Application of Machine Learning to Predict the Capacity of Fractured Horizontal Wells in Shale Reservoirs

Shale oil wells typically have numerous volume fracturing segments in their horizontal sections, resulting in significant variability in productivity across these segments. Conventional productivity prediction and fracturing effect evaluation methods are challenging to apply effectively. Establishing a stable and efficient intelligent productivity prediction method using machine learning is a promising approach for the effective development of shale oil reservoirs. This study is based on geological data, fracturing records, and a production database of 91 production wells in a shale oil reservoir in a specific area. Fourteen key parameters affecting productivity were selected from geological and engineering perspectives, and the recursive feature elimination method based on support vector machines identified five optimal main controlling factors. Three machine learning methods—decision tree, random forest, and gradient boosting decision tree (GBDT)—were used to model productivity prediction, with root mean square error (RMSE) employed to evaluate model performance. The study results indicate that formation coefficient, cluster spacing, treatment volume, sand volume, and fracturing segment length are the main controlling factors influencing productivity in fractured horizontal wells. Among the models, the random forest algorithm with bootstrap sampling produced the most stable prediction results, achieving a prediction accuracy of 94% and an RMSE of 0.934 on the test set, outperforming the decision tree and GBDT models in terms of minimum RMSE on the test set.