Selecting appropriate hydraulic fracturing methods for wells in deep and tight fractured sandstone reservoirs

Deep and tight sandstone reservoirs require hydraulic fracturing treatment to enhance production, even in the presence of natural fractures. In the oil and gas industry, two commonly used methods are open‐hole multistage fracturing (MSF) and cased‐hole perforation fracturing. Both methods can fail or underperform in deep and tight reservoirs. However, the selection of an appropriate fracturing method in deep and tight sandstone reservoirs has rarely been systematically addressed in practice. The selection is often made without scientific foundations and engineering principles. To address this gap, this paper presents an integrated geomechanics workflow, along with associated criteria, to guide the selection of the most suitable fracturing method. The workflow incorporates several key components: prediction of natural fractures, determination of breakdown pressure envelope and optimal perforation directions, modeling hydraulic fracture–natural fracture interactions, and a fully coupled poroelastic finite element model for optimizing open‐hole MSF fluid injection. Numerical simulations clearly reveal both positive and negative impacts of natural fractures on hydraulic fracturing treatment. These impacts should be considered when a fracturing method is selected. Further, the poroelasticity‐based finite element model predicts the evolution of pore pressure and effective stress during fluid injection and thus evaluates open‐hole MSF. The likelihood of natural fracture reactivation along the borehole is assessed, and the fluid injection for open‐hole MSF is optimized. Finally, practical guidelines are suggested for selecting either open‐hole MSF or cased‐hole perforation fracturing in deep and tight fractured sandstone reservoirs.