Chapter Seven: Evaluating Barnett Shale Production Performance Using an Integrated Approach

Abstract This paper presents the results of using a shale-specific, finite-difference reservoir simulation model to history match and forecast production data from the Barnett Shale reservoir. The paper will illustrate the many uses of the model for vertical and horizontal wells including determining gas in place, re-covery factors, optimal well spacing, drainage areas and drainage shapes, optimal fracture half-lengths and conductiv-ities, infill evaluations, horizontal well modeling and optimal number of stimulation treatments, analysis of microseismic data, and compression evaluations. The model was developed in the early 1990s to incorporate all of the production mecha-nisms inherent in shales including matrix gas porosity, gas desorption isotherm, single- or two-phase flow of gas and wa-ter in the natural fractures, layers, complex hydraulic fractures, and variable flowing bottomhole pressures. The paper will discuss the methodology to incorporate all field data into the simulator including core, logs, well test, completion, stimula-tion, microseismic, and production data. Examples will be given using public datasets. We also show production com-parisons between vertical and horizontal wells since this is of topical interest in the play’s development history. Further-more, we discuss the various types of data to collect, their importance to proper stimulation design, and the integration methodology to evaluate and complete shale reservoirs.