OU researchers have completed the first phase of a project to design a simulator to help oil and gas companies increase production at lower costs, according to OU scientists.
Three professors from the Mewbourne College of Earth and Energy, Richard Sigal, Faruk Civan and Deepak Devegowda, began studying shale gas reservoirs in Nov.2010, they said. The three-year project, supported by a $1.5 million grant, aims to create a more accurate simulator of these reservoirs.
In shale gas reservoirs, workers pump water into spaces to open up flow for gas, Sigal said in a press release. However, current simulators do not accurately predict the amount of water produced .
“The objective of this project is to modify current commercial simulators by substitution of new modules containing more appropriate approximations and pore geometries,” Civan said.
The team now has finished the first stage, which worked to understand the difference between shale and rock and how fluids behave in pores, Vican said. Gas produced from these shale reservoirs could replace coal and imported oils, according to a press release.
Over the past year, the team has used high-tech microscopes to look at pores in rocks that could influence water production, according to a press release. Based on the different physics of the pores, the group designed a quad porosity model for the simulator.
The understanding of gas and liquids transport in shale gas reservoirs and the development of the quad porosity model are really great discoveries and achievements within the past year, Civan said.
“Understanding is the first step,” Civan said. “We use data from prior literatures to match the existing model equation. If they match each other, it indicates the model works. Then we will use the model equation in real data.” Another key development in the last year is predicting the behavior of gas condensates in these small nanopores, Sigal said.
“Rethinking the physics of fluid flow and storage in these nanoporous inorganic and organic pores and developing a better realistic simulator are both exciting challenges in our project,” Sigal said.
OU is setting the example for tests and measurements of this kind, Devegowda said. Other groups around the country are starting to follow in its footsteps.
Future research will include attempting to answer questions about location and distribution of water in reservoirs and pores, the effect of these mixed pore systems and creating new formulas for transport and permeability, Civan said.
