Use of Coupled Reservoir and Geomechanical Modelling for Integrated Reservoir Analysis and Management

Author:

Settari A.1,Walters D.A.1,Behie G.A.1

Affiliation:

1. Duke Engineering & Services (Canada), Inc.

Abstract

Abstract Reservoir engineering (and simulation) have historically paid little attention to the geomechanical behaviour of porous media. However, a number of important (primarily unconventional) recovery processes can be properly engineered only by including this effect (e.g., thermal recovery in oil sands, compaction drive in soft and unconsolidated reservoirs, chalk reservoirs, stress sensitive and microfractured media, waterflooding at fracture pressure, waste injection, coal seam stimulation, etc.). In addition, analysis of drilling and completion problems, such as wellbore stability, sand production, fracturing or casing failure, requires knowledge of geomechanical behaviour of the reservoir. This paper gives an overview of the geomechanics of reservoir behaviour, describes recent advances in coupled reservoir and geomechanical modelling, and presents case studies of field applications of this new tool. The examples show the potential of the coupled modelling to become a comprehensive tool for integrated reservoir management, including reservoir, production and drilling aspects of field development. In each case, the use of the new, more comprehensive tools provided better understanding of recovery mechanisms, and changed significantly the economic evaluation of the project. Introduction The geomechanical behaviour of porous media has become increasingly important to hydrocarbon operations. Numerical modelling of such processes is complex, and has been historically carried out in three separate areas: geomechanical modelling (with the primary goal of computing stress/strain behaviour, and its consequences in production engineering), reservoir simulation (essentially modelling multiphase flow and heat transfer in porous media), and fracture mechanics (dealing in detail with crack propagation and geometry). In reservoir management, the geomechanical aspects of the engineering often bridge the various engineering specialities. In fact, the term "geomechanics" is often being applied very broadly to describe a wide range of reservoir phenomena. Examples of the engineering problems involving geomechanics include:Wellbore stability during drilling (in shales and in the reservoir)Wellbore stability of open hole completions during production (in particular for horizontal wells)Reservoir compaction and subsidenceManagement of stress-sensitive reservoirs (in which permeability and porosity change with stress)Naturally fractured reservoirs (fracture systems are stress sensitive)Integrity of completions during production (casing failures)Sand production (prediction of stability and minimization or prevention)Analysis and engineering of waterflooding above fracture pressure (so called "thermal fracturing")Recovery processes in unconsolidated sands (heavy oils and oil sands), including sand failure, dilation, microchanelling and wormholing, and cold productionConventional and unconventional hydraulic fracturing (fracpack, high permeability soft formations...)Completion and reservoir engineering of coalbed methane wells (fracturing, wellbore cavitation, productivity)Waste disposal at fracturing pressure (oilfield, radioactive, chemical,..)Drilling cuttings reinjectionProduced water reinjection (PWRI), in particular in "soft" formations. The common feature of all of these problems is the strong interaction of the behaviour of the solid (porous matrix and fractures) with the reservoir fluid flow and potentially induced fractures. Consequently, the analysis using conven

Publisher

Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE)

Subject

Energy Engineering and Power Technology,Fuel Technology,General Chemical Engineering

Cited by 15 articles. 订阅此论文施引文献 订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3