Production Forecasting / Fracture Design:
SPE 5586  |  SPE 20710  |  SPE 6838

The Effects on Non-Darcy Flow on the Behavior of Hydraulically Fractured Gas Wells

S.A. Holditch, SPE-AIME, Texas A&M U.; R.A. Morse, SPEAIME, Texas A&M U.

Published in 1976, this paper was an early attempt to convince the petroleum industry to incorporate non-Darcy flow effects into fracture design and modeling. The conclusions remain valid today, as the industry is still struggling to make the appropriate changes.

• Non-Darcy flow is significant in fractures for a wide range of formation properties
• Non-Darcy flow should be considered in analyses of drawdown tests, pressure buildup tests, and history matching of fractured gas wells
• Non-Darcy flow and closure stress should be considered in the design of fracture treatments, since the combined effects may reduce conductivity near wellbore by more than 100-fold.
• Non-Darcy flow can have serious implications regarding effective fracture length.
• Gas well productivity can be reduced by 50% for low relative fracture conductivities as a result of ignoring non-Darcy effects
• The effects of non-Darcy flow on the well productivity index are a function of proppant type and relative conductivity