of oil in different regions of reservoir affect interactions and trajectories of multi-fractures to a considerable degree. The absolute value of reservoir average pressure is a dominant factor affecting fracture interactions and in favor of enhancing fracture network complexity. In addition, difference of reservoir average pressures in different regions of reservoir would promote the fracturing effectiveness. Factors affecting fracture interactions and reservoir treatment effectiveness are quantitatively estimated through stimulated reservoir area. This study confirms the significance of incorporating the two-phase flow process in analyses of multi-fracture interactions and fracture trajectory predictions during tight sandstone oil reservoir developments.