Evaluation of CO2 sequestration capacity in complex-boundary-shape shale gas reservoirs using projection-based embedded discrete fracture model (pEDFM)

Abstract

This paper presents a numerical model based on the projection-based embedded discrete fracture model (pEDFM) to appraise CO2 sequestration capacity in shale gas reservoirs with complex boundary shape. Moreover, the proposed novel model can be effectively and efficiently adaptive to complex geological conditions of the 3-Dimensional (3D) shale reservoir which is the actual situation in the practice. The performances to handle a simple case from the proposed model are compared with those from commercial software CMG, and a good agreement between these results indicates the validness of the proposed model. Then, a field case from the New Albany Shale is used to illustrate the practical application of the proposed model to simulate the process of CO2 sequestration and evaluate the CO2 sequestration capacity. In all, this proposed model is currently the only one numerical model to effectively and efficiently appraise CO2 geological-sequestration capacity in actual 3D shale gas reservoirs with complex geological conditions.