Sensitivity analysis of reservoir conditions and gas production mechanism in deep coal seams in Buchanan County, Virginia

Cigdem Keles, Foteini Vasilikou, Nino Ripepi, Zach Agioutantis, Michael Karmis

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

The potential of commercial deployment of CO 2 sequestration in unmineable coal seams, as a measure to mitigate the greenhouse gas effect, has been tested through a series of small- to medium-scale CO 2 injection projects in the Appalachian Basin, USA. Essential tools for these projects are reservoir simulations in which the involved processes, prior to injection field tests are modeled to enhance understanding and to be used as a decision tool. Due to the large number of modeling input parameters and the high uncertainty in determining their values, an initial model sensitivity analysis of the key input parameters is required for the development of representative models. In this paper, preliminary single-well reservoir parametric simulations were conducted to identify how the variation of selected reservoir parameters and properties affect model results. More specifically, this sensitivity analysis focused on three areas: a) the effect of selected initial conditions (adsorption isotherm, fracture and matrix porosity, reservoir pressure, desorption time, water saturation and permeability), b) the influence of the production mechanism (permeability, face to butt cleat ratio, relative permeability, Langmuir volume, matrix and fracture porosities, desorption time, water saturation, initial reservoir pressure, and pressure gradient), and c) the contribution of the well characteristics (skin factor, explicitly defined hydraulic fractures and high permeability zones). This modeling work forms the basis for calibrating reservoir models used in simulations of CO 2 injection.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)31-42
Number of pages12
JournalSimulation Modelling Practice and Theory
Volume94
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2019

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019

Funding

This research was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy through the National Energy Technology Laboratory's Program under Contract No. DE-FE0006827. This research was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy through the National Energy Technology Laboratory's Program under Contract No. DE-FE0006827 .

FundersFunder number
Michigan State University-U.S. Department of Energy (MSU-DOE) Plant Research LaboratoryDE-FE0006827
National Energy Technology Laboratory

    Keywords

    • Enhanced coalbed methane (ECBM)
    • Gas production
    • Reservoir modeling
    • Sensitivity analysis

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Software
    • Modeling and Simulation
    • Hardware and Architecture

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