Effect of Water Saturation on Pressure-Dependent Permeability of Carboniferous Shale of the Qaidam Basin,China

Permeability is the most important parameter that describes gas flow characteristics in shale. Water saturation and effective pressure have a considerable effect on shale permeability. This paper presents the results of a laboratory study of the effects of water saturation and effective pressure on gas permeability in Carboniferous shales of the Qaidam Basin, China. The permeability of shale samples with varying water saturation (0–33 wt%) was measured at effective pressure of 6.9 to 27.59 MPa and at low mean pore pressure (<?6.89 MPa) at room temperature, using a pressure pulse decay permeameter. The results indicate that the water saturation and the effective pressure are the main factors affecting the shale permeability. Permeability of sample C034, which has a high clay content and is dominated by nanoscale slit-shaped pores, shows a large decrease (up to 90%) with increasing water saturation (from 0 to 31.7 wt%), depending on the effective pressure. A much larger permeability reduction with increasing water saturation fraction is associated with the swelling of clay minerals. For each sample with varying water saturation, our analyses revealed a consistent line relationship between log permeability and effective pressure variation. The impact of effective pressure on the measured permeability becomes more significant as water saturation increases. With increasing water saturation, the gas slippage factor decreases and calculated effective pore size increases, and gas–water flow in the shale samples occurs as channel flow. This study provides practical information for further studies of stress-dependent permeability of shale with water and the gas slippage effect in two-phase, gas–water flow.     

Multiscale, Multiphysics Network Modeling of Shale Matrix Gas Flows

We present a pore network model to determine the permeability of shale gas matrix. Contrary to the conventional reservoirs, where permeability is only a function of topology and morphology of the pores, the permeability in shale depends on pressure as well. In addition to traditional viscous flow of Hagen–Poiseuille or Darcy type, we included slip flow and Knudsen diffusion in our network model to simulate gas flow in shale systems that contain pores on both micrometer and nanometer scales. This is the first network model in 3D that combines pores with nanometer and micrometer sizes with different flow physics mechanisms on both scales. Our results showed that estimated apparent permeability is significantly higher when the additional physical phenomena are considered, especially at lower pressures and in networks where nanopores dominate. We performed sensitivity analyses on three different network models with equal porosity; constant cross-section model (CCM), enlarged cross-section model (ECM) and shrunk length model (SLM). For the porous systems with variable pore sizes, the apparent permeability is highly dependent on the fraction of nanopores and the pores’ connectivity. The overall permeability in each model decreased as the fraction of nanopores increased.     

Investigation on nonlinear multi-scale effects of unsteady flow in hydraulic fractured horizontal shale gas wells

A unified mathematical model is established to simulate the nonlinear unsteady percolation of shale gas with the consideration of the nonlinear multi-scale effects such as slippage, diffusion, and desorption. The continuous inhomogeneous models of equivalent porosity and permeability are proposed for the whole shale gas reservoir including the hydraulic fracture, the micro-fracture, and the matrix regions. The corresponding semi-analytical method is developed by transforming the nonlinear partial differential governing equation into the integral equation and the numerical discretization. The non-linear multi-scale effects of slippage and diffusion and the pressure dependent effect of desorption on the shale gas production are investigated.     

Analysis on nonlinear effect of unsteady percolation in the inhomogeneous shale gas reservoir

The nonlinear effects of unsteady multi-scale shale gas percolation,such as desorption,slippage,diffusion,pressure-dependent viscosity,and compressibility,are investigated by numerical simulation.A new general mathematical model of the problem is built,in which the Gaussian distribution is used to describe the inhomogeneous intrinsic permeability.Based on the Boltzmann transformation,an efficient semi-analytical method is proposed.The problem is then converted into a nonlinear equation in an integral form for the pressure field,and a related explicit iteration scheme is constructed by numerical discretization.The validation examples show that the proposed method has good convergence,and the simulation results also agree well with the results obtained from both numerical and actual data of two vertical fractured test wells in the literature.Desorption,slippage,and diffusion have significant influence on shale gas flows.The accuracy of the usual technique that the product of viscosity and compressibility is approximated as its value at the average formation pressure is examined.     

