Mohamed Y Soliman

University of Houston | U of H, UH · Department of Petroleum Engineering

This study examines the influence of activated carbon nanoparticle concentration and salinity on microwave heating efficiency for heavy oil extraction. By evaluating varying concentrations of activated carbon in sandstone cores, this research aims to determine the optimal balance that maximizes heating while avoiding pore blockages. Cores were inje...

This study revisits the field observations of sand production of gas wells in the Adriatic Sea to develop comprehensive correlations of key parameters and identify the most critical factors influencing the onset of sand production. The primary objective is to leverage profound data analysis and machine learning (ML) techniques to boost predictive c...

Large Language Models (LLMs) are showing increasingly versatile applications. Locally hosted, open-source models are becoming favored for a wide use spectrum. These models offer offline, customized knowledge repositories with enhanced privacy and security. This document presents a roadmap for creating a dependable LLM specifically for petroleum eng...

Citation: Gabry, M.A.; Eltaleb, I.; Ramadan, A.; Rezaei, A.; Soliman, M.Y. Hydraulic Fracture Closure Detection Techniques: A Comprehensive Review. Energies 2024, 17, 4470. https://doi. Abstract: This study reviews methods for detecting fracture closure pressure in both unconventional and conventional reservoirs using mathematical models and fluid...

This study reviews methods for detecting fracture closure pressure in both unconventional and conventional reservoirs using mathematical models and fluid flow equations. It evaluates techniques such as the Nolte method, tangent method, and compliance method. The investigation relies on observing changes in fluid flow regimes from pre-closure to pos...

Plasma stimulation is a form of waterless fracturing as it requires that only the wellbore be filled with an aqueous fluid. The technique creates multiple fractures propagating in different directions around the wellbore. The intent of this paper is to present an experimental and numerical investigation of the degree of competitiveness of plasma st...

An analytical model is developed for multistage fracturing for any number of fractures in a given area, and subsequent oil and water production for the entire life of the operation, from initial fracture fluid injection to the end of production. The analytical model results were in good agreement to those produced by two commercial simulators for t...

The aim of this study is to investigate the potential of the Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT) as a mathematical tool for improving the understanding of hydraulic fracture propagation mechanisms and evaluating interactions between fractures and formation. The study examines one of the CWT techniques: the normalized scalogram technique for understa...

Underwater electrical shockwave can be used as a waterless, chemical-free, and environmentally friendly fracturing technique. A detailed experimental study was performed to develop a correlation between the optimum energy required to generate a shockwave that could be used in fracturing rock samples with the wire weight and diameter as independent...

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) euphoria is turning the oil and gas operations upside down, without having any perceptible impact on atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) that continues to increase. It is intended to show that the current CCS regimen has serious technical and fiscal constraints, and questionable validity. Carbon Capture, Storage, and U...

Formation fracturing is the method of choice for developing shale oil and gas reservoirs that constitute a gigantic resource in the U.S.A. and many other countries but are characterized by a low permeability in the nano-Darcy range. The oil production of Texas has increased by about 5 million B/D in 15 years as a result of shale exploitation by mas...

Geothermal formations are generally fractured using water-based fracturing fluid, which has several issues, such as high-water consumption and environmental issues. In this study, a waterless stimulation method was used on granite samples. Studying the optimum injection time of LN2 in HDR formations for efficient fracturing will be beneficial for t...

Fracturing Horizontal Wells

The article discusses the new technique for fracture closure pressure detection using continuous wavelet transform (CWT). The study focuses on calibrating the CWT technique and comparing it with different techniques for closure detection. According to the article, traditional methods for identifying the closure of hydraulic fracturing operations ar...

This study presents an analytical model for estimating minimum horizontal stress in hydraulic fracturing stimulations. The conventional Diagnostic Fracture Injection Test (DFIT) is not practical in ultra-tight formations, leading to the need for pump-in/flowback tests. However, ambiguities in the results of these tests have limited their applicatio...

Although closure detection has a crucial role in hydraulic fracturing operations, significant debate surrounds the various methodologies to determine its value. Several competing methodologies have been presented in the literature that sometimesyield significantly different estimates of closure pressure and time. The conventional techniques rely on...

The diagnostic fracture injection test (DFIT) is widely used to obtain the fracture closure pressure, reservoir permeability, and reservoir pressure. Conventional methods for analyzing DFIT are based on the assumption that a vertical well is drilled in ultra-low permeability reservoirs with potential multiple closures but fails to consider horizont...

