Presentation: Modelling Multiphysics Gas-EOR Processes in Tight Oil Reservoirs

Yu-Shu Wu, Colorado School of Mines

June 25, 2021
2:30 – 3:30 p.m.
ELIF 401, BP Design Theater

Gas EOR approaches using CO2 or hydrocarbon gas have been applied successfully in field application in the past decade due to their effectiveness and capability to increase oil recovery from low-permeability, tight-oil reservoirs. In addition, CCS or CCUS has received more attention in the US and the world. The US experience in success of developing unconventional, tight oil reservoirs has shown that CO2 or natural gas flooding or huff-n-puff is among the few options that work for low-permeability unconventional oil reservoirs under low oil price condition. Considering the large reserves and more than 90% oil left behind by the current technology in unconventional reservoirs as well as 60-70% oil remaining in place in conventional petroleum reservoirs in the world, gas EOR will have even greater potential for future large-scale field application. Injected gas flow, transport and displacement behavior in reservoirs, in particular, in unconventional reservoirs, has not been thoroughly studied or well understood. The recent field observations and laboratory experiments indicate that both rock deformation and thermal condition have non-negligible impacts on the gas EOR performance, however, both effects have been ignored in reservoir modeling studies. In this talk, we will discuss an improved multi- physical compositional gas EOR model, coupled with geomechanics and heat transfer, which incorporates complex compositional flow behavior in multiphase multi-component and capillary effects in nonisothermal reservoirs. Specifically, we will present several application examples for insight of gas EOR processes as well as optimal design of injected gas composition for a field application.

About the presenter: Yu-Shu Wu is a professor and Foundation CMG Reservoir Modeling Chair and the director of Energy Modeling Group (EMG) research center in the department of Petroleum Engineering, Colorado School of Mines (CSM). At CSM, he teaches and carries out research in reservoir engineering, multiphase fluid and heat flow, geomechanics, unconventional oil and gas reservoir dynamics, CO2 geosequestration and EOR, geothermal engineering, and numerical reservoir simulation; advises M.S. and Ph.D. graduate students for their thesis research in reservoir engineering; and leads the EMG in its research effort in (1) flow dynamics in unconventional oil and gas reservoirs; (2) coupled processes of multiphase fluid and heat flow and chemical transport in porous and fractured media; (3) CO2 sequestration and EOR application; (4) improved formation stimulation/cryogenic fracturing technologies; and (5) advanced reservoir simulation technologies. Yu-Shu has also been a guest scientist at the Earth Sciences Division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) since 2008. Previously, he was a Staff Scientist with the Earth Sciences Division of LBNL for 14 years (1995-2008). When at LBNL, he led a multidisciplinary team in quantitative investigation of multiphase fluid and heat flow and radionuclide transport in the Yucca Mountain unsaturated zone. Yu-Shu has been one of the developers of the TOUGH2 family of codes at LBNL and at CSM. In particular, he has led the LBNL’s efforts in developing (1) the Yucca Mountain version of TOUGH2, (2) the T2R3D code (radionuclide transport module), and (3) the TOUGH2_MP (massive parallel version of TOUGH2, the most required TOUGH2 code). At CSM, he continues his efforts in developing advanced reservoir simulators for coupled thermal-hydrological-mechanical processes (THM) in porous and fractured media of CO2 geosequestration, enhanced geothermal systems, and unconventional petroleum reservoirs. Over his career, Yu-Shu has authored and co-authored 90+ peer-reviewed journal papers as well as 200+ research reports and conference papers.