Laboratory Investigation of LNAPL Migration in Double-Porosity Soil Under Fractured Condition Using Digital Image Analysis

Gas production from shale gas reservoirs plays a significant role in satisfying increasing energy demands. Compared with conventional sandstone and carbonate reservoirs, shale gas reservoirs are characterized by extremely low porosity, ultra-low permeability and high clay content. Slip flow, diffusion, adsorption and desorption are the primary gas transport processes in shale matrix, while Darcy flow is restricted to fractures. Understanding methane diffusion and adsorption, and gas flow and equilibrium in the low-permeability matrix of shale is crucial for shale formation evaluation and for predicting gas production. Modeling of diffusion in low-permeability shale rocks requires use of the Dusty gas model (DGM) rather than Fick’s law. The DGM is incorporated in the TOUGH2 module EOS7C-ECBM, a modified version of EOS7C that simulates multicomponent gas mixture transport in porous media. Also included in EOS7C-ECBM is the extended Langmuir model for adsorption and desorption of gases. In this study, a column shale model was constructed to simulate methane diffusion and adsorption through shale rocks. The process of binary \(\hbox {CH}_{4}{-}\hbox {N}_{2}\) diffusion and adsorption was analyzed. A sensitivity study was performed to investigate the effects of pressure, temperature and permeability on diffusion and adsorption in shale rocks. The results show that methane gas diffusion and adsorption in shale is a slow process of dynamic equilibrium, which can be illustrated by the slope of a curve in \(\hbox {CH}_{4}\) mass variation. The amount of adsorption increases with the pressure increase at the low pressure, and the mass change by gas diffusion will decrease due to the decrease in the compressibility factor of the gas. With the elevated temperature, the gas molecules move faster and then the greater gas diffusion rates make the process duration shorter. The gas diffusion rate decreases with the permeability decrease, and there is a limit of gas diffusion if the permeability is less than \(1.0\,\times \,10^{-15}\, \hbox { m}^{2}\). The results can provide insights for a better understanding of methane diffusion and adsorption in the shale rocks so as to optimize gas production performance of shale gas reservoirs.     

A Fractal Model for Gas–Water Relative Permeability in Inorganic Shale with Nanoscale Pores

A reliable gas–water relative permeability model in shale is extremely important for the accurate numerical simulation of gas–water two-phase flow (e.g., fracturing fluid flowback) in gas-shale reservoirs, which has important implication for the economic development of gas-shale reservoir. A gas–water relative permeability model in inorganic shale with nanoscale pores at laboratory condition and reservoir condition was proposed based on the fractal scaling theory and modified non-slip boundary of continuity equation in the nanotube. The model not only considers the gas slippage in the entire Knudsen regime, multilayer sticking (near-wall high-viscosity water) and the quantified thickness of water film, but also combines the real gas effect and stress dependence effect. The presented model has been validated by various experiments data of sandstone with microscale pores and bulk shale with nanoscale pores. The results show that: (1) The Knudsen diffusion and slippage effects enhance the gas relative permeability dramatically; however, it is not obviously affected at high pressure. (2) The multilayer sticking effect and water film should not be neglected: the multilayer sticking would reduce the water relative permeability as well as slightly decrease gas relative permeability, and the film flow has a negative impact on both of the gas and water relative permeability. (3) The increased fractal dimension for pore size distribution or tortuosity would increase gas relative permeability but decrease the water relative permeability for a given saturation; however, the effect on relative permeability is not that notable. (4) The real gas effect is beneficial for the gas relative permeability, and the influence is considerable when the pressure is high enough and when the nanopores of bulk shale are mostly with smaller size. For the stress dependence, not like the intrinsic permeability, none of the gas or water relative permeability is sensitive to the net pressure and it can be ignored completely.     

