DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Compositional simulation of hydrocarbon recovery from oil shale reservoirs with diverse initial saturations of fluid phases by various thermal processes

Abstract

We have studied the hydrocarbon production from oil shale reservoirs filled with diverse initial saturations of fluid phases by implementing numerical simulations of various thermal in-situ upgrading processes. We use our in-house fully functional, fully implicit, and non-isothermal simulator, which describes the in-situ upgrading processes and hydrocarbon recovery by multiphase-multicomponent systems. We have conducted two sets of simulation cases—five-spot well pattern problems and Shell In-situ Conversion Process (ICP) problems. In the five-spot well pattern problems, we have analyzed the effects of initial fluid phase that fills the single-phase reservoir and thermal processes by four cases—electrical heating in the single-phase-aqueous reservoir, electrical heating in the single-phase-gaseous reservoir, hot water injection in the single-phase-aqueous reservoir, and hot CO2-injection in the single-phase-gaseous reservoir. In the ICP problems, we have analyzed the effects of initial saturations of fluid phases that fill two-phase-aqueous-and-gaseous reservoir by three cases—initial aqueous phase saturations of 0.16, 0.44, and 0.72. Through the simulation cases, system response and production behavior including temperature profile, kerogen fraction profile, evolution of effective porosity and absolute permeability, phase production, and product selectivity are analyzed. In the five-spot well pattern problems, it is found that the hot water injection in the aqueous phase reservoir shows themore » highest total hydrocarbon production, but also shows the highest water-oil-mass-ratio. Productions of phases and components show very different behavior in the cases of electrical heating in the aqueous phase reservoir and the gaseous phase reservoir. In the ICP problems, it is found that the speed of kerogen decomposition is almost identical in the cases, but the production behavior of phases and components is very different. It is found that more liquid organic phase has been produced in the case with the higher initial saturation of aqueous phase by the less production of gaseous phase.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [2]
  1. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Earth Geosciences Div.
  2. Univ. of Houston, TX (United States). Dept. of Petroleum Engineering
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
OSTI Identifier:
1482518
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-05CH11231
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Energy Exploration and Exploitation
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 35; Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 0144-5987
Publisher:
SAGE
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS; oil shale; kerogen; in-situ upgrading; electrical heating; hot fluid injection; In-situ Conversion Process (ICP)

Citation Formats

Lee, Kyung Jae, Moridis, George J., and Ehlig-Economides, Christine A. Compositional simulation of hydrocarbon recovery from oil shale reservoirs with diverse initial saturations of fluid phases by various thermal processes. United States: N. p., 2016. Web. doi:10.1177/0144598716684307.
Lee, Kyung Jae, Moridis, George J., & Ehlig-Economides, Christine A. Compositional simulation of hydrocarbon recovery from oil shale reservoirs with diverse initial saturations of fluid phases by various thermal processes. United States. https://doi.org/10.1177/0144598716684307
Lee, Kyung Jae, Moridis, George J., and Ehlig-Economides, Christine A. Thu . "Compositional simulation of hydrocarbon recovery from oil shale reservoirs with diverse initial saturations of fluid phases by various thermal processes". United States. https://doi.org/10.1177/0144598716684307. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1482518.
@article{osti_1482518,
title = {Compositional simulation of hydrocarbon recovery from oil shale reservoirs with diverse initial saturations of fluid phases by various thermal processes},
author = {Lee, Kyung Jae and Moridis, George J. and Ehlig-Economides, Christine A.},
abstractNote = {We have studied the hydrocarbon production from oil shale reservoirs filled with diverse initial saturations of fluid phases by implementing numerical simulations of various thermal in-situ upgrading processes. We use our in-house fully functional, fully implicit, and non-isothermal simulator, which describes the in-situ upgrading processes and hydrocarbon recovery by multiphase-multicomponent systems. We have conducted two sets of simulation cases—five-spot well pattern problems and Shell In-situ Conversion Process (ICP) problems. In the five-spot well pattern problems, we have analyzed the effects of initial fluid phase that fills the single-phase reservoir and thermal processes by four cases—electrical heating in the single-phase-aqueous reservoir, electrical heating in the single-phase-gaseous reservoir, hot water injection in the single-phase-aqueous reservoir, and hot CO2-injection in the single-phase-gaseous reservoir. In the ICP problems, we have analyzed the effects of initial saturations of fluid phases that fill two-phase-aqueous-and-gaseous reservoir by three cases—initial aqueous phase saturations of 0.16, 0.44, and 0.72. Through the simulation cases, system response and production behavior including temperature profile, kerogen fraction profile, evolution of effective porosity and absolute permeability, phase production, and product selectivity are analyzed. In the five-spot well pattern problems, it is found that the hot water injection in the aqueous phase reservoir shows the highest total hydrocarbon production, but also shows the highest water-oil-mass-ratio. Productions of phases and components show very different behavior in the cases of electrical heating in the aqueous phase reservoir and the gaseous phase reservoir. In the ICP problems, it is found that the speed of kerogen decomposition is almost identical in the cases, but the production behavior of phases and components is very different. It is found that more liquid organic phase has been produced in the case with the higher initial saturation of aqueous phase by the less production of gaseous phase.},
doi = {10.1177/0144598716684307},
journal = {Energy Exploration and Exploitation},
number = 2,
volume = 35,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Dec 22 00:00:00 EST 2016},
month = {Thu Dec 22 00:00:00 EST 2016}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 10 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Save / Share:

Works referenced in this record:

An Overview of Oil Shale Resources
book, January 2010


A Practical Method for Modeling Fluid and Heat Flow in Fractured Porous Media
journal, February 1985

  • Pruess, Karsten
  • Society of Petroleum Engineers Journal, Vol. 25, Issue 01
  • DOI: 10.2118/10509-PA

Oil Shale ICP - Colorado Field Pilots
conference, April 2013

  • Fowler, Thomas D.; Vinegar, Harold J.
  • SPE Western Regional Meeting
  • DOI: 10.2118/121164-MS

Numerical Simulation of the In-Situ Upgrading of Oil Shale
journal, June 2010

  • Fan, Yaqing; Durlofsky, Louis; Tchelepi, Hamdi A.
  • SPE Journal, Vol. 15, Issue 02
  • DOI: 10.2118/118958-PA

Modification of the Kozeny-Carman Equation To Quantify Formation Damage by Fines in Clean, Unconsolidated Porous Media
journal, November 2014

  • Krauss, Eva D.; Mays, David C.
  • SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering, Vol. 17, Issue 04
  • DOI: 10.2118/165148-PA

A Comprehensive Simulation Model of Kerogen Pyrolysis for the In-situ Upgrading of Oil Shales
journal, October 2016

  • Lee, Kyung Jae; Moridis, George J.; Ehlig-Economides, Christine A.
  • SPE Journal, Vol. 21, Issue 05
  • DOI: 10.2118/173299-PA

Numerical simulation of thermal and reaction fronts for oil shale upgrading
journal, May 2013


Works referencing / citing this record:

Macro and Meso Characteristics of In-Situ Oil Shale Pyrolysis Using Superheated Steam
journal, August 2018