The Diagnostic Fracture Injection Test (DFIT) is widely used to get the fracture closure pressure, reservoir permeability, and reservoir pressure. Conventional methods for analyzing DFIT are based on the assumption of a vertical well but fail for horizontal wells drilled in ultra-low permeability reservoirs with potential multiple closures. There i...

Petroleum engineering will continue to have relevance and renewed importance in the emerging scenarios of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, and the forecasts of climate change, which are replete with uncertainties. The changing role of petroleum industry and academia in this framework over the next 100 years is outlined. The hurdles in reaching Net Z...

A new capillary imbibition model is presented for shale that uses the momentum theorem of meniscus, for calculating the imbibition rate and height. Results are compared with those from previously published capillary rise models and also obtained in this research. The new capillary rise model considers two main micro-level effects, viz. wall roughne...

The scope of this work was part of our previous research on Pulsed Power Plasma Stimulation Technique. Electromagnetic fields generated during a pulsed power plasma discharge were simulated using a finite element method in the COMSOL RF module. The field distributions were calculated during and after the pulse. The current paper takes advantage of...

This paper focuses on the validation of the Moving Reference Point (MRP) technique using an independently pressure-matched planar commercially available 3D hydraulic fracturing simulation model with real field cases like multiple perforations and laminated reservoirs. The paper provides a methodology for concluding the lessons learned from hydrauli...

Geothermal reservoirs are usually deep and have low permeability. Hydraulic fracturing stimulation of the production and injection wells can help increase the heat extraction from these reservoirs. However, injecting cold fluid in the hot formation can cause considerable volumetric changes in reservoir rock and pore pressure distribution in the res...

Efficient production from tight and unconventional reservoirs requires drilling horizontal wells with an extensive network of high-quality (i.e., long, and conductive) fractures. However, the hydraulic fracturing process may be costly and may not be economically the best option when the oil and gas prices are low. The shock wave (pulsed loading) st...

Solid-in-fluid flow studies and modeling approaches are categorized mainly based on the scale at which solid particles are modeled. Eulerian-Eulerian approaches treat solid at the same scale as fluid. These approaches are fast but suffer from improper physics and high dispersion effect due to averaging solid properties to upscale them to the fluid...

Viscosity is one of the key parameters that is necessary to describe the fluid flow and pressure propagation in porous media as well as flow in pipes and various types of conduits. In this study, we have developed two different approaches to be able to estimate the viscosity seamlessly from a fraction to a million centipoise range. Our first approa...

Improved methods and systems for hydrocarbon production, including operations involving ballooned hydraulic fractures and complex toe-to-heel flooding. The recovery of ballooned hydrocarbons via ballooned hydraulic fractures can include the use of an OZF (Optimized Modified Zipper Frac) that recovers hydrocarbons. OZF can be implemented as a fractu...

This chapter summarizes several conventional and recent methods to analyze hydraulic fracture testing in vertical and horizontal wells. These tests are conducted for two primary purposes: (1) to understand the reservoir properties such as minimum horizontal stress and permeability; (2) and to optimize the hydraulic fracturing parameters. Fracture d...

Objective: This study reconsiders the problem of wellbore storage and skin distortion for the transient flow of non‐Newtonian power law fluids through porous media injection tests. A better method of pressure analysis data from such tests is derived which corrects some mathematical inconsistencies present in the literature. Methodology: Because the...

Assessment of in-situ stresses and hydraulic fracturing stimulation are two critical parameters for successful heat extraction from Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS). Fracture injection and injection/flow back tests are two conventional techniques for estimating the minimum horizontal stress in subsurface formations. Because of the heat exchange du...

Minimum miscibility pressure (MMP) is one of the key design parameters for gas injection projects. It is a physical parameter that is a measure of local displacement efficiency while subject to some constraints due to its definition. Also, the MMP value is used to tune compositional models along with proper fluid description constrained with other...

Introduction to Fracturing Testing

Introduction to Fracturing - Lecture 3

Hydraulic fracturing rate and pressure data are interrelated signals and can be subjected to signal processing techniques. The energy of a range of frequency band can be computed from the wavelet transform, which is a powerful technique in signal processing. The signal energies of the rate (cause) and pressure (effect) are used to detect the fractu...

Introduction to Fracturing. History and Fluid Flow

Minimum Miscibility Pressure (MMP) is a key design parameter for gas injection projects. It is a physical parameter that is a measure of local displacement efficiency while subject to some constraints due to its definition. Also, MMP value is used to tune compositional models along with proper fluid description. In general, CO2 and Hydrocarbon gase...

