Numerical Tracking of Natural Gas Migration in Underground Gas Storage with Multilayered Sandstone and Fault-Bearing Caprocks

Abstract

The structure of caprocks is often greatly altered by different scales of faults or fissures in long-term geological tectonic evolution, and the sealing performance may be deteriorated. In this paper, a simplified geological model characterized as multilayered sandstone and fault-bearing caprocks extracted from the Shuang 6 underground gas storage located in the Liaohe oilfield was established. Different fault geometry (e.g., fault length, fault dip angle, and fault type) and seepage attributes (porosity and permeability) were considered to illustrate their impacts on natural gas migration during the cyclic high rate of injection and production of natural gas. The results showed that the seepage anisotropy and the natural gas front are strongly affected by the formation properties and, especially, are hindered by the low permeability sandstone layers. The difference in the lateral migration distance of natural gas in different layers can reach 110 m at the end of the injection period, with an annual injection volume of 108 m3. The migration of natural gas along the fault zone is mainly controlled by the permeability of faults, followed by fault scale, fault dip angle, and fault type. The sealing failure of caprocks in the fault zone does not occur based on the simulated gas migration distribution, showing that a very limited amount of natural gas migrates into the caprocks.