Reservoir simulation

Cost-Effective Reservoir Simulation Technology Optimizes CCS Development

The authors present an efficient workflow using an embedded discrete fracture model to simulate carbon-dioxide flow by use of conductive faults.

Fig. 1—Well locations for full-field simulation.
Fig. 1—Well locations for full-field simulation.
Source: SPE 221260.

For the robust planning and implementation of carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects, capacity and injectivity of target reservoirs and containment capability of caprock formations must be evaluated thoroughly through high-fidelity flow simulations with various hypothetical subsurface scenarios. However, it is challenging to incorporate numerous faults with high conductivity and complex multiphase displacement processes in a practical framework of flow simulations. In the study featured in the complete paper, the authors present an efficient workflow using an embedded discrete fracture model (EDFM) to simulate CO2 flow through conductive faults and review its application to full-field scale assessment.

Methodology of EDFM

EDFM originally was proposed to explicitly model discrete fractures of various scales in flow simulations. In this study, conductive faults were assumed to be long discrete fractures.

As an example, one may imagine a reservoir model with two intersecting conductive faults (discrete fractures). Extra gridblocks are defined by discretizing conductive faults by the cell boundaries of the reservoir gridblock.

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