Injection Induced Fracture Propagation and Stress Reorientation in Waterflooded Reservoirs

Abstract It is now well established that poro-thermo-elastic effects substantially change the magnitude and orientation of in-situ stresses. Fractures induced in injectors during water injection for waterflooding or produced water disposal have a profound impact on waterflooding performance. These effects, coupled with injectivity decline due to plugging caused by injected particles, lead to permeability reduction, fracture initiation and propagation. Models are available for fracture propagation in single injection wells and single layered reservoirs that account for these effects. However, the impact of fluid injection and production on fracture growth in multiple wells and multi-layered reservoirs with competing fractures has not been systematically modelled at a field scale. In this work, a three-dimensional, two-phase flow simulator with iteratively coupled geomechanics has been developed and applied to model the dynamic growth of injection-induced fractures. The model is based on a finite volume implementation of the cohesive zone model for arbitrary fracture propagation coupled with two-phase flow. A dynamic filtration model for permeability reduction is employed on the fracture faces to incorporate effects of internal damage and external filter cake build-up due to the injection of suspended solids and oil droplets. All physical phenomena are solved in a single framework designed for multi-well, field-scale simulation. The pressure distribution, saturation profile, thermal front, mechanical displacements and reservoir stresses are computed as fluids are injected and produced from the reservoir. Simulation results are discussed with single as well as multiple fractures propagating. Stress reorientation due to poroelastic, thermoelastic and mechanical effects is examined for the simulated cases. The orientation of the fractures is controlled primarily by the orientation of the stresses, which in turn depends on the pattern of wells and the rates of injection and production. The sweep efficiency of the waterflood is found to be impacted by the rate of growth of injection-induced fractures. Heterogeneities in multi-layered reservoirs strongly govern the expected vertical sweep and fluid distribution, which impacts the cumulative oil recovery. This is the first time a formulation of multiphase flow in the reservoir has been coupled with dynamic fracture propagation in multiple wells induced by solids plugging while including poro-thermo-elasticity at the reservoir scale. The model developed in this work can be used to simulate multiple water injection induced fractures, determine the reoriented stress state to optimize the location of infill wells and adjust injection well patterns to maximize reservoir sweep.