The first Geo-Energy Frontier Forum with the theme of “opportunities and challenges for geo-energy exploration and development” was successfully held in Wuhan, recently. The forum included 32 sessions, mainly focused on four directions: geo-energy development and reserve, petroleum geophysical exploration, oil and gas geology, and field development engineering. This paper summarizes the key findings in the 22^nd session titled “Reservoir stimulation for unconventional oil and gas resources”. A total of 17 experts and scholars participated in the presentations, covering a wide range of topics in unconventional oil and gas resources development. This research collectively highlighted the significance of reservoir stimulation techniques in unconventional oil and gas resource development, including research progress in fracture network modeling techniques, fluid pressure, rock mechanics, fracture propagation, and proppant migration in hydraulic fracturing.

Temporary plugging and diverting fracturing technology is of utmost importance in stimulating fractured reservoirs. However, studies investigating the mechanisms of new fracture initiation and propagation during far-field temporary plugging and diverting fracturing have been scarce, and the optimal technique parameters are still unknown. To address this issue, a two-dimensional fracturing model is developed via the finite element method in this work, which simulates the temporary plugging effect using the equivalent viscosity temporary blockage method and the unrestrained growth of hydraulic fractures by globally embedding the cohesive element of zero-thickness. Then, some key parameters for far-field temporary plugging and diverting fracturing in fractured reservoirs are discussed and some interesting insights are given. Firstly, a lower-permeability plugging zone expedites the pressure increase within the fracture, thereby boosting the probability of achieving temporary plugging and diverting fracturing. The size of the plugging zone significantly impacts the pressure increase within the fracture. Secondly, the plugging position should be determined considering the density and arrangement of natural fractures in the layer, and the temporary plugging construction should be performed after maximizing the elongation of initial hydraulic fracture. Thirdly, an increase in fluid viscosity and injection displacement promotes the pressure rise inside the fracture. Nonetheless, the impact of injection displacement on temporary plugging and diverting fracturing surpasses that of fluid viscosity. Overall, the established model can inform the design of temporary plugging and diverting fracturing in fractured reservoirs.