scholarly journals Condensate-Banking Removal and Gas-Production Enhancement Using Thermochemical Injection: A Field-Scale Simulation

Processes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 727 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amjed Hassan ◽  
Mohamed Abdalla ◽  
Mohamed Mahmoud ◽  
Guenther Glatz ◽  
Abdulaziz Al-Majed ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gas Injection ◽  
Thermochemical Treatment ◽  
Fold Increase ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Base Case ◽  
Field Scale ◽  
Gas Reservoirs ◽  
Gas Recovery ◽  
Compositional Simulator ◽  
The Impact

Condensate-liquid accumulation in the vicinity of a well is known to curtail gas production up to 80%. Numerous approaches are employed to mitigate condensate banking and improve gas productivity. In this work, a field-scale simulation is presented for condensate damage removal in tight reservoirs using a thermochemical treatment strategy where heat and pressure are generated in situ. The impact of thermochemical injection on the gas recovery is also elucidated. A compositional simulator was utilized to assess the effectiveness of the suggested treatment on reducing the condensate damage and, thereby, improve the gas recovery. Compared to the base case, represented by an industry-standard gas injection strategy, simulation studies suggest a significantly improved hydrocarbon recovery performance upon thermochemical treatment of the near-wellbore zone. For the scenarios investigated, the application of thermochemicals allowed for an extension of the production plateau from 104 days, as determined for the reference gas injection case, to 683 days. This represents a 6.5-fold increase in production plateau time, boosting gas recovery from 25 to 89%. The improved recovery is attributed to the reduction of both capillary pressure and condensate viscosity. The presented work is crucial for designing and implementing thermochemical treatments in tight-gas reservoirs.

Hydraulic fractures productivity performance in tight gas sands—a numerical simulation approach

2011 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 519
Author(s):  
Jakov Ostojic ◽  
Reza Rezaee ◽  
Hassan Bahrami
Keyword(s):  
Hydraulic Fracture ◽  
Effective Field ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Simulation Software ◽  
Hydraulic Fractures ◽  
Tight Gas ◽  
Gas Reservoirs ◽  
Gas Recovery ◽  
Single Well ◽  
The Impact

The increasing global demand for energy along with the reduction in conventional gas reserves has lead to the increasing demand and exploration of unconventional gas sources. Hydraulically-fractured tight gas reservoirs are one of the most common unconventional sources being produced today and look to be a regular source of gas in the future. Hydraulic fracture orientation and spacing are important factors in effective field drainage and gas recovery. This paper presents a 3D single well hydraulically fractured tight gas model created using commercial simulation software, which will be used to simulate gas production and synthetically generate welltest data. The hydraulic fractures will be simulated with varying sizes and different numbers of fractures intersecting the wellbore. The focus of the simulation runs will be on the effect of hydraulic fracture size and spacing on well productivity performance. The results obtained from the welltest simulations will be plotted and used to understand the impact on reservoir response under the different hydraulic fracturing scenarios. The outputs of the models can also be used to relate welltest response to the efficiency of hydraulic fractures and, therefore, productivity performance.

Modeling Fracture-Fluid Cleanup in Tight-Gas Wells

SPE Journal ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 15 (03) ◽  
pp. 783-793 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Yilin* Wang ◽  
Stephen A. Holditch ◽  
Duane A. McVay
Keyword(s):  
Reservoir Simulation ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Base Case ◽  
Tight Gas ◽  
Gas Wells ◽  
Gas Reservoirs ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Gas Recovery ◽  
Modeling Fracture ◽  
Fracture Fluid

