scholarly journals Two-Phase Flow Model for Numerical Investigation of Impact of Water Retention on Shale Gas Production

Geofluids ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Ershe Xu ◽  
Lingjie Yu ◽  
Ming Fan ◽  
Tianyu Chen ◽  
Zhejun Pan ◽  
...  

In this work, a triple-porosity, two-phase flow model was established to fill the knowledge gap of previous models focusing on gas production characteristics while ignoring the impacts of water injection. The proposed model considers the water flow in the fracture systems and clay minerals and the gas flow in the organic matter, inorganic pore, and fracture systems. The proposed model is solved using a finite element approach with COMSOL Multiphysics (Version 5.6) and verified with field data. Then, the evolutions of the intrinsic and relative permeabilities during water injection and gas production are examined. Furthermore, the impacts of water injection time and pressure are investigated. Good verification results are obtained; the goodness-of-fit value is 0.92, indicating that the proposed model can replicate both the water stimulation and the gas production stages. The relative gas permeability declines during water injection but recovers in the gas depletion stage. Furthermore, the intrinsic permeability increases during the water injection stage but decreases during the gas production stage. A higher water injection pressure and longer injection time would enlarge the intrinsic permeability, thus improving flow capacity. However, it would reduce gas relative permeability, thereby hindering gas flow. The shale gas production characteristic is controlled by the two abovementioned competing mechanisms. There exists a perfect combination of water injection pressure and injection time for achieving the maximum profitability of a shale gas well. This work can give a better understanding of the two-phase flow process in shale reservoirs and shed light on the field application of hydraulic fracturing.


Geofluids ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoji Shang ◽  
J. G. Wang ◽  
Zhizhen Zhang

The governing equations of a two-phase flow have a strong nonlinear term due to the interactions between gas and water such as capillary pressure, water saturation, and gas solubility. This nonlinearity is usually ignored or approximated in order to obtain analytical solutions. The impact of such ignorance on the accuracy of solutions has not been clear so far. This study seeks analytical solutions without ignoring this nonlinear term. Firstly, a nonlinear mathematical model is developed for the two-phase flow of gas and water during shale gas production. This model also considers the effects of gas solubility in water. Then, iterative analytical solutions for pore pressures and production rates of gas and water are derived by the combination of travelling wave and variational iteration methods. Thirdly, the convergence and accuracy of the solutions are checked through history matching of two sets of gas production data: a China shale gas reservoir and a horizontal Barnett shale well. Finally, the effects of the nonlinear term, shale gas solubility, and entry capillary pressure on the shale gas production rate are investigated. It is found that these iterative analytical solutions can be convergent within 2-3 iterations. The solutions can well describe the production rates of both gas and water. The nonlinear term can significantly affect the forecast of shale gas production in both the short term and the long term. Entry capillary pressure and shale gas solubility in water can also affect shale gas production rates of shale gas and water. These analytical solutions can be used for the fast calculation of the production rates of both shale gas and water in the two-phase flow stage.



2015 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.S. Nguyen ◽  
A.D. Le

A mathematical model that couples the governing and constitutive equations of two-phase flow and mechanical equilibrium has been developed to simulate gas injection tests for both laboratory- and field-scale experiments. The model takes into consideration the inherent anisotropy of sedimentary rocks due to bedding by including an anisotropic elastoplastic model for the mechanical process and using an anisotropic permeability tensor for the flow processes for both water and gas. The gas and water flow rates are assumed to follow Darcy’s law. The relative permeability of each phase and their respective degrees of saturation are represented by the Van Genuchten’s functions. We simulated laboratory and field gas injection experiments in Opalinus clay, a candidate geological formation for the geological disposal of radioactive wastes. The numerical results show good agreement with the experimental data measured in these tests in terms of two-phase flow regimes and hydromechanical response at various monitoring locations. Damage zones, either pre-existing due to excavation or induced by high gas injection pressure, are shown to clearly influence the gas flow rates and directions and would need special consideration in the design and safety assessment of the repository system.



Geofluids ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Shuaishi Fu ◽  
Lianjin Zhang ◽  
Yingwen Li ◽  
Xuemei Lan ◽  
Roohollah Askari ◽  
...  

Carbonate reservoirs significantly contribute to exploitation. Due to their strong heterogeneity, it is of great significance to study core seepage capacity and gas-water two-phase flow of reservoirs with various pore structures under different stresses for productivity prediction, gas reservoir development, and reservoir protection. We utilize micrometer-resolution X-ray tomography to obtain the digital rocks of porous, fractured-porous, and fractured-vuggy carbonate rocks during pressurized process and depressurization. The Lattice Boltzmann method and pore network model are used to simulate the permeability and gas-water two-phase flow under different confining pressures. We show that at the early stage of pressure increase, fractures, vugs, or large pores as the main flow channels first undergo compaction deformation, and the permeability decreases obviously. Then, many isolated small pores are extruded and deformed; thus, the permeability reduction is relatively slow. As the confining pressure increases, the equal-permeability point of fractured-porous sample moves to right. At the same confining pressure, the water saturation corresponding to equal-permeability point during depressurization is greater than that of pressurized process. It is also proved that the pore size decreases irreversibly, and the capillary force increases, which is equivalent to the enhancement of water wettability. Therefore, the irreversible closure of pores leads to the decrease of permeability and the increase of gas-phase seepage resistance, especially in carbonate rocks with fractures, vugs, and large pores. The findings of this study are helpful to better understand the gas production law of depletion development of carbonate gas reservoirs and provide support for efficient development.