Well placement is a critical aspect of Field development planning in order to fully understand the extent of the field to further effectively develop and drain the field. In most cases, the structure of the formation is initially unknown, in addition to other geologic and petrophysical properties that will aid in calculation of GIIP and EUR. The us...

In order to maximize the profitability of a well and minimize the cost, three key questions must be answered before drilling a well: Where to drill the well? What completion design is to be used? Which fluid type will be produced from the reservoir? These questions must be answered under the premise of maximizing profitability. In this study, we co...

The fracture injection fall-off test is a common technique for determining rock properties and fracture closure pressure. Conventional methods for analyzing DFIT are formulated based on the assumption of a vertical well and have shortcomings in horizontal wells drilled in ultra-low permeability reservoirs with potential multiple closures. In this s...

Dead oil viscosity is one of the most unreliable properties to predict with classical black oil correlations. This results mostly from the large effect that oil type has on viscosity. Two dead oil samples with identical APIs (https://www.eia.gov/today), (https://en.wikipedia.org/a) and can have even an order of magnitude difference in viscosity at...

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is one of major oil producers in the world. However, the increasing energy demands have necessitated initiating other alternative strategies for the development and exploitation of the unconventional resources. In the pursuit of kingdom objectives for alternative sources of electrical power and increasing the feed sto...

Plasma Stimulation

Pulse plasma stimulation is a technique for creating multiple short fractures in the rock. A relatively large amount of electrical energy is discharged within a few microseconds into the electrodes (high power), creating a plasma of ions, which expands rapidly giving rise to a pressure shockwave. The shockwave travels through the rock and creates m...

Several factors affect the performance and stimulation design of hydraulically fractured wells. Moreover, the dominant factors vary for different quantities of interest, and vary based on the spatial location and with the time of interest. Thus, it will be beneficial if there is a systematic procedure to identify the dominant factors affecting the...

Efforts towards producing low-carbon fossil fuels and renewable energy resources have increased significantly within the last two decades and are expected to grow even more in the upcoming years. The aim of these efforts is firstly, to decrease the carbon footprint from the earth and address some global warming concerns, and secondly, to supply the...

Gas adsorption behavior in shale kerogen may not be fully described using the Simplified Local-Density (SLD) model with a slit-shaped pore. In this study, an extension of the SLD model is proposed to characterize the adsorption isotherm and density profile in shale nanopores with a circular pore geometry. Such an extension enables the pore structur...

Unconventional reservoirs suffer from an ultra-low permeability, causing their drainage area to be limited to tens of feet. An efficient technique that can be used in combination with conventional hydraulic fracturing to increase the drainage area is pulse power plasma. In this study, we used an experimental approach to study the effect of pulsed p...

Complex Toe-to-Heel Flooding (CTTHF) is a short distance flooding technique developed by the authors for sandstone formations. CTTHF applied on horizontal wells and requires at least one barrier and injector hydraulic fracture, also it requires at least one method to control early water production. This paper discusses the design aspects of the CTT...

Modified Zipper Frac

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Problem Definition and Modeling Development of a New Mathematical Model Model Building Results and Discussions Conclusions and Recommendations

Highlights: 1. An expanded range new dead oil viscosity correlation (which forms the basis for live oil viscosity estimation) is developed. It is robust and easy to use requiring easy to obtain minimum number of input parameters applicable to wide variety of oils (6° API to 50° API), viscosities (0.5 cp to 860,000 cp) and temperatures (15 °C to 16...

Inter-well connectivity (IWC) is one of the most significant properties when evaluating the success of a waterflood. This connectivity has been obtained from various physics-based methods such as simulations, tracers and using heuristics and semi-analytical tools like capacitance-resistance model (CRM). Production and injection data are a key piece...

During the last few years, the petroleum industry has been experiencing significant changes in various areas including, workforce, targets of exploration, application of (new) technologies, and general operational areas of focus. A prolonged depression of oil prices, changes in geopolitical atmosphere, the rise of investment in unconventional resou...

In the last decade, technical advancements have greatly improved the design and execution efficiency of well completions, leading to improved recovery from unconventional reservoirs. However, analyzing fracture diagnostic tests in unconventional plays are still challenging due to high uncertainty in predictive capabilities in the context of fractur...