Summary On occasion, a hydraulically fractured tight-gas well does not perform up to its potential because of slow or incomplete fracture- fluid cleanup. A number of papers have been written to address individual factors related to fracture-fluid cleanup, but many questions as to which factors mostly affect gas production from such wells remain unanswered. Numerical reservoir simulation is one of the best methods to study the fracture-fluid-cleanup problem. Continuing from our previous publication (Wang et al. 2008) on the effect of gel damage on fracture cleanup, we used reservoir simulation to analyze systematically the factors that affect fracture- fluid cleanup and gas recovery from tight-gas wells. We first developed a comprehensive data set for typical tight gas reservoirs and then ran single-phase-flow cases for each reservoir and fracture scenario to establish the idealized base-case gas recovery. We then systematically evaluated the following factors: multiphase gas and water flow, proppant crushing, polymer filter cake, and, finally, yield stress of concentrated gel in the fracture. The gel in the fracture is concentrated because of fluid leakoff during the fracture treatment. We evaluated these factors additively in the order listed. We found that the most important factor that reduces fracture-fluid cleanup and gas recovery is the gel strength of the fluid that remains in the fracture at the end of the treatment. This paper illustrates the complexity of the fracture-fluid- cleanup problem and points out the need to use reservoir simulation and to include all the pertinent factors to model fracture-fluid cleanup rigorously. The procedures presented can provide a useful, systematic guide to engineers in conducting a numerical simulation study of fracture-fluid cleanup.

Impact of the Cluster Spacing on Hydraulic Fracture Conductivity and Productivity of a Marcellus Shale Horizontal Well

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed El Sgher ◽  
Kashy Aminian ◽  
Ameri Samuel
Keyword(s):  
Hydraulic Fracture ◽  
Marcellus Shale ◽  
Technical Information ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Production Performance ◽  
Valuable Insight ◽  
Fracture Conductivity ◽  
Fracture Properties ◽  
Gas Recovery ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of the hydraulic fracturing treatment design, including cluster spacing and fracturing fluid volume on the hydraulic fracture properties and consequently, the productivity of a horizontal Marcellus Shale well with multi-stage fractures. The availability of a significant amount of advanced technical information from the Marcellus Shale Energy and Environment Laboratory (MSEEL) provided an opportunity to perform an integrated analysis to gain valuable insight into optimizing fracturing treatment and the gas recovery from Marcellus shale. The available technical information from a horizontal well at MSEEL includes well logs, image logs (both vertical and lateral), diagnostic fracture injection test (DFIT), fracturing treatment data, microseismic recording during the fracturing treatment, production logging data, and production data. The analysis of core data, image logs, and DFIT provided the necessary data for accurate prediction of the hydraulic fracture properties and confirmed the presence and distribution of natural fractures (fissures) in the formation. Furthermore, the results of the microseismic interpretation were utilized to adjust the stress conditions in the adjacent layers. The predicted hydraulic fracture properties were then imported into a reservoir simulation model, developed based on the Marcellus Shale properties, to predict the production performance of the well. Marcellus Shale properties, including porosity, permeability, adsorption characteristics, were obtained from the measurements on the core plugs and the well log data. The Quanta Geo borehole image log from the lateral section of the well was utilized to estimate the fissure distribution s in the shale. The measured and published data were utilized to develop the geomechnical factors to account for the hydraulic fracture conductivity and the formation (matrix and fissure) permeability impairments caused by the reservoir pressure depletion during the production. Stress shadowing and the geomechanical factors were found to play major roles in production performance. Their inclusion in the reservoir model provided a close agreement with the actual production performance of the well. The impact of stress shadowing is significant for Marcellus shale because of the low in-situ stress contrast between the pay zone and the adjacent zones. Stress shadowing appears to have a significant impact on hydraulic fracture properties and as result on the production during the early stages. The geomechanical factors, caused by the net stress changes have a more significant impact on the production during later stages. The cumulative gas production was found to increase as the cluster spacing was decreased (larger number of clusters). At the same time, the stress shadowing caused by the closer cluster spacing resulted in a lower fracture conductivity which in turn diminished the increase in gas production. However, the total fracture volume has more of an impact than the fracture conductivity on gas recovery. The analysis provided valuable insight for optimizing the cluster spacing and the gas recovery from Marcellus shale.

scholarly journals Investigation of the Main Factors During Shale-gas Production Using Grey Relational Analysis

