Abstract:

There are scarce researches on the prediction of collaborative underground gas storage (UGS) capacity and the timing of conversion from the collaborative construction stage to the UGS construction stage. Through core displacement experiments and overburden porosity/permeability experiments, the impacts of long-term water flooding and multiple cycles of gas flooding on UGS capacity were studied. By using the full-diameter core samples from the Sanjianfang formation in Pubei oilfield, an experiment on the whole process of UGS capacity expansion through oil production followed by collaborative UGS operation was carried out for the first time, to identify the influences of multiple cycles of gas flooding on storage capacity, time of capacity establishment, volume proportion of working gas, and recovery rate under two modes (constant-pressure production and regular production). The results show that both long-term water flooding and multiple cycles of gas flooding can improve reservoir properties and can be considered as the factors for increasing UGS capacity. As the number of injection-production cycles increases, the incremental capacity decreases and the working gas volume proportion increases under the two modes. The UGS capacity is basically established after the sixth injection-production cycle under constant-pressure production and after the tenth injection-production round under regular production, with the recovery rate not increasing further. The recovery rate under constant-pressure production is 0.34% higher than that under regular production.

Key words: Pubei oilfield, Sanjianfang formation, collaborative underground gas storage, natural gas flooding, storage capacity, time of capacity establishment, working gas volume, timing of conversion, EOR