In Situ Stress Distribution of Deep Coals and Its Influence on Coalbed Methane Development in the Shizhuang Block, Qinshui Basin, China.

The in situ stress plays a crucial role in variations in coal permeability, hydraulic fracturing behavior, and accordingly coalbed methane (CBM) productivity. As the depth increases, the effects of in situ stress will become more prominent. In the Shizhuang block, present-day stress magnitude and permeability of coals at depths >800 m were measured with multiple-cycle hydraulic fracturing and injection falloff test, respectively. The results show that most seams are under pressure reservoirs with pressure gradient <0.9 MPa/100 m. Horizontal stress magnitudes and gradients tend to increase (800-1200 m) and then decrease (>1200 m) with increasing depth. Strike-slip fault stress regimes are predominant, while seams with depth >1400 m are subjected to a normal fault stress regime. Coal permeability tends to decrease gradually with depth and tends to be convergence to 0.01 mD. Considering extremely low permeability of these deep seams, hydraulic fracturing must be applied to create seepage channels for gas and water drainage. Although the high horizontal stress difference in deep seams is favorable for the generation of longer and simple hydraulic fractures, there is no obvious relations between fracture length and gas productivity as poor-support fractures and limited sand migration distance. The current hydraulic fracturing missed the variable stress regimes and permeability at various depth, but used the similar fracturing schemes, leading to significant reduction in gas productivity with depth. Using the high viscosity fracturing fluid, great sand volume, big injection rate, and low sand concentration are recommended for hydraulic fracturing. Single-branch horizontal well with staged fracturing show better applicability for deep CBM extraction.

Prediction Method of Coal Texture Considering Longitudinal Resolution of Logging Curves and Its Application-Taking No. 15 Coal Seam in the Shouyang Block as an Example.

The quantitative identification of the coal texture is of great importance as a crucial parameter for coalbed methane (CBM) reservoir evaluation. This study combined drilling core data, electrical imaging logging data, and four conventional logging data, namely, compensation density (DEN), natural γ (GR), deep lateral resistivity (RD), and acoustic time difference (AC), to achieve accurate inversion of coal texture in the Shouyang Block. Meanwhile, wavelet analysis and Fisher discriminant analysis were introduced to the inversion process to further improve the accuracy. Through the utilization of software packages, such as Matlab and SPSS, the establishment of the coal texture logging interpretation chart of the No. 15 coal seam in the Shouyang block was successfully realized. The outcome of this comprehensive study reveals that the coal texture logging interpretation chart is an effective tool for the identification and classification of each coal texture and gangue. Moreover, the validity and reliability of this method were tested and confirmed using wells CS-8 and CS-9 in the region, achieving an accuracy of 97.1 and 93.2%, respectively. This innovative method has significant prospects for predicting and evaluating the coal texture in the Shouyang Block, which can be further applied to other regions.