Investigation on the transient pressure response of water injector coupling the dynamic flow behaviors in the wellbore, waterflood-induced fracture and reservoir: Semi-analytical modeling and a field case

There is growing evidence showing that water injection may induce formation fracturing around injectors in tight reservoirs. Because waterflood-induced fractures (WIFs) are not strengthed by proppants, they close gradually during the field-testing period, which results in “fracture-closure-induced” flow rate, shrinking fracture length (SFL) and decreasing fracture conductivity (DFC). In this paper, we propose a novel semi-analytical model to characterize the bottom-hole pressure (BHP) behavior of water injectors by coupling the dynamic flow in the wellbore, WIF, and reservoir. Flows between reservoir and WIF are linked through a fracture-storage coefficient and fracture-face skin factor, while flows between WIF and wellbore are coupled via wellbore-storage coefficient and choked-fracture skin factor. Perturbation theory method is deployed to include the DFC effect, and Duhamel principle is invoked to characterize flow rate changes caused by wellbore and fracture storage effects. Results show that bi-storage effects can be identified as two unit slopes in the pressure derivative curve. In the absence of extra pressure drop between wellbore and WIF, i.e., choked-fracture skin equals to zero, a prolonged storage period with a considerably large storage coefficient can be obtained. In addition, we find that SFL could cause the variable fracture storage effect while DFC may lead to the upward of pressure derivative curve at late times. Finally, the model is successfully applied in the Changqing Oilfield to validate its reliability.