Simulation of Production and Injection Performance of Gas Storage Caverns in Salt Formations

Abstract

Summary This paper presents a simple yet comprehensive mathematical model for simulation of injection and production performance of gas storage caverns in salt formations. The model predicts the pressure and temperature of the gas in the cavern and at the wellhead for an arbitrary sequence of production and injection cycles. The model incorporates nonideal gas properties, thermodynamic heat effects associated with gas expansion and compression in the cavern and tubing, heat exchange with the surrounding salt formation, and nonuniform initial temperatures but does not include rock-mechanical effects. The model is based on a mass and energy balance for the gas-filled cavern and on the Bernoulli equation and energy balance for flow in the wellbore. Cavern equations are solved iteratively at successive timesteps, and wellbore equations are solved within an iteration cycle of the cavern equations. Gas properties are calculated internally with generally accepted correlations and basic thermodynamic relations. Example calculations show that the initial temperature distribution has a strong effect on production performance of a typical gas storage cavern. The primary application of the model is in the design, planning, and operation of gas storage projects.