Research Status and Progress of Foam Drainage-Gas Recovery Technology in Shale Gas Wells

Shale gas is an important unconventional energy. Because of its special geological structure and complex well depth structure, it is difficult to exploit and will produce wellbore fluid accumulation in the production process. These problems can be effectively solved through drainage and gas production technology. Foam drainage-gas recovery technology is a relatively mature technology, which is widely used in major shale gas fields in China and abroad. The critical part of the technology is the selection and filling of foaming agent. For the foam drainage gas production technology for shale gas wells, investigated the technical status, studied the process optimization method and foam drainage agent injection method, and introduced the latest intelligent foam drainage and composite drainage and production technologies which are based on the characteristics of shale gas. Besides that, the article described the characteristics of foam drainage agent are summarized, and the preparation and application of high-performance composite foam drainage agent with temperature resistance, salt resistance, acid resistance, good stability and strong liquid carrying capacity and proposed the development direction of intelligent foam drainage, combined drainage technology and composite foam drainage agent. This research provides references for the foam drainage-gas recovery technology in shale gas wells in China.