New Method of Residual Natural Gas Reserves Assessment in Exhausted and Water-Flooded Reservoirs.

Pavel Tsibulski and Vladimir Yakushev - Research Institute of Natural Gas and Gas Technologies - VNIIGAZ, OAO "Gazprom", Russia. Abstract.
Cenomanian (late Cretaceous) deposits of Western Siberia are now the basic source of natural gas in Russia. They are developing at water-drive regime. When total gas production from these reservoirs reaches 60%, water-flooded zone increases to 15-20% of initial total pore volume filled by free gas. When a cenomanian reservoir is close to completion of development, water-flooded part should occupy about 50% of initial pore volume. A lot of trapped and occluded gas is still remaining in waterflooded zone. Due to vast initial gas reserves, residual reserves of trapped and occluded gas can be comparable to a giant gas field reserves. Correct assessment of recoverable occluded gas reserves is necessary for definition of prospects of a deposit further development. But there was paid no attention to these reserves assessment in Russia until now because existing system of natural gas production from cenomanian deposits was oriented to reserves assessment in free gas part of the reservoir. The study of these residual occluded gas reserves assessment possibility by mass balance method is represented.

Introduction
Total initial proven reserves of cenomanian deposits of Western Siberia are more than 20 TCM (trillion cubic meter). Main part of these reserves (more than 17 TCM) is situated in 4 cenomanian reservoirs of Medvejie, Urengoy, Yamburg and Zapolyarnoye fields (fig. 1). By now about 70% of initial reserves of Medvejie and Urengoy cenomanian reservoirs are already recovered. Largest cenomanian gas reservoirs are unique according to their reserves and dimensions. They are bulk gas reservoirs underlying by underground water. Maximum thickness of the deposits reaches 200 m, largest dimensions are up to 200 km length and 50 km width. Reservoir lithology is represented by interbedding of sandstone and silt with thin layers of clay. Gas is produced at water-drive regime. First cenomanian reservoirs have been developed since beginning of 70-ties. Reservoir study using exploration wells has shown good hydrodynamic connection of different parts of reservoir in horizontal direction as well as in vertical one. As the result, cenomanian deposits are developed as uniform bulk gas reservoir at water drive regime. Gas-water contact begins to move upward at 2-4th year after production start. Regime observations of gas-water contact movement upward the section during gas production have shown, that 60% of proven reserves extraction resulted in water flooding of 20-24% of initial gas reservoir volume. It is expected that at the late stage of gas reservoir production, when 80-85% of initial gas reserves will be recovered, about 55-60% of reservoir volume will be water flooded. Thus, at the late stage of reservoir production, a considerable part of the reservoir will be occupied by water and some gas reserves will be trapped or occluded there. Due to good reservoir properties of the deposits in horizontal and vertical directions there are poor expectations about bulk free gas volumes trapped in flooded zone (at macro level), but much gas will be occluded in pores of the waterflooded zone (at micro level, fig. 2). There is a problem of these gas reserves assessment and the paper discusses possible method for such estimation.

Method
There are many computer simulation models of free gas zone behavior during oil and gas fields production. But behavior of gas trapped and occluded in water-flooded zone was not simulated practically yet.

Yamburg gas field. 300-400 BCM of residual occluded gas

Ob river gulf

Medvejie gas field. 100-150 BCM of residual occluded gas

.Urengoy gas field. 400-500 BCM of residual occluded gas

Zapolyarnoe gas field. 150-200 BCM of residual occluded gas

Figure 1. Map showing largest gas fileds of West Siberia and reserves of residual occluded gas after cenomanian reservoir depletion. However cenomanian reservoir of Medvejie is 83% exhausted and Urengoy reservoir is about 70% exhausted now and the problem of occluded gas volume of and, correspondingly, the problem of final gas recovery factor of the reservoir is important. Volume of trapped and occluded gas is dependent on many factors including residual gas saturation and variations of pressure in water-flooded part of a reservoir. Pressure drop in water-flooded zone results in partial gas liberation from water traps and pores with occluded gas and its transfer to a dry part of a reservoir. So using of 3D computer models for gas behavior requires many field data on reservoir management. However, at present time, only free gas zone data are available presumably. There are no any data on water-flooded zone but level change of gas-water contact with time and episodically made measurements of reservoir pressure in water-flooded zone. Reservoir computer simulation at water-drive regime using mass balance model of a reservoir was applied for assessment of gas reserves occluded in pores of water-flooded zone. Correlation between the initial gas saturation, final gas saturation, pace of pressure drop in water-flooded part on the one hand and degree of gas recovery from dry part of a reservoir on the other hand was established. This gave a possibility to make the assessment of residual recoverable gas reserves at the late stage of cenomanian gas deposits development at water-drive regime.

