Numerical Simulation of Enhanced Gas Recovery by CO

2
Injection into
Partially Depleted Gas Reservoirs
(Potential in UK Southern Irish Sea Morecambe Bay)

Salim Goudarzi
Durham University

Co-supervised by: Dr Simon A. Mathias & Prof. Jon G. Gluyas


Abstract

Injection of CO
2
into depleted natural gas reservoirs offers the potential to securely store
Carbon Dioxide while enhancing gas recovery. This could offset the cost of the greenhouse gas
reduction as well as allowing the continued use of fossil fuels in a CO
2
emission tax environment. The
objective is to investigate the feasibility Enhanced Gas Recovery (EGR) with CO
2
with the possibility
of carbon sequestration.

The Southern Irish Sea contains many partially depleted gas fields. 500 [bcf] of gas is
estimated to remain in the reservoir upon abandonment. It is not clear how much of this resource may
be redefined as reserve for fields with CO
2
injection, however even a modest recovery of 50%, would
constitute a massive increase in the reserves across the whole basin.

Displacement of CH
4
by CO
2
has been observed at two separate brine aquifer CO
2
injection
pilot projects, the Frio brine pilot test, south liberty field, Dayton, Texas [5] and the Tuscaloosa
Formation project, Mississippi [2].

Numerical simulations predict accumulation of a methane bank ahead of the CO
2
plume
[1,4]. Neglecting the miscibility between CO
2
and CH
4
, development of a CH
4
bank can be explained
as follows. When CO
2
is injected, some of the CO2 dissolves into the brine. Co-existence of aqueous
phase CH
4
and CO
2
reduces the solubility limit of CH
4
. As a consequence of one order of magnitude
higher solubility of CO
2
compared to that of CH
4
, most of the aqueous phase CH
4
comes out of
solution. As it adds to the residual CH
4
, a drainage front develops which is then mobilized as the gas
saturation goes above the critical gas saturation (S
gc
).

There remain uncertainties with regard to fluids mixing, relative permeability and capillary
pressure and their impact on the recovery process. To better understand the significance of these
uncertainties, numerical modelling is being undertaken using an in-house numerical simulator for
isothermal partially-miscible three-component two-phase flow, which incorporates Finite Difference
(FD) method and Method of Lines (MoL) with state of the art MATLAB ODE-solvers. The simulator
is verified by the available analytical solution [1,3].



References

1. Hosseini, SA, Mathias, SA & Javadpour, F (2012). Analytical Model for CO
2
Injection into Brine
Aquifers-Containing Residual CH
4
. Transport in Porous Media In Press.

2. Lu, J., Cook, P.J., Hosseini, S.A., Yang, C., Romanak, K., Zhang, T., Freifeld, B.M., Smyth, R., Zenga,
H., Hovorka, S.D.: Reveal sinuous fluid flow by monitoring CO2 injection in a fluvial reservoir. J.
Geophys. Res. 117, B03208 (2012). doi:10.1029/2011JB008939

3. Mathias, SA, Gluyas, JG, Gonzalez, G & Hosseini, S (2011). Role of partial miscibility on pressure
buildup due to constant rate injection of CO
2
into closed and open brine aquifers. Water
Resources Research 47: W12525.

4. Oldenburg, C.M., Doughty, C.: Injection, flow and mixing of CO2 in porous media with residual
gas. Trans. Porous Med 90, 201211 (2011). doi:10.1007/s11242-010-9645-1

5. Xu, T., Kharaka, Y.K., Doughty, C., Freifeld, B.M., Daley, T.M.: Reactive transport modeling to
study changes in water chemistry induced by CO2 injection at the Frio-I brine pilot. Chem. Geol.
271(34), 153164 (2010).


** This project is funded by Centrica.