NEWS 2006

Posted March 17, 2006

Event March 22, 2006

Analysis of Coalbed Methane Production with Reservoir and Geomechanical Coupling Simulation

Fagang Gu, U of A Graduate Student

Worldwide coalbed methane (CBM) reserves have been estimated at 84~262 trillion m3. With reserves of 6~76 trillion m3 Canada ranks the second. Now CBM is no longer a potential reserve but a real source of natural gas. In the United States, CBM accounted for 10% of dry gas reserves and 8% of dry gas production in 2003.

The numerical simulation is an essential tool for the prediction and evaluation of productivity in CBM developments. Over the past two decades, although many progresses have been made on the simulation models of CBM production, challenges meet in the simulations with present simulators. The major problem is the changes of permeability and porosity of coalbed during the production are not properly estimated. In order to fully investigate the influences of the changes of in situ conditions on the permeability and porosity of coalbeds during production, the reservoir and geomechanical coupling simulation is applied in this study.

This presentation will cover the characteristics of coalbed, production mechanisms, factors influencing the permeability of coalbed, and the problem with present simulators. The established method and models for reservoir and geomechanical coupling simulation will be shown. The results of sensitivity study with the proposed simulation method will also be presented.

Location: Room - NREF 1-003, University of Alberta
Time: 5:00 - 5:50 pm
Date: Wednesday, March 22, 2006