Water-Free Shale Stimulation: Experimental Studies of Electrofracturing

Abstract:

Electrofracturing is a water-free stimulation method that might be applicable to hydrocarbon reservoirs. This method of dynamic fragmentation uses high-voltage pulses applied to rock via a pair of electrodes. Fragmentation occurs through two general processes (Cho et al, 2006): 1) electrohydraulic shock and 2) internal breakdown inside bulk solid dielectrics. In the first process, electrical current passing through brackish or salty water found naturally in the formation generates a shock wave of sufficient magnitude to crush/fail the rock as the wave travels through it. In the second process, the electric current flows through the rock preferentially along mineral interfaces; tensile and branching cracks are induced at the boundary interfaces either by heating and differential expansion, or by a shock wave induced by the electrical impulse itself. Both processes have been examined experimentally on rocks and on concrete starting in the late 1980’s.

In light of the “shale revolution” that has reinvigorated the North American petroleum resource base over the last decade, we developed a laboratory based experimental system to study coupled deformation and gas flow during high-voltage pulse application at elevated confining pressure (to 70 MPa). We deformed twelve samples using 6.5 μs full width at half maximum exponential voltage pulses from 80 to 200 kV. Exponential decay loading was shown to fracture shale at pressure, producing a 5-8 order-of-magnitude increase in permeability (initiating in the nD range) with significant fracturing.

Fractures were documented using CT and SEM. The preponderance of fractures are parallel to bedding with fractures often extending from end to end in the samples, which were up to 9 cm in length. The bedding-parallel fractures are adjacent to, or off centered to, the input pulse location. Fractures oblique to bedding planes are present as well, but are fewer in number. The test system, and experimental and observational methods and results will be discussed.

Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000. SAND2015-6561A