Estimating fracture volume using flowback data from the Horn River Basin: A material balance approach

Secondly, we introduce a method to estimate effective fracture volume by assuming a simplistic two-phase tank model for the fracture system. Conventional p/Z analysis shows that the fracture network can be approximated by a tank model during the EGP phase and that the dominant drive mechanism during EGP is the expansion of initial free gas in fractures (IGIF). Effective fracture volume is calculated using a modified material balance approach for the two-phase system. The material balance approach enables the estimation of effective fracture volume regardless of the fracture geometry. Finally, the proposed model is validated by numerical simulation and is applied to estimate effective fracture volume using field production data.