Open Access

ARTICLE

Optimization Method and Field Application of Energy-Enhancement Hydraulic Fracturing in Tight Sandstone Reservoirs

Yonghua Yang¹, Xiaolan Teng¹, Yulong Zhang¹, Li Lu¹, Wenjun Xu^2,3,*, Yuanai Liao^2,3
1 Engineering Technology Research Institute, Sinopec Southwest Oil & Gas Company, Deyang, China
2 School of Petroleum Engineering, Yangtze University, Wuhan, China
3 State Key Laboratory of Low-Carbon Catalysis and Carbon Dioxide Utilization, Wuhan, China
* Corresponding Author: Wenjun Xu. Email:
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Enhanced Oil and Gas Recovery in Unconventional Reservoirs)

Energy Engineering https://doi.org/10.32604/ee.2026.076993

Received 30 November 2025; Accepted 22 January 2026; Published online 13 February 2026

Abstract

Tight sandstone gas reservoirs have significant development potential; however, due to strong reservoir tightness and pronounced heterogeneity, conventional hydraulic fracturing is often constrained by water-blocking effects and insufficient formation energy, resulting in limited stimulation performance. To address these challenges, this study focuses on a tight sandstone gas reservoir in western Sichuan and develops a triple-medium gas–water two-phase productivity prediction model coupling the main fracture, stimulated reservoir volume (SRV), and matrix, in which key physical mechanisms such as fracture geometry, gas slippage effects, stress sensitivity, and capillary forces are systematically considered. Based on this model, an energy-Enhancement fracturing optimization workflow of “controlling-factor identification–process matching–construction parameter optimization” is proposed, and grey relational analysis is employed to quantitatively evaluate the influence of geological and engineering parameters on production performance. The results indicate that the dominant controlling factors governing production are, in descending order of importance, formation pressure, main fracture conductivity, SRV area, SRV permeability, and matrix water saturation. Guided by the controlling-factor-driven process matching principle, an energy-Enhancement fracturing scheme of “liquid nitrogen pre-pad + high-intensity proppant loading” is optimized, which increases the daily gas production of a single well from no production prior to stimulation to 1.52 × 10⁴ m³. The results demonstrate that the proposed model and optimization workflow enable a closed-loop optimization from mechanistic analysis to field implementation, providing a systematic and scalable technical pathway for fracturing design in tight sandstone gas reservoirs.

---

Keywords

Tight sandstone; energy-Enhancement fracturing; productivity prediction model; grey relational analysis; dominant factor identification

---