Subsidence above volumetric and waterdrive gas reservoirs

A fully coupled consolidation model has been developed for the simulation of the surface subsidence above gas reservoirs. The model is based on the Biot Theory and the material balance equation for hydrocarbon reservoirs. The model is extremely versatile and can handle such complex situations as vertical cross-sections where several gas reservoirs and aquifers are exploited at different levels. Computer runs were used to generate several reservoir formation profiles and the surface subsidence bowl for a variety of conditions. These results indicate the importance of various parameters which are disregarded in proelasticity models.