A laboratory approach to measure enhanced gas recovery from a tight gas reservoir during supercritical carbon dioxide injection

Abstract

Supercritical carbon dioxide injection in tight reservoirs is an efficient and prominent enhanced gas recovery method, as it can be more mobilized in low-permeable reservoirs due to its molecular size. This paper aimed to perform a set of laboratory experiments to evaluate the impacts of permeability and water saturation on enhanced gas recovery, carbon dioxide storage capacity, and carbon dioxide content during supercritical carbon dioxide injection. It is observed that supercritical carbon dioxide provides a higher gas recovery increase after the gas depletion drive mechanism is carried out in low permeable core samples. This corresponds to the feasible mobilization of the supercritical carbon dioxide phase through smaller pores. The maximum gas recovery increase for core samples with 0.1 mD is about 22.5%, while gas recovery increase has lower values with the increase in permeability. It is about 19.8%, 15.3%, 12.1%, and 10.9% for core samples with 0.22, 0.36, 0.54, and 0.78 mD permeability, respectively. Moreover, higher water saturations would be a crucial factor in the gas recovery enhancement, especially in the final pore volume injection, as it can increase the supercritical carbon dioxide dissolving in water, leading to more displacement efficiency. The minimum carbon dioxide storage for 0.1 mD core samples is about 50%, while it is about 38% for tight core samples with the permeability of 0.78 mD. By decreasing water saturation from 0.65 to 0.15, less volume of supercritical carbon dioxide is involved in water, and therefore, carbon dioxide storage capacity increases. This is indicative of a proper gas displacement front in lower water saturation and higher gas recovery factor. The findings of this study can help for a better understanding of the gas production mechanism and crucial parameters that affect gas recovery from tight reservoirs.