页岩气在超低渗介质中的渗流行为

基于页岩气藏复杂孔隙结构和页岩气在纳米孔隙表面的滑脱和吸附-解吸附等现象,通过引入表观渗透率,修正Darcy渗流模型,得到了页岩气渗流本构方程. 将计算结果与Darcy模型计算结果进行了比照,结果表明,在产量定常情形下,基于非Darcy渗流模型得到的井底压力高于Darcy流结果; Darcy流模型得到的压力衰减速度较快,改进后的渗流模型更能准确描述与表征页岩气渗流过程;研究结果可为页岩气藏的经营与管理提供基础参数.      

An Analytical Solution and Nonlinear Regression Analysis for Sandface Temperature Transient Data in the Presence of a Near-Wellbore Damaged Zone

Throughout this study, we present a dual-continuum model of transport of the natural gas in shale formations. The model includes several physical mechanisms such as diffusion, adsorption and rock stress sensitivity. The slippage has a clear effect in the low-permeability formations which can be described by the apparent permeability. The adsorption mechanism has been modeled by the Langmuir isotherm. The porosity-stress model has been used to describe stress state of the rocks. The thermodynamics deviation factor is calculated using the equation of state of Peng–Robinson. The governing differential system has been solved numerically using the mixed finite element method (MFEM). The stability of the MFEM has been investigated theoretically and numerically. A semi-implicit scheme is employed to solve the two coupled pressure equations, while the thermodynamic calculations are conducted explicitly. Moreover, numerical experiments are performed under the corresponding physical parameters of the model. Some represented results are shown in graphs including the rates of production as well as the pressures and the apparent permeability profiles.

     

Relative Permeability of Gas for Unconventional Reservoirs

Relative permeability of gas gains great significance in exploring unconventional gas. This paper developed a universal relative permeability model of gas, which is applicable for unconventional gas reservoirs such as coal, tight sandstone and shale. The model consists of the absolute relative permeability of gas and the gas slippage permeability. In the proposed model, the effects of water saturation and mean pore pressure on gas slippage permeability are taken into account. Subsequently, the evaluation of the model with existing model is done and then the validation of the model is made with data of tight sandstones, coals and shales from published literatures. The modeling results illustrate that a strong power-law relationship between relative permeability of gas and water saturation and the contribution of gas slippage permeability to relative permeability is determined by water saturation and mean pore pressure simultaneously. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis of the impact of the parameters in the model is conducted and their effects are discussed.     

Analytical Solutions to Gas Flow Problems in Low Permeability Porous Media

In most of conventional porous media the flow of gas is basically controlled by the permeability and the contribution of gas flow due to gas diffusion is ignored. The diffusion effect may have significant impact on gas flow behavior, especially in low permeability porous media. In this study, a dual mechanism based on Darcy flow as well as diffusion is presented for the gas flow in homogeneous porous media. Then, a novel form of pseudo pressure function was defined. This study presents a set of novel analytical solutions developed for analyzing steady-state and transient gas flow through porous media including effective diffusion. The analytical solutions are obtained using the real gas pseudo pressure function that incorporates the effective diffusion. Furthermore, the conventional assumption was used for linearizing the gas flow equation. As application examples, the new analytical solutions have been used to design new laboratory and field testing method to determine the porous media parameters. The proposed laboratory analysis method is also used to analyze data from steady-state flow tests of three core plugs. Then, permeability (k) and effective diffusion coefficient (D _e) was determined; however, the new method allows one to analyze data from both transient and steady-state tests in various flow geometries.     

Comprehensive Seepage Simulation of Fluid Flow in Multi-scaled Shale Gas Reservoirs

Shale gas seepage behaviour is a multi-field/-scale problem and makes transient pressure analysis a very challenging task. Non-Darcy flow in nanopores is prominent due to the broken of continuity hypothesis. Slippage effect and Knudsen diffusion are two important seepage mechanisms in nanopores, while recent studies show surface diffusion is another important transporting mechanism on surface of nanopores. Porous kerogen system contains large amounts of dissolved gas, which should not be overlooked. In this study, a comprehensive mathematical model was established by pseudo-quadruple porosity medium conception, coupling the effects of slippage flow, Knudsen diffusion, surface diffusion, ad-/desorption and gas transferring from kerogen to nanopore system, while fluid flow in fractures/macropores is described by Darcy’s law. Transient pressure behaviours of a multiple fractured horizontal well in box-shaped shale gas reservoir were studied, with nine possible flow regimes divided and parameters sensitivity analysed. Adsorbed constant and dissolved constant were defined to reflect the amount of adsorbed gas and dissolved gas, respectively. Research shows that adsorbed gas and dissolved gas are two important gas storage forms, neither of which should be neglected. The study can not only help us understand fluid flow mechanisms in nanopores from microscopic perspective, but enable us to analyse production performance and determine key operational parameters from macroscopic perspective.     