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 207-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongling Zhang ◽  
Jing Wang ◽  
Haiyong Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Shale Gas ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Gas Reservoirs ◽  
Fracture Conductivity ◽  
Matrix Permeability ◽  
Shale Gas Reservoirs ◽  
Main Factors ◽  
Grey Relational ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Half Length

Shale gas is one of the primary types of unconventional reservoirs to be exploited in search for long-lasting resources. Production from shale gas reservoirs requires horizontal drilling with hydraulic fracturing to achieve the most economic production. However, plenty of parameters (e.g., fracture conductivity, fracture spacing, half-length, matrix permeability, and porosity,etc) have high uncertainty that may cause unexpected high cost. Therefore, to develop an efficient and practical method for quantifying uncertainty and optimizing shale-gas production is highly desirable. This paper focuses on analyzing the main factors during gas production, including petro-physical parameters, hydraulic fracture parameters, and work conditions on shale-gas production performances. Firstly, numerous key parameters of shale-gas production from the fourteen best-known shale gas reservoirs in the United States are selected through the correlation analysis. Secondly, a grey relational grade method is used to quantitatively estimate the potential of developing target shale gas reservoirs as well as the impact ranking of these factors. Analyses on production data of many shale-gas reservoirs indicate that the recovery efficiencies are highly correlated with the major parameters predicted by the new method. Among all main factors, the impact ranking of major factors, from more important to less important, is matrix permeability, fracture conductivity, fracture density of hydraulic fracturing, reservoir pressure, total organic content (TOC), fracture half-length, adsorbed gas, reservoir thickness, reservoir depth, and clay content. This work can provide significant insights into quantifying the evaluation of the development potential of shale gas reservoirs, the influence degree of main factors, and optimization of shale gas production.

Modeling Condensate Banking Mitigation by Enhanced Gas Recovery Methods

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adel Mohsin ◽  
Abdul Salam Abd ◽  
Ahmad Abushaikha
Keyword(s):  
Natural Gas ◽  
Finite Difference ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Enhanced Recovery ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Dew Point ◽  
Productivity Index ◽  
Base Case ◽  
Enhanced Gas Recovery ◽  
Gas Recovery

Abstract Condensate banking in natural gas reservoirs can hinder the productivity of production wells dramatically due to the multiphase flow behaviour around the wellbore. This phenomenon takes place when the reservoir pressure drops below the dew point pressure. In this work, we model this occurrence and investigate how the injection of CO2 can enhance the well productivity using novel discretization and linearization schemes such as mimetic finite difference and operator-based linearization from an in-house built compositional reservoir simulator. The injection of CO2 as an enhanced recovery technique is chosen to assess its value as a potential remedy to reduce carbon emissions associated with natural gas production. First, we model a base case with a single producer where we show the deposition of condensate banking around the well and the decline of pressure and production with time. In another case, we inject CO2 into the reservoir as an enhanced gas recovery mechanism. In both cases, we use fully tensor permeability and unstructured tetrahedral grids using mimetic finite difference (MFD) method. The results of the simulation show that the gas and condensate production rates drop after a certain production plateau, specifically the drop in the condensate rate by up to 46%. The introduction of a CO2 injector yields a positive impact on the productivity and pressure decline of the well, delaying the plateau by up to 1.5 years. It also improves the productivity index by above 35% on both the gas and condensate performance, thus reducing production rate loss on both gas and condensate by over 8% and the pressure, while in terms of pressure and drawdown, an improvement of 2.9 to 19.6% is observed per year.

