TY - GEN
T1 - Enhanced gas recovery by CO2 sequestration versus re-fracturing treatment in unconventional shale gas reservoirs
AU - Eshkalak, Mohammad O.
AU - Al-Shalabi, Emad W.
AU - Sanaei, Alireza
AU - Aybar, Umut
AU - Sepehrnoori, Kamy
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright 2014, Society of Petroleum Engineers.
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - It is proposed that very low permeability formations are possible candidates for CO2 sequestration. Further, experimental studies have shown that shale formations have huge affinity to adsorb CO2, the order of 5 to 1 compared to the methane. Therefore, potential sequestration of CO2 in shale formations leading to enhanced gas recovery (EGR) will be a promising while challenging target for the oil and gas industry. On the other side, hydraulic re-fracturing treatment of shale gas wells is currently gaining more attention due to the poor performance of shale gas reservoirs after a couple years of production. Hence, investigating and comparing the performance of CO2-EGR with the re-fracturing treatment is essential for the future economic viability of depleted shale gas reservoirs. This paper presents a systematic comparison of the effect of these two processes on improving gas production performance of unconventional reservoirs, which is not well understood and has not been studied thoroughly in the literature. In this paper, a shale gas field data has been evaluated and incorporated in our simulations for both CO2-EGR and re-fracturing treatment purposes. Numerical simulations are performed using local grid refinement (LGR) in order to accurately model the non-linear pressure drop. Also, a dual-porosity/dual-permeability model is incorporated in the reservoir simulation model. Further, the uncertainties associated with inter-related set of geologic and engineering parameters are evaluated and quantified for re-fracturing treatment through several simulation runs. This comprehensive sensitivity study helps in understanding the key reservoir and fracture properties that affect the production performance and enhanced gas recovery in shale gas reservoirs. The results showed that re-fracturing treatment outperforms CO2-EGR due to the pronounced effect on cumulative methane gas production. Moreover, the sensitivity analysis showed that the characteristics of reservoir matrix including permeability and porosity are the most influential parameters for re-fracturing treatment. The findings of this study recommend hydraulic re-fracturing of shale reservoirs at first for enhancing gas production followed by CO2 injection at a later time. This work provides field operators with more insight into maximizing gas recovery from unconventional shale gas reservoirs using re-fracturing stimulation, CO2 injection, or a combination of both methods.
AB - It is proposed that very low permeability formations are possible candidates for CO2 sequestration. Further, experimental studies have shown that shale formations have huge affinity to adsorb CO2, the order of 5 to 1 compared to the methane. Therefore, potential sequestration of CO2 in shale formations leading to enhanced gas recovery (EGR) will be a promising while challenging target for the oil and gas industry. On the other side, hydraulic re-fracturing treatment of shale gas wells is currently gaining more attention due to the poor performance of shale gas reservoirs after a couple years of production. Hence, investigating and comparing the performance of CO2-EGR with the re-fracturing treatment is essential for the future economic viability of depleted shale gas reservoirs. This paper presents a systematic comparison of the effect of these two processes on improving gas production performance of unconventional reservoirs, which is not well understood and has not been studied thoroughly in the literature. In this paper, a shale gas field data has been evaluated and incorporated in our simulations for both CO2-EGR and re-fracturing treatment purposes. Numerical simulations are performed using local grid refinement (LGR) in order to accurately model the non-linear pressure drop. Also, a dual-porosity/dual-permeability model is incorporated in the reservoir simulation model. Further, the uncertainties associated with inter-related set of geologic and engineering parameters are evaluated and quantified for re-fracturing treatment through several simulation runs. This comprehensive sensitivity study helps in understanding the key reservoir and fracture properties that affect the production performance and enhanced gas recovery in shale gas reservoirs. The results showed that re-fracturing treatment outperforms CO2-EGR due to the pronounced effect on cumulative methane gas production. Moreover, the sensitivity analysis showed that the characteristics of reservoir matrix including permeability and porosity are the most influential parameters for re-fracturing treatment. The findings of this study recommend hydraulic re-fracturing of shale reservoirs at first for enhancing gas production followed by CO2 injection at a later time. This work provides field operators with more insight into maximizing gas recovery from unconventional shale gas reservoirs using re-fracturing stimulation, CO2 injection, or a combination of both methods.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84994259701&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.2118/172083-ms
DO - 10.2118/172083-ms
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84994259701
T3 - Society of Petroleum Engineers - 30th Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference, ADIPEC 2014: Challenges and Opportunities for the Next 30 Years
SP - 4107
EP - 4124
BT - Society of Petroleum Engineers - 30th Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference, ADIPEC 2014
T2 - 30th Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference: Challenges and Opportunities for the Next 30 Years, ADIPEC 2014
Y2 - 10 November 2014 through 13 November 2014
ER -