基于REV尺度格子Boltzmann方法的页岩气流动数值模拟

结合页岩扫描电镜图像,提出页岩气藏物理模型,采用表征单元体积(representative elementary volume,REV)尺度格子Boltzmann方法,考虑滑脱效应,模拟页岩气在页岩气藏中的流动.模拟结果表明,页岩气主要沿着天然裂缝窜进,但在有机质和无机质中也存在缓慢的流动,且有机质中的流速要略大于无机质中的流速.通过改变地层压力,研究地层压力对页岩气渗流特性的影响.研究结果表明,整个流场的速度和渗透率均随着地层压力的下降而增加.     

An Object-Based Shale Permeability Model: Non-Darcy Gas Flow,Sorption, and Surface Diffusion Effects

Shale samples consist of two major components: organic matter (OM) and inorganic mineral component (iOM). Each component has its distinct pore network topology and morphology, which necessitates generating a model capable of distinguishing the two media. We constructed an object-based model using the OM and iOM composition of shale samples. In the model, we integrated information such as OM population and size distribution, as well as its associated pore-size distribution. For the iOM part, we used mineralogy and pore-size information derived from X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and nitrogen sorption measurements. Our proposed model results in millimeter-scale 2D realizations of shale samples by honoring OM and mineral types, their compositions, shapes, and size distributions. The model can capture heterogeneities smaller than 1 mm. We studied the effects of different gas flow processes and found that Knudsen diffusion and gas slippage dominate the flow, but surface diffusion has little impact on total gas flow.     

页岩有机质纳米孔隙气体吸附与流动规律研究

页岩储层孔隙结构复杂, 气体赋存方式多样. 有机质孔隙形状对受限空间气体吸附和流动规律的影响尚不明确, 导致难以准确认识页岩气藏气体渗流机理. 为解决该问题, 本文首先采用巨正则蒙特卡洛方法模拟气体在不同形状有机质孔隙(圆形孔隙、狭长孔隙、三角形孔隙、方形孔隙)内吸附过程, 发现不同形状孔隙内吸附规律符合朗格缪尔单层吸附规律, 分析了绝对吸附量、过剩吸附浓量、气体吸附参数随孔隙尺寸、压力的变化, 研究了孔隙形状对气体吸附的影响. 在明确不同形状有机质孔隙内气体热力学吸附规律基础上, 建立不同形状有机质孔隙内吸附气表面扩散数学模型和考虑滑脱效应的自由气流动数学模型, 结合分子吸附模拟结果研究了不同孔隙形状、孔隙尺寸有机质孔隙内吸附气流动与自由气流动对气体渗透率的贡献. 结果表明, 狭长孔隙内最大吸附浓度和朗格缪尔压力最高, 吸附气表面扩散能力最弱. 孔隙半径5 nm以上时, 吸附气表面扩散对气体渗透率影响可忽略. 本文研究揭示了页岩气藏实际生产过程中有机质孔隙形状对页岩气吸附和流动能力的影响机制.      

