Simulation of shale gas transport and production with complex fractures using embedded discrete fracture model

The goal of this study is to develop a new model to simulate gas and water transport in shale nanopores and complex fractures. A new gas diffusivity equation was first derived to consider multiple important physical mechanisms such as gas desorption, gas slippage and diffusion, and non‐Darcy flow. For complex fractures, a state‐of‐the‐art embedded discrete fracture model (EDFM) was implemented. Numerical model is verified against a commercial reservoir simulator for shale gas simulation with multiple planar fractures. After that, a series of simulation studies was performed to investigate the impacts of complex gas transport mechanisms and various fracture geometries on well performance. The critical parameters controlling well performance are identified. The simulation results reveal that modeling of gas production from complex fractures as well as modeling important gas transport mechanisms in shale gas reservoirs is extremely significant. © 2018 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 64: 2251–2264, 2018     

超临界CO2压裂技术现状与展望

以水基压裂液开发非常规油气过程中所面临的问题为背景,总结了超临界CO₂压裂技术的独特优势、技术特点、工艺流程及其作业机制。全面分析了超临界CO₂压裂技术的起源、超临界CO₂压裂岩石起裂机制、缝内携砂规律、井筒流动与控制、压裂设备及现场试验等研究发展现状,得到了当前阻碍该技术工业化应用的关键问题,并给出了相应对策。针对超临界CO₂压裂岩石起裂机制的研究多为现象性描述,未来应重视理论分析与模拟实验相结合,给出定量评价方法;超临界CO₂缝内携砂能力的研究除了加强增黏剂方向的攻关力度外,研发纳米纤维实现物理增黏、开发新型低密度支撑剂、提高施工设备技术参数等也是有益的工作。未来超临界CO₂压裂技术将逐渐由直井单层压裂向水平井多级压裂发展并与连续油管拖动压裂相结合,逐渐满足页岩气、煤层气、致密砂岩气等非常规油气的规模化开发需求。     

Effect of cross derivatives in discretization schemes in structured non-orthogonal meshes for compositional reservoir simulation

Corner-point meshes have been implemented in several commercial reservoir simulators due to their flexibility to deal with several important features of the hydrocarbon bearing-reservoirs, such as irregular boundaries, geologic fractures, and faults. Although this type of mesh presents an important step in discretization of the domains for reservoirs, some parts of the approximate equation in discretized formulations are neglected in most commercial simulators. The neglected terms are related to the cross derivatives and, in general, are neglected to produce the same Jacobian stencil as when Cartesian grids are employed. This work presents an investigation of the effect of cross derivatives in discretization schemes using structured non-orthogonal boundary-fitted meshes in conjunction with a compositional reservoir simulator. The main goal is to investigate the difference between the numerical results with and without the cross derivatives that arise when the Cartesian equations are written for a transformed plane. We used an in-house compositional reservoir simulator to carry out this study. The component mass balance equations for a compositional, multiphase, multi-component fluid flow are solved using a fully implicit reservoir simulator in conjunction with the finite volume method. The results of several reservoir simulation case studies that were performed to carry out this study are presented in this paper.     

利用优化设计和节点分析方法确定吐哈丘东气田气井产能方程

利用优化设计软件对影响气井产能的6个主要参数进行了优化设计,在优化设计的基础上利用节点分析方法对设计出的33种参数组合进行了产能计算,并进一步回归出了气井产能方程;经与节点分析的结果对比,产能方程的平均相对误差为0.31％,利用半正态图评价了各参数对气井产能的相对重要性.运用该方法可以计算给定区块内每口井的产能,也可以...     

An extended Krylov subspace method to simulate single-phase fluid flow phenomena in axisymmetric and anisotropic porous media

We develop and validate a novel numerical algorithm for the simulation of axisymmetric single-phase fluid flow phenomena in porous and permeable media. In this new algorithm, the two-dimensional parabolic partial differential equation for fluid flow is transformed into an explicit finite-difference operator problem. The latter is solved by making use of an extended Krylov subspace method (EKSM) constructed with both positive and inverse powers of the finite-difference operator. A significant advantage of the method of solution presented in this paper is that simulations of pressure can be obtained at a multitude of times with practically the same efficiency as that of a single-time simulation. Moreover, the usage of inverse powers of the finite-difference operator provides a substantial increase in efficiency with respect to that of standard Krylov subspace methods. Tests of numerical performance with respect to analytical solutions for point and line sources validate the accuracy of the developed method of solution. We also validate the algorithm by making comparisons between analytical and numerical solutions in the Laplace transform domain. Additional tests of accuracy and efficiency are performed against a commercial simulator for spatially complex and anisotropic models of permeable media.     