In this study, a fast multipole method (FMM) is used to decrease the computational time of a fully-coupled poroelastic hydraulic fracture model with a controllable effect on its accuracy. The hydraulic fracture model is based on the poroelastic formulation of the displacement discontinuity method (DDM) which is a special formulation of the boundary...

Prior knowledge of reservoir fluid type and properties aids in selecting and optimizing completion and surface facilities. Fluid properties prediction has an impact on in-place volumes and reservoir performance management including optimized well placement. We present a data-driven fluid variation modeling approach using machine learning. The aim i...

In this article, several parameters that affect the propagation of hydraulic fractures initiated from a horizontal infill well are investigated. Infill wells are horizontal wells that are commonly drilled parallel to current producing (legacy) wells to ensure production from intact parts of the unconventional reservoirs. Production from legacy well...

In this study, effects of injecting gas temperature and pressure on oil recovery factor (RF) of shale oil reservoirs were investigated by implementing cyclic cold carbon dioxide (CO2) injection on Eagle Ford Shale Oil core samples. Also, effects of injecting gas temperature on porosity, permeability, and brittleness indices of these core samples we...

Use plasma to enhance hydraulic fracturing

Gas sorption can lead to the volumetric swelling of the shale matrix and reduction of the effective pore volume, which further impacts the gas transportation in the micro-and nano-pores in shale. At present, it is very challenging to directly measure the pore volume shrinkage (i.e., pore volumetric strain) in the laboratory. In this study, an innov...

Objective This study reconsiders the problem of wellbore storage and skin distortion for the transient flow of non-Newtonian power law fluids through porous media injection tests. A better method of pressure analysis data from such tests is derived which corrects some mathematical inconsistencies present in the literature. Methodology Because the...

The Moving Reference Point (MRP) technique (Pirayesh et al. 2013) successfully demonstrated its viability as a pressure-time hydraulic fracture mode interpretation tool in the Fracpack and Eagle Ford shale treatments. Al-Husain et al. (2017) extended the application of the MRP by studying a data set of five hydraulic fracture treatments from Cotton...

This paper introduces a grid-based fracture-stimulated reservoir volume (SRV) concept. SRV is defined as a volume occupied by fluid in a fracture, whether created or caused by intersection with natural fractures. Fracturing of the optimum zones is believed to contribute to higher hydrocarbon production from shale and tight formations. This require...

Gas storage in shale (organic-rich mudstone) consists of three different states: free gas in pores and natural fractures; adsorbed gas on organic and inorganic pore walls; and absorbed gas into organic matter (kerogen). Since it is difficult to differentiate absorbed gas from adsorbed gas, most current studies combine the adsorbed gas with absorbed...

Due to the shift from conventional reservoirs towards unconventional, ultra-low permeability reservoirs in the last decade, Diagnostic Fracture Injection Test (DFIT) has become one of the dominant and economically practical pressure transient tests. It is crucial to analyze and interpret DFIT data correctly to obtain essential fracture design and r...

In this study, a fast multipole method (FMM) is used to decrease the computational time of a fully-coupled poroelastic hydraulic fracture model with a controllable effect on its accuracy. The hydraulic fracture model is based on the poroelastic formulation of the displacement discontinuity method (DDM) which is a special formulation of the boundary...

We present a systematic global sensitivity analysis using the Sobol method which can be utilized to rank the variables that affect two quantity of interests -- pore pressure depletion and stress change -- around a hydraulically-fractured horizontal well based on their degree of importance. These variables include rock properties and stimulation des...

One of the important challenges in the oil industry is to transport high viscosity heavy oils through pipelines while minimizing potential transport issues due to implications of asphaltenes. After evaluation of what is available in the literature [13, 14], we have developed a new correlation for relative viscosity of heavy oils which is not only s...

This study achieves two main goals. First, it develops a method that uses the Composite Layering Effect (CLE) Equation to predict the behavior of potential fractures in conventional and unconventional reservoirs from core samples. The second goal of this study is to determine how different mineralogical and elemental components affect the behavior...

This paper focuses on the development of a technique for the determination of actual fracture length of a hydraulic fracture. Existing hydraulic fracture simulation software may make predictions of fracture length in shale reservoir without considering the volume of natural fractures, which has to fill up before propagation continues. The technique...

In this paper, a fully coupled 2‐dimensional poroelastic displacement discontinuity method is used to investigate the refracturing process in horizontal wells. One of the objectives of refracturing is to access new reserves by adding new hydraulic fractures in zones that were bypassed in the initial fracturing attempt. Pore pressure depletion in th...