A Mathematical Model for Determining Oil Migration Characteristics in Low-Permeability Porous Media Based on Fractal Theory

Shale reservoirs are characterized by very low permeability in the scale of nano-Darcy. This is due to the nanometer scale of pores and throats in shale reservoirs, which causes a difference in flow behavior from conventional reservoirs. Slip flow is considered to be one of the main flow regimes affecting the flow behavior in shale gas reservoirs and has been widely studied in the literature. However, the important mechanism of gas desorption or adsorption that happens in shale reservoirs has not been investigated thoroughly in the literature. This paper aims to study slip flow together with gas desorption in shale gas reservoirs using pore network modeling. To do so, the compressible Stokes equation with proper boundary conditions was applied to model gas flow in a pore network that properly represents the pore size distribution of typical shale reservoirs. A pore network model was created using the digitized image of a thin section of a Berea sandstone and scaled down to represent the pore size range of shale reservoirs. Based on the size of pores in the network and the pore pressure applied, the Knudsen number which controls the flow regimes was within the slip flow regime range. Compressible Stokes equation with proper boundary conditions at the pore’s walls was applied to model the gas flow. The desorption mechanism was also included through a boundary condition by deriving a velocity term using Langmuir-type isotherm. It was observed that when the slip flow was activated together with desorption in the model, their contributions were not summative. That, is the slippage effect limited the desorption mechanism through a reduction of pressure drop. Eagle Ford and Barnett shale samples were investigated in this study when the measured adsorption isotherm data from the literature were used. Barnett sample showed larger contribution of gas desorption toward gas recovery as compared to Eagle Ford sample. This paper has produced a pore network model to further understand the gas desorption and the slip flow effects in recovery of shale gas reservoirs.

     

Coal Permeability Evolution and Gas Migration Under Non-equilibrium State

Laboratory test of coal permeability is generally conducted under the condition of gas adsorption equilibrium, and the results contribute to an understanding of gas migration in the original coal seams. However, gas flow under the state of non-equilibrium, accompanied by gas adsorption and desorption, is more common in coalbed methane (CBM) recovery and \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\) geological sequestration sites. Therefore, research on gas migration under the non-equilibrium state has a greater significance with regard to CBM recovery and \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\) geological sequestration. However, most permeability models, in which only one gas pressure has been considered, cannot be used to study gas flow under the non-equilibrium state. In this study, a new mathematical model, which includes both fracture gas pressure and matrix gas pressure, and couples the gas flow with the coal deformation, has been developed and verified. With the developed model, the spatial and temporal evolution of gas flow field during gas adsorption and desorption phases has been explored. The results show that the gas pressures present nonlinear distributions in the coal core, and the matrix gas pressure is generally lower than the fracture gas pressure during adsorption, but higher than the fracture gas pressure during desorption. For gas flow during adsorption, the main factor controlling permeability varies at different points. At the initial time, the permeability is dominated by the effective stress, and at the later time, the permeability in the part close to the gas inlet is mainly controlled by the matrix swelling, whereas that in the part close to the gas outlet is still dominated by the effective stress. For gas flow during desorption, from the gas inlet to the gas outlet, the permeability deceases at the initial time, and when the time is greater than 10,000 s, it shows a decreasing and then an increasing trend. The reason is that at the initial time, the permeability is dominated by the increased effective stress caused by the sharp decrease of the fracture gas pressure. Later, desorption of the adsorbed gas results in matrix shrinkage, which further leads to an increase of the permeability.     

Low Pressure Gas Percolation Characteristic in Ultra-low Permeability Porous Media

Low pressure gas percolation characteristic in ultra-low permeability porous media is investigated in this article through core flow experiments. The results show that the wall-slip layer covers more than 10% of the average porous channel radius on account of minimum pore size when the permeability is below 0.1 × 10^?3μ m ² order, and seepage behavior is contrasted to that in mid-high permeability pore media. When the gas pressure is not high enough, the flow regime turns into transitional flow instead of slip flow, and nonlinear relationship between the measured gas permeability and the reciprocal of average pressure exists. The gas measuring permeability experiment would be influenced by the non-linear relationship. If Klinkenberg-corrected method is applied to speculate the equivalent liquid permeability, the extrapolated value will become less or minus. Simultaneously, actual gas flow velocity at the outlet is beyond the calculated value with Klinkenberg formula. A new gas seepage model based on the general slip boundary condition is derived from the homogenization technique in this article. At last the flow model is examined to be suitable for representing the gas flow behavior in ultra-low permeability media and estimating the absolute permeability from single-point, steady-states measurements.     

