| Marcellus has been development for more than a decade with the application of multi-staged hydraulically fractured horizontal well technology. The technology requires pumping large amount of fracture-fluids and proppant into the target formation at high pressure. The fracture-fluid will then be recovered as aqueous phase during the flowback periods after well shut-in, which can be treated and reused. Sweet spot identification and efficient fracture-fluid flowback management are keys requirement for sustainable and economic development of Marcellus Shale, which can be benefited greatly by optimizing drilling and completion practices, including accurate fracture-fluids flowback prediction.;In this work, a systematic study of the geology and engineering factors that influence fracture-fluids flowback, water production, and gas recovery was developed. The complex correlations between gas production and fracture-fluids flowback and produced water provide more understanding about flow mechanism in shale gas. The results suggest that the numbers of hydraulic fracturing stages and well lateral length have significant influence on gas production. The shut-in time and injected proppant volume have the most influence on fracture-fluids flowback. The correlations between gas and fracture-fluid flowback and produced water were different under certain geological conditions and time periods. These knowledges from previous results were used to develop economic analysis regional scale.;This work not only will provide the new insights about shale gas well production and fracture-fluid flowback, but also provide a new idea for how to effectively analyze limited field recorded data and to identify the 'true story' behind data. |
