Shale Formation Damage during Fracturing Fluid Imbibition and Flowback Process Considering Adsorbed Methane

Hydraulic fracturing of shale gas reservoirs is characterized by large fracturing fluid consumption, long working cycle and low flowback efficiency. Huge amounts of fracturing fluid retained in shale reservoirs for a long time would definitely cause formation damage and reduce the gas production efficiency. In this work, a pressure decay method was conducted in order to measure the amount of fracturing fluid imbibition and sample permeability under the conditions of formation temperature, pressure and adsorbed methane in real time. Experimental results show that (1) the mass of imbibed fracturing fluid per unit mass of shale sample is 0.00021–0.00439 g/g considering the in-situ pressure, temperature and adsorbed methane. (2) The imbibition and flowback behavior of fracturing fluid are affected by the imbibition or flowback pressure difference, pore structure, pore surface properties, mechanical properties of shale and mineral contents. (3) 0.01 mD and 0.001 mD are the critical initial permeability of shales, which could be used to determine the relationship between the formation damage degree and the flowback pressure difference. This work is beneficial for a real experimental evaluation of shale formation damage induced by fracturing fluid.