不同滑移边界下的页岩渗透率修正模型

页岩中的孔隙直径通常为纳米量级,基于连续流的达西定律已不能描述纳米级孔隙内的气体流动规律,一般采用附加滑移边界条件的Navier-Stokes方程对其进行描述. 由此可导出与压力相关的渗透率公式(称为"视渗透率"),并用来修正达西定律.因而,渗透率修正方法研究成为页岩气流动研究的热点之一.首先,基于Hagen-Poiseuille 流推导出一般形式二阶滑移模型下的速度分布和流量公式,并推导出相应的渗透率修正公式.该渗透率修正公式基本能将现有的滑移速度模型统一表达为对渗透率的修正. 基于一般形式的渗透率修正公式,重点研究了Maxwell, Hsia, Beskok与Ng 滑移模型速度分布渗透率修正系数、及其对井底压力的影响;提出了基于Ng 滑移速度模型的渗透率修正公式. 基于页岩实际储层温压系统及孔隙分布,计算了Kn 范围及储层条件下页岩气的流动形态,表明页岩气流动存在滑移流、过渡流与分子自由流. 而Ng 模型能描述Kn<88 的滑移流、过渡流、自由分子流的流量规律,因此可以用于描述页岩实际储层中页岩气的流动特征. 计算表明,随着Kn 的增加,不同滑移模型下的渗透率修正系数差异增大.Maxwell与Hsia模型适用于滑移流与过渡流早期,Beskok与Ng 模型可描述自由分子流下的流动规律,但二者在虚拟的孔径均为10nm页岩中,井底压力的差别开始显现;在虚拟的孔径均为1nm页岩中,井底压力的差别开始明显.      

Pressure Transient Analysis for Multi-stage Fractured Horizontal Wells in Shale Gas Reservoirs

This article presents the PTA on the multi-stage fractured horizontal well in shale gas reservoirs incorporating desorption and diffusive flow in the matrix. Currently, most PTA models are simply based on Darcy flow both in natural fractures and matrix without considering the mechanisms of desorption and diffusion in shale matrix. Source function and Laplace transform with the numerical discrete method are employed to solve the mathematical model. The solution is presented in the Laplace domain so that the wellbore storage effect and skin factor can be easily incorporated by convolution. Type curves are plotted with Stehfest algorithm and different flow regimes are identified. The presented model could be used to interpret pressure signals more accurately for shale gas reservoirs.     

A Numerical Study of Microscale Flow Behavior in Tight Gas and Shale Gas Reservoir Systems

Various attempts have been made to model flow in shale gas systems. However, there is currently little consensus regarding the impact of molecular and Knudsen diffusion on flow behavior over time in such systems. Direct measurement or model-based estimation of matrix permeability for these “ultra-tight” reservoirs has proven unreliable. The composition of gas produced from tight gas and shale gas reservoirs varies with time for a variety of reasons. The cause of flowing gas compositional change typically cited is selective desorption of gases from the surface of the kerogen in the case of shale. However, other drivers for gas fractionation are important when pore throat dimensions are small enough. Pore throat diameters on the order of molecular mean free path lengths will create non-Darcy flow conditions, where permeability becomes a strong function of pressure. At the low permeabilities found in shale gas systems, the dusty-gas model for flow should be used, which couples diffusion to advective flow. In this study we implement the dusty-gas model into a fluid flow modeling tool based on the TOUGH+ family of codes. We examine the effects of Knudsen diffusion on gas composition in ultra-tight rock. We show that for very small average pore throat diameters, lighter gases are preferentially produced at concentrations significantly higher than in situ conditions. Furthermore, we illustrate a methodology which uses measurements of gas composition to more uniquely determine the permeability of tight reservoirs. We also describe how gas composition measurement could be used to identify flow boundaries in these reservoir systems. We discuss how new measurement techniques and data collection practices should be implemented in order to take advantage of this method. Our contributions include a new, fit-for-purpose numerical model based on the TOUGH+ code capable of characterizing transport effects including permeability adjustment and diffusion in micro- and nano-scale porous media.