Reservoir matrix

Occluded gas

Reservoir water

Figure 2. Scheme of gas occlusion in water-flooded zone of reservoir. When water-drive regime of production, influx of reservoir water to free gas zone of the reservoir takes place. Taking into account the part of occluded gas, general equation of gas mass balance during production looks like [ 1 ]: Mp = Mi - Mf - Mo, (1)

Where Mp - mass of gas produced, Mi - mass of initial gas reserves, Mf - mass of residual gas in free gas zone, Mo - mass of residual free gas occluded in pores of water-flooded zone. This mass balance equation can be expressed through average pressure in free gas zone which is dependent on intensity of water influx to free gas zone. The difference in pressure value for waterdrive regime and gas regime of production at each moment of production time can be calculated through following equation:

Pw (t ) Pg (t ) Pinit
where

=(

Pst * f * Q prod w (t ) * Pw (t ) init 1) * (1 ), ( t ) Pinit * * init * Pinit

(2)

P=

P z (P ) Tresv Tst

- pseudo pressure, kg/cm2;

=
Pinit

- coefficient of temperature deviation; - initial reservoir pseudo pressure, kg/cm2 ; - average pseudo pressure in gas and water flooded parts of reservoir at production

Pg (t ), Pw (t )

time moment t, kg/cm2;

z (P )
Q prod

- gas compressibility coefficient at

P(t ) ;

- total volume of gas recovered from the reservoir by moment t, BCM (billion cubic

meter = 1 x 109 m3);

Tresv , st
st

- temperatures: reservoir and standard (293 K), ; - standard pressure (1,033 kg/m2); - initial pore volume, BCM; - pore volume at time moment t, BCM; coefficient of residual gas saturation in water-flooded part of reservoir; coefficient of initial gas saturation;

init (t )
w

There is the only undefined parameter

w (t ) * Pw (t ) , which can be calculated using production data

(pressures at free gas part of reservoir, level of gas-water contact, etc). When this parameter is defined, there is an opportunity to define the dynamics of occluded gas reserves with time. Figures 3 and 4 show an example of occluded gas reserves assessment for one part of the Urengoy gas field. All the data are represented in relative units. 70% of initial gas reserves recovery resulted in water flooding of 25% of initial free gas zone. The calculation method has shown that more then 4% of initial gas reserves are occluded in water-flooded zone. Gas is not dissolved in water, but is in free form (although disseminated through the section) and could be recovered if special methods of enhanced production will be applied.

Discussion
Drill cores study has been applied for definition of residual gas saturation in water-flooded zone until now. However irregular geologic section, change of gas saturation and pressure in water-flooded zone require development of new methods. 3D computer simulation requires special field studies for reservoir model adaptation concerning water-flooded zone. 3D model has to answer the question about critical gas saturation in water-flooded zone before gas breakthrough to free gas zone. Mass balance model of gas reservoir development at water-drive regime is the first step in this field of study. It shows good enough results at minimum field data. But this model has no possibility to define density of occluded gas and places of its presumable accumulation, which is needed for future production. More complex models will be needed for simulation of occluded gas distribution within water-flooded zone.

Conclusion
Gas production regime has to be changed for more complete extraction of gas reserves. According to the assessment of occluded gas reserves, these reserves could exceed 1000 BCM in largest cenomanian reservoirs of West Siberia. There is no possibility to extract this gas using current gas production technology, but some preliminary data on water-flooded zone study show, that there is a possibility to produce a part of these reserves using methods of enhanced gas production. These are change of production well network, change of gas flow rates at different wells, acoustic and vibration methods of enhanced production and some other. The prospects of enhanced gas production are favorable due to already existing industrial infrastructure at largest West Siberian gas fields: wells, gathering systems, gas treatment units. Low reservoir pressure is favorable for installation of bore hole equipment for enhanced production.

0,5 share of water-flooded zone of reservo

0,4

0,3

0,2

0,1

0 0 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4 0,5 0,6 accumulated production 0,7 0,8 0,9 1

Figure 3. Relative change of water-flooded zone volume within reservoir

10% Share of occluded gas reserves

8%

6%

4%

2%

0% 0 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4 0,5 0,6 0,7 0,8 0,9 1

accumulated production

Figure 4. Change of occluded gas share in water-flooded zone. (%% from initial gas reserves)

Also there are some prospects for combined use of residual free gas and residual occluded gas in exhausted cenomanian reservoirs. The reservoir should be abandoned when reservoir pressure has dropped to 1,5 MPa approximately. So large reserves of low-pressure free gas should be left in the reservoir. Together with occluded gas these reserves can compose up to 10-15% of initial geological gas reserves. Total residual gas reserves could be of 2000 - 2500 BCM for cenomanian deposits. This is equal to discovery of one more super-giant natural gas field in the region with well-developed gas production and transport system. Low pressure gas could be used in-place for electricity generation or chemical conversion of produced gas to organic liquids and fuels. Also injection of this gas to high pressure gas flows from lower horizons could be discussed. Thus, residual occluded gas assessment opens new possibilities for local and remote gas consumers supply by additional gas volumes comparable to development of a new giant gas field in West Siberia. Also some new technologies such as power station building oriented to the use of residual gas reserves could be realized at "exhausted" Siberian fields.

References
1. Zakirov S.N., Lapuk B.B., 1974. Designing and development of gas fields. Moscow, Nedra Publ..