SPE Journal ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (05) ◽  
pp. 793-802 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qihua Wu ◽  
Baojun Bai ◽  
Yinfa Ma ◽  
Jeong Tae Ok ◽  
Keith B. Neeves ◽  
...  

Summary Gas in tight sand and shale exists in underground reservoirs with microdarcy (µd) or even nanodarcy (nd) permeability ranges; these reservoirs are characterized by small pore throats and crack-like interconnections between pores. The size of the pore throats in shale may differ from the size of the saturating-fluid molecules by only slightly more than one order of magnitude. The physics of fluid flow in these rocks, with measured permeability in the nanodarcy range, is poorly understood. Knowing the fluid-flow behavior in the nanorange channels is of major importance for stimulation design, gas-production optimization, and calculations of the relative permeability of gas in tight shale-gas systems. In this work, a laboratory-on-chip approach for direct visualization of the fluid-flow behavior in nanochannels was developed with an advanced epi-fluorescence microscopy method combined with a nanofluidic chip. Displacements of two-phase flow in 100-nm-depth slit-like channels were reported. Specifically, the two-phase gas-slip effect was investigated. Under experimental conditions, the gas-slippage factor increased as the water saturation increased. The two-phase flow mechanism in 1D nanoscale slit-like channels was proposed and proved by the flow-pattern images. The results are crucial for permeability measurement and understanding fluid-flow behavior for unconventional shale-gas systems with nanoscale pores.



2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 4273-4288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guanglei Cui ◽  
Yuling Tan ◽  
Tianyu Chen ◽  
Xia-Ting Feng ◽  
Derek Elsworth ◽  
...  


2003 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 266-270
Author(s):  
B.H. Khudjuyerov ◽  
I.A. Chuliev

The problem of the stability of a two-phase flow is considered. The solution of the stability equations is performed by the spectral method using polynomials of Chebyshev. A decrease in the stability region gas flow with the addition of particles of the solid phase. The analysis influence on the stability characteristic of Stokes and Archimedes forces.





2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ekhwaiter Abobaker ◽  
Abadelhalim Elsanoose ◽  
Mohammad Azizur Rahman ◽  
Faisal Khan ◽  
Amer Aborig ◽  
...  

Abstract Perforation is the final stage in well completion that helps to connect reservoir formations to wellbores during hydrocarbon production. The drilling perforation technique maximizes the reservoir productivity index by minimizing damage. This can be best accomplished by attaining a better understanding of fluid flows that occur in the near-wellbore region during oil and gas operations. The present work aims to enhance oil recovery by modelling a two-phase flow through the near-wellbore region, thereby expanding industry knowledge about well performance. An experimental procedure was conducted to investigate the behavior of two-phase flow through a cylindrical perforation tunnel. Statistical analysis was coupled with numerical simulation to expand the investigation of fluid flow in the near-wellbore region that cannot be obtained experimentally. The statistical analysis investigated the effect of several parameters, including the liquid and gas flow rate, liquid viscosity, permeability, and porosity, on the injection build-up pressure and the time needed to reach a steady-state flow condition. Design-Expert® Design of Experiments (DoE) software was used to determine the numerical simulation runs using the ANOVA analysis with a Box-Behnken Design (BBD) model and ANSYS-FLUENT was used to analyses the numerical simulation of the porous media tunnel by applying the volume of fluid method (VOF). The experimental data were validated to the numerical results, and the comparison of results was in good agreement. The numerical and statistical analysis demonstrated each investigated parameter’s effect. The permeability, flow rate, and viscosity of the liquid significantly affect the injection pressure build-up profile, and porosity and gas flow rate substantially affect the time required to attain steady-state conditions. In addition, two correlations obtained from the statistical analysis can be used to predict the injection build-up pressure and the required time to reach steady state for different scenarios. This work will contribute to the clarification and understanding of the behavior of multiphase flow in the near-wellbore region.



Processes ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (10) ◽  
pp. 664 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lei Li ◽  
Guanglong Sheng ◽  
Yuliang Su

Hydraulic fracturing is a necessary method to develop shale gas reservoirs effectively and economically. However, the flow behavior in multi-porosity fractured reservoirs is difficult to characterize by conventional methods. In this paper, combined with apparent porosity/permeability model of organic matter, inorganic matter and induced fractures, considering the water film in unstimulated reservoir volume (USRV) region water and bulk water in effectively stimulated reservoir volume (ESRV) region, a multi-media water-gas two-phase flow model was established. The finite difference is used to solve the model and the water-gas two-phase flow behavior of multi-fractured horizontal wells is obtained. Mass transfer between different-scale media, the effects of pore pressure on reservoirs and fluid properties at different production stages were considered in this model. The influence of the dynamic reservoir physical parameters on flow behavior and gas production in multi-fractured horizontal wells is studied. The results show that the properties of the total organic content (TOC) and the inherent porosity of the organic matter affect gas production after 40 days. With the gradual increase of production time, the gas production rate decreases rapidly compared with the water production rate, and the gas saturation in the inorganic matter of the ESRV region gradually decreases. The ignorance of stress sensitivity would cause the gas production increase, and the ignorance of organic matter shrinkage decrease the gas production gradually. The water film mainly affects gas production after 100 days, while the bulk water has a greater impact on gas production throughout the whole period. The research provides a new method to accurately describe the two-phase fluid flow behavior in different scale media of fractured shale gas reservoirs.



2014 ◽  
Vol 400 (1) ◽  
pp. 531-543 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rainer Senger ◽  
Enrique Romero ◽  
Alessio Ferrari ◽  
Paul Marschall


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