Stanford Earth Undergraduate Research Symposium
Summer research projects from the 2020 SESUR cohort
Marshall Hartung, Youssef Elkady, Anthony Kovscek
Methods of Enhanced Gas Recovery (EGR) have facilitated the increased production of natural gas from unconventional reservoirs in recent years. Two developing forms of EGR, continuous gas injection and huff-n-puff, show potential due to their monetary benefits through either carbon sequestration with the implementation of a carbon tax or increased CH4 production. This research project explores the effects of varying multiple operational decisions and reservoir characteristics on the success of these two EGR methods. This research used CMG GEM software to design multiple field scenarios and create CH4 production and CO2 injection and production curves for these cases. To determine baseline measurement for permeability, porosity, and gas adsorption of unconventional shale, pulse decay experiments were conducted on core samples initially. These properties served as the reservoir variables in the field scale models for both continuous gas injection and huff-n-puff. As for operational decisions, the duration of the production/injection schedule were varied. The simulations showed increased CH4 production providing the main benefit for huff-n-puff EGR. This, however, appears to be the opposite for continuous injection, which finds economic benefits largely from CO2 storage. Reservoir permeability for continuous gas injection and operational decisions for huff-n-puff produced the greatest movement towards profitable revenue streams. The benefits drawn from opposing aspects suggest viability for only one of the EGR methods depending on future market values and the possibility of a carbon tax.
Click HERE to view my poster.
Click HERE to view my presentation.
Super intersting presentation Marshall,
What is the most surprising/intriguing outcome of your research project to you personally? Did it go how you expected it to go?
Thanks,
-Dusty
Marshall – nice job, you explained the terms that I was unsure of – very helpful. For your in-lab project, were you going to look at this types of operational models? I found the comparisons of the two different operations interesting. With the price of gas and current carbon taxes, what should an oil company due today?
– Jenny
Good Job Marshall! Everything looks good. It was a pleasure working with you.
Hey Marshall,
This research and presentation were super thorough. I think studies like this are critical– especially at a time when these strategies are so relevant to the industry. I was just wondering, do you have any ideas for the next steps or additional studies that should follow yours? Like I said, you were very thorough, but I didn’t know if you had given thought to other aspects of the two methods that might be worth comparing?
Awesome job!
– Mitchell
Hi Marshall,
Thanks for a very thorough and clear presentation! I appreciated how you translated your results into monetary terms which gave your project a very clear application.