超临界CO2压裂技术现状与展望

以水基压裂液开发非常规油气过程中所面临的问题为背景，总结了超临界CO₂压裂技术的独特优势、技术特点、工艺流程及其作业机制。全面分析了超临界CO₂压裂技术的起源、超临界CO₂压裂岩石起裂机制、缝内携砂规律、井筒流动与控制、压裂设备及现场试验等研究发展现状，得到了当前阻碍该技术工业化应用的关键问题，并给出了相应对策。针对超临界CO₂压裂岩石起裂机制的研究多为现象性描述，未来应重视理论分析与模拟实验相结合，给出定量评价方法；超临界CO₂缝内携砂能力的研究除了加强增黏剂方向的攻关力度外，研发纳米纤维实现物理增黏、开发新型低密度支撑剂、提高施工设备技术参数等也是有益的工作。未来超临界CO₂压裂技术将逐渐由直井单层压裂向水平井多级压裂发展并与连续油管拖动压裂相结合，逐渐满足页岩气、煤层气、致密砂岩气等非常规油气的规模化开发需求。     

Simulation of deformable preformed particle gel propagation in porous media

Preformed particle gel (PPG) treatment is a proven cost‐effective method for improving oil recovery. Although PPG system has a suspension‐like property, it has different propagation rules from the rigid particle suspension in porous media because of its good deformation property. In this study, an advanced phenomenological model of PPG propagation in porous media is presented. The model includes both PPG plugging and restarting behaviors. Log‐normal and normal distribution functions have been introduced in this model to calculate the PPG plugging probability. Power‐law equation is used to calculate the PPG restarting rate. This method can represent the commensurate relation between PPG and throat size. Then, the equations are solved numerically, using an explicit finite‐difference formulation in conjunction with a fourth‐order Runge‐Kutta method. The results match favorably with several laboratory experiments. Finally, the propagation rules and sensitivity analysis of PPG size, permeability and injection rate to propagation rules, and permeability reduction are performed. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 63: 4628–4641, 2017     

Numerical Simulation of the LSWI Effect on Hydrocarbon Recovery From Carbonate Rocks

Wettability alteration mechanism is still believed to be the main contributor to low salinity water injection (LSWI) effect on oil recovery from carbonate rocks. The authors investigated the main mechanism and contributor to the LSWI effect on oil recovery from carbonate rocks through history matching recently published corefloods using the UTCHEM simulator. The history match results suggest that wettability alteration has negligible effect on water relative permeability, which could be related to the double electric layer expansion mechanism. This paper provides a basis to develop a LSWI model to predict oil recovery from carbonate rocks.     

低渗油藏CO_2驱中注采方式优化设计

低渗油藏储层致密,衰竭与注水效果差,由于CO_2具有易流动、降黏、体积膨胀的特点,在解决低渗透油藏开发方面表现出独特的优势.讨论了低渗油藏CO_2驱中的注采方式,分析了目前常用的连续注气、水气交替和生产井控制等注采方式的优缺点,提出应综合考虑原油采收率、CO_2埋存量、经济效益及其在低渗油藏中的适用性.并针对以上方法的不足提出了另外3种改进注采方式,通过油藏工程研究、典型模型和实例油藏的数值模拟进行测试分析,表明改进的依据生产井气油比和平均静压两种指标实施开关井控制的CO_2驱注采方法能够满足低渗油藏注气能力需要,且具有开发周期短、油藏采收率高、CO_2埋存潜力大等特点,油田实施简易,能够取得较好经济、社会效益.     

Reservoir simulation of CO2 sequestration pilot in Frio brine formation,USA Gulf Coast

Reservoir simulation studies were performed to investigate compositional effects between aquifer fluid (brine) and injected supercritical CO₂ during the sequestration process in the Frio brine formation. Accurate data calibrations of CO₂ solubility and density, as well as brine density and viscosity, were performed. Hysteresis relative permeability was taken into consideration to account for the effect of trapped gas in the aquifer. In addition, real aquifer data obtained from the test site were used in order to characterize the Frio aquifer.