Status and Tendency of Engineering Technology in Shale Gas Development Within Sinopec

Shale oil and gas exploration has become the focus of global resources development, and the key technologies include horizontal well drilling and staged hydraulic fracturing. Shale gas reserves in China were estimated around 25.1×1012 m3. Compared with that in North America, China's shale gas resources have more complex surface conditions and deeper formations, which lead to longer drilling duration, higher completion cost and lower productivity. Therefore, it is even difficult for shale gas' economic and efficient development in China. Focused on marine shale gas reserves in Southeast Sichuan Basin, a lot of researches on horizontal well drilling and staged fracturing have been done since 2011. Five key technologies are formed through the research including integrated design of geological & engineering "sweet spot" identification and geosteering, fast drilling, oil-based drilling fluid and cementing, volumetric fracturing, and well testing and production evaluation. Main fluids and tools are manufactured within the country other than purchase from other countries. Technical chain of horizontal well drilling and staged fracturing in shale gas development is forged and we can do drilling & fracturing design and operation for horizontal wellswith lateral less than 2000m and more than 20 stages. These technologies have been widely used in Fuling, Pengshui, Dingshan and Nanchuan area in Southeast Sichuan Basin, among which, breakthrough of China's shale gas development was mad in well Jiaoye 1HF. These technologies enabled the construction of 5 billion cubic meters gas production in phase I of Fuling shale gas, the first demonstration shale gas area in China, and put forward the exploration & development process of China's shale gas. Based on the development, engineering technologies of shale gas development for deep formations with normal pressure are under investigation.