Improvements in understanding short-range permeability variability in coal seam gas reservoirs
Stephen Tyson A , Suzanne Hurter A , Fengde Zhou A and Morteza Jami AThe University of Queensland.
The APPEA Journal 56(2) 555-555 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ15061
Published: 2016
Abstract
After several years of production history on at least some of the more than 7,000 CSG production wells in the Surat and Bowen basins, reservoir engineers continue to note that understanding detailed permeability spatial variation near the well bore and its impact on actual production performance remains poor. There is a growing realisation that permeability of coals has an even higher variability than was initially expected, and that this variability occurs across a shorter range than that of the typical inter-well spacing (~750 m). As a result, flow between wells, pressure depletion, water and gas production rates and ultimate recovery is difficult to predict. Forecasting short-range continuity of different categories of absolute permeabilities through modelling is the key challenge. Other physical or geophysical parameters may change similarly with the same range.
Generation models tend to over-estimate the lateral continuity of coals and associated carbonaceous shales resulting in a poor match between the model predictions and the observed production data. This may be due to incomplete information on the short-range variability of porosity and permeability and the appropriate up-scaled values for these parameters used in the reservoir simulation models.
This extended abstract discusses controls on permeability, both the geological influences and the impact of drilling and completion on permeability. Taking a holistic approach to the problem of understanding permeability variability, the relative impact of these controls is estimated and discussed. With the benefit of rudimentary ranking of these controls, techniques have been developed to improve measurement and modelling of permeability variability. These approaches can help improve the predictive modelling capability of reservoir performance.
Stephen Tyson joined UQ in January 2013 after working for 30 years in the petroleum industry, mostly in reservoir characterisation and stochastic modelling. Stephen is leading CCSG (Centre for Coal Seam Gas, University of Queensland) research projects in the area of geoscience, including mathematical modelling—particularly reservoir modelling—and geological profiling. Stephen was appointed as an Honorary Research Fellow of the Australian School of Petroleum in 2003, an indication of the respect and experience he has within this area of research. |
Suzanne Hurter graduated from the University of Sao Paulo (Brazil) with a Bachelor of Physics, and then went to complete a Master of Science in Geophysics with a focus on fluid and heat transport and geochemical tools to predict subsurface temperatures. The thermal structure and evolution of sedimentary basins including hydrocarbon maturations were the subjects of her PhD research at The University of Michigan (US). Suzanne has worked in academia in Germany (Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam and the Leibnitz Institute of Applied Geophysics in Hannover) and Brazil (University of Sao Paulo). Here research focus was assessing geothermal resources across Europe, being responsible for science program for enhanced geothermal systems, modelling volcanic hydrothermal systems. Suzanne joined the oil and gas industry and worked in various roles in Shell (Netherlands), Schlumberger (Netherlands and Australia), QGC (BG-Group) and Arrow Energy (Shell-Petrochina). Presently, Suzanne holds a professorial appointment at the School of Earth Sciences in the University of Queensland. Her current research interests are coal seam gas production and carbon sequestration, especially the modelling of subsurface aspects. |
Fengde Zhou received his PhD in petroleum engineering from the China University of Geosciences (CUG) in Wuhan, China. He is a research fellow at The University of Queensland’s (UQ) School of Earth Sciences. Before he joined UQ, Fengde was a visiting fellow from June 2008 to December 2009, and a postdoctoral research associate from 2011–15 at the School of Petroleum Engineering, University of New South Wales (UNSW). Fengde is one of the editorial board members of the Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering. He is interested in reservoir characterisation, reservoir geological modelling, and numerical simulation for conventional and unconventional oil and gas reservoirs. |
Dr Morteza Jami was born in Abadan, Iran, in 1961. He received his BSc degree in geology from the Shiraz University, Iran, in 1986, and MSc and PhD degrees from the Shiraz University, Iran, and University of New South Wales, Australia, in 1991 and 2005, respectively. In 1991, he joined the School of Earth Sciences, Shiraz University, as a lecturer. Since 2005, Morteza has been with the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, Geos Mining Consultants, Sydney Gas Ltd, and Santos Ltd where he worked as a senior geologist and senior development geologist in CBM fields of NSW and Queensland. In 2015, Morteza worked as an adjunct lecturer at Coal Seam Gas Center of University of Queensland. During this time he worked with Professor Tyson on Surat Basin coal characterisation, permeability, and near wellbore damage. In January 2016 Morteza joined Green Dragon Energy as Chief Geologist. He is presently working on CBM exploration, and development of several large coal acreages in China. He is a Member of the Iranian geological society and Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia (PESA). |
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