Formation Damage Issues Impacting the Productivity of Low Permeability, Low Initial Water Saturation Gas Producing Formations

2005 ◽  
Vol 127 (3) ◽  
pp. 240-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Brant Bennion ◽  
F. Brent Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Capillary Pressure ◽  
Water Saturation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Pressure Effects ◽  
Formation Damage ◽  
Low Permeability ◽  
Gas Reservoirs ◽  
Initial Water ◽  
The Impact

Very low in situ permeability gas reservoirs (Kgas<0.1mD) are very common and represent a major portion of the current exploitation market for unconventional gas production. Many of these reservoirs exist regionally in Canada and the United States and also on a worldwide basis. A considerable fraction of these formations appear to exist in a state of noncapillary equilibrium (abnormally low initial water saturation given the pore geometry and capillary pressure characteristics of the rock). These reservoirs have many unique challenges associated with the drilling and completion practices required in order to obtain economic production rates. Formation damage mechanisms affecting these very low permeability gas reservoirs, with a particular emphasis on relative permeability and capillary pressure effects (phase trapping) will be discussed in this article. Examples of reservoirs prone to these types of problems will be reviewed, and techniques which can be used to minimize the impact of formation damage on the productivity of tight gas reservoirs of this type will be presented.

scholarly journals Gas-Water Flow Behavior in Water-Bearing Tight Gas Reservoirs

Geofluids ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renyi Cao ◽  
Liyou Ye ◽  
Qihong Lei ◽  
Xinhua Chen ◽  
Y. Zee Ma ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Saturation ◽  
Flow Behavior ◽  
Stress Sensitivity ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Tight Gas ◽  
Gas Reservoirs ◽  
Threshold Pressure Gradient ◽  
Tight Gas Reservoirs ◽  
Gas Recovery ◽  
Mobile Water

Some tight sandstone gas reservoirs contain mobile water, and the mobile water generally has a significant impact on the gas flowing in tight pores. The flow behavior of gas and water in tight pores is different than in conventional formations, yet there is a lack of adequate models to predict the gas production and describe the gas-water flow behaviors in water-bearing tight gas reservoirs. Based on the experimental results, this paper presents mathematical models to describe flow behaviors of gas and water in tight gas formations; the threshold pressure gradient, stress sensitivity, and relative permeability are all considered in our models. A numerical simulator using these models has been developed to improve the flow simulation accuracy for water-bearing tight gas reservoirs. The results show that the effect of stress sensitivity becomes larger as water saturation increases, leading to a fast decline of gas production; in addition, the nonlinear flow of gas phase is aggravated with the increase of water saturation and the decrease of permeability. The gas recovery decreases when the threshold pressure gradient (TPG) and stress sensitivity are taken into account. Therefore, a reasonable drawdown pressure should be set to minimize the damage of nonlinear factors to gas recovery.

Mitigation of Gas Condensate Banking Using an Integrated Chemical Approach

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amjed Mohammed Hassan ◽  
Mohamed Ahmed Mahmoud ◽  
Ayman Raja Al-Nakhli
Keyword(s):  
Zeta Potential ◽  
Hydraulic Fracturing ◽  
Thermochemical Treatment ◽  
Chelating Agent ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Wettability Alteration ◽  
Gas Reservoirs ◽  
Multiple Fractures ◽  
Well Production

Abstract In gas reservoirs, the well production can be reduced due to the development and accumulation of condensate in the near-wellbore zone. Various techniques are used to minimize the condensate damage and maintain hydrocarbon production. Hydraulic fracturing and wettability alteration techniques are the most effective methods. However, these techniques are expensive, especially in deep gas reservoirs. This paper introduces a new approach for mitigating condensate accumulation by integrating the hydraulic fracturing and wettability alteration treatments. The efficiency of two chemicals that can generate multiple fractures and alter the fracture surfaces to less condensate status is investigated in this work. Thermochemical fluids and chelating agent solutions are used to mitigate the condensate damage and improve gas production for the long term. Several laboratory measurements were carried out to study the performance of the proposed approach; coreflooding, zeta potential, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments were conducted. The chemicals were injected into the tight rocks to recover the condensate and improve the flow conductivity. Zeta potential was performed to assess the rock wettability before and after the chemical injection. Moreover, the changes in pores network due to the chemical treatments as analyzed using the NMR technique. Thermochemical treatment removed around 66% of the condensate liquid, while the chelating agent reduced the condensate saturation by around 80%. The main mechanism for condensate removal during thermochemical flooding is the generation of micro-fractures that increase the rock permeability and improve the condensate flow. On the other hand, chelating agents can alter the rock wettability toward less oil-state, leading to considerable recovery of the condensate liquid utilizing a wettability alteration mechanism. Finally, an integrated approach is suggested to injecting thermochemical fluids followed by chelating agent solutions. The proposed technique can lead to generating micro-fractures of less oil-wet surfaces, consequently, the condensate bank can be removed by more than 90%.

