Re-fracturing key technologies of shale oil and gas in North America and the suggestions

In order to deal with the difficulties of shale oil/gas wells (i.e., fast decline of single well production and high operation cost of infiller drilling) in the background that the international oil prices fluctuate continuously at the low level, shale oil and gas enterprises in the North American adopt the re-fracturing technique to stimulate some old wells with potential so as to improve the development efficiency of shale oil and gas. The status quo of shale oil/gas reservoir re-fracturing in the North America was introduced. Then, the key technologies for improving the success rate of shale oil/gas reservoir re-fracturing was analyzed, including selection principle of re-fracturing well, fracturing time selection of candidate well, temporary-plugging diverting technique, mechanical isolation technique and coiled tubing re-fracturing technique. Finally, based on the challenges to re-fracturing technique, combined with the domestic status of shale oil/gas development, the suggestions on the research of re-fracturing key technologies were proposed. It is of great significance for the economical and efficient development of shale oil/gas to carry out the studies focusing on these key technologies and develop the re-fracturing technique suitable for domestic shale oil/gas areas as soon as possible.