Title: The effect of injection well arrangement on CO2 injection into carbonate petroleum reservoir

Authors: Sikandar Khan; Y.A. Khulief; A.A. Al-Shuhail

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia ' Department of Geosciences, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

Abstract: The injection of CO2 into the reservoir, during long-term subsurface containment of CO2, increases the pore pressure, as well as the adsorption induced strains. The associated decrease in permeability causes the transport of the injected CO2 to decrease to a critical value, after which it becomes impossible to transport the injected carbon dioxide to regions of the reservoir far away from the injection well, regardless of its capacity. This problem initiated the need for multiple injection wells. The present investigation considers a dual porous carbonate reservoir. A new methodology is developed for reducing the pore pressure build-up and increasing the reservoir storage capacity by varying both the number and arrangement of the carbon dioxide injection wells. An equation-based finite element method is utilised for the numerical modelling of various carbon dioxide injection scenarios for Ghawar Arab-D carbonate reservoir. The obtained results demonstrated the significance of changing the number and arrangement of the injection wells and suggested the existence of an optimum arrangement.

Keywords: global warming; fractured reservoir; ground uplift; CO2 storage; well arrangements; stability analysis.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGW.2018.091532

International Journal of Global Warming, 2018 Vol.14 No.4, pp.462 - 487

Received: 29 Mar 2016
Accepted: 01 Dec 2016

Published online: 04 May 2018 *

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