On the possibility of determining geomechanical parameters based on minifrac analysis data

UDK: 622.276.66 СГ
DOI: 10.24887/0028-2448-2025-7-111-115
Key words: minifrac, mini hydraulic fracturing, geomechanical parameters of the formation, regression analysis
Authors: O.V. Salimov (Tyumen Petroleum Research Center LLC, RF, Tyumen); V.V. Vasiliev (Tyumen Petroleum Research Center LLC, RF, Tyumen); I.V. Sudeev (Rosneft Oil Company, RF, Moscow)

Mini hydraulic fracturing (minifrac) analysis is an analytical method for evaluating the efficiency of hydraulic fracturing fluid, closing pressure, instantaneous injection stop pressure, net pressure in the crack, crack geometry and filtration coefficients according to test injection data before the main hydraulic fracturing process. Initially, the methodology for analyzing mini hydraulic fracturing, which quantified the fracturing process according to estimates based on measured pressure reduction data, was formulated by Nolte and modified by Castillo. In 1988, and again in 1992, Mayer and Hagel developed a methodology for analyzing minifrac, which enabled to solve the fundamental equations of conservation of mass and momentum for liquids obeying a power law using equations of state for the propagation of a two-dimensional crack. Their proposed method did not assume that the crack width was proportional to the measured pressure. Instead, the underlying equations of mass and momentum were combined with the measured closing time to predict crack propagation characteristics. Using the crack geometry, pressure, fluid efficiencies, and filtration coefficients obtained by numerical methods, it became possible to determine which of the two-dimensional crack models (GDK, PKN or Ellipsoidal) most closely corresponds to the measured change in reservoir pressure and permeability. The results calculated by analytical methods are considered together with the measured pressure reduction data in order to correlate a number of crack characteristics, such as Young's modulus, crack resistance coefficient, friction multiplier, end effects, etc. The closing time can also be estimated with greater accuracy by clarifying these parameters.

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