Optimizing Tubing and Liner Completion Design to Improve Gas Production from Existing Wells: Case Study for ADNOC Onshore Field Abu Dhabi, UAE

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magdy Farouk Fathalla ◽  
Mariam Ahmed Al Hosani ◽  
Ihab Nabil Mohamed ◽  
Ahmed Mohamed Al Bairaq ◽  
Djamal Kherroubi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gas Production ◽  
Base Case ◽  
Gas Wells ◽  
Production Rates ◽  
Liquid Loading ◽  
Gas Field ◽  
Well Production ◽  
Well Completion ◽  
The Impact

Abstract An onshore gas field contains several gas wells which have low–intermittent production rates. The poor production has been attributed to liquid loading issue in the wellbore. This study will investigate the impact of optimizing the tubing and liner completion design to improve the gas production rates from the wells. Numerous sensitivity runs are carried out with varying tubing and liner dimensions, to identity optimal downhole completions design. The study begins by identifying weak wells having severe gas production problems. Once the weak wells have been identified, wellbore schematics for those wells are studied. Simulation runs are performed with the current downhole completion design and this will be used as the base case. Several completion designs are considered to minimize the effect of liquid loading in the wells; these include reducing the tubing diameter but keeping the existing liner diameter the same, keeping the original tubing diameter the same but only reducing the liner diameter, extending the tubing to the Total Depth (TD) while keeping the original tubing diameter, and extending a reduced diameter tubing string to the TD. The primary cause of the liquid loading seems to be the reduced velocity of the incoming gas from the reservoir as it flows through the wellbore. A simulation study was performed using the various completion designs to optimize the well completion and achieve higher gas velocities in the weak wells. The results of the study showed significant improvement in gas production rates when the tubing diameter and liner diameter were reduced, providing further evidence that increased velocity of the incoming fluids due to restricted flow led to less liquid loading. The paper demonstrates the impact of downhole completion design on the productivity of the gas wells. The study shows that revisiting the existing completion designs and optimizing them using commercial simulators can lead to significant improvement in well production rates. It is also noted that restricting the flow near the sand face increases the velocity of the incoming fluid and reduces liquid loading in the wells.

Condensate Banking Removal Using Slow Release of In-Situ Energized Fluid

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayman Al-Nakhli ◽  
Amjed Hassan ◽  
Mohamed Mahmoud ◽  
Abdualilah Al-Baiz ◽  
Wajdi Buhaezah
Keyword(s):  
Slow Release ◽  
Computer Modelling ◽  
Gas Injection ◽  
Thermochemical Treatment ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Dew Point ◽  
Tight Reservoir ◽  
Novel Method ◽  
Production Period

Abstract Condensate banking represent a persistent challenge during gas production from tight reservoir. The accumulation of condensate around the wellbore can rapidly diminish gas production. When reservoir pressure drop below dew point, condensate start to dropout from gas phase, filling pores and permeable fractures, and block gas production. There are several strategies to mitigate condensate banking, however, these strategies are either demonstrate limited results or are economically not viable. In this study, a novel method to mitigate condensate was developed using thermochemical reactants. Slow-release of thermochemical reactants inside different core samples was studied. The effect of in-situ generation of gas on the petrophysical properties of the rock was reported. Thermochemical treatment was applied to recover condensate on sandstone and carbonate, where the reported recoveries were around 70%. However, when shale sample was used, the recovery was only 43%. Advanced Equation-of-State (EoS) compositional and unconventional simulator (GEM) from CMG (Computer Modelling Group) software was used to simulate thermochemical treatment and gas injection. The simulation study showed that thermochemical stimulation had increased production period from 3.5 to 22.7 months, compared to gas injection.

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