Simulation of Carbon Dioxide Flooding Using Horizontal Wells in Fractured Reservoirs

by
Aris Mulya Azof, M.S.E.

University of Texas at Austin, 1995
Supervisor: Gary A. Pope

A worldwide interest exist today in drilling horizontal wells to increase productivity. Because of its large flow area, a horizontal well may be several times more productive than a vertical well. Because oil reserves are declining in the U.S., and the lower horizontal drilling cost, various enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes using horizontal wells, for example, carbon dioxide (CO2) miscible floods, have recently gained attention.

Compositional simulation is a good alternative to investigate miscible displacement processes using horizontal wells because it can incorporate realistic reservoir and fluid descriptions and other process mechanisms that are normally neglected by analytical models. The VIP-COMP simulator, a commercial compositional simulator, with dual-porosity capability (DUAL option) was used in this study to investigate sensitivity of field-scale tertiary CO2 flooding to some of the parameters associated with fractured reservoirs. Grid refinement studies have were also conducted to investigate the sensitivity of the numerical results to mesh size. Also, comparison study was conducted between results obtained by the VIP simulator and the results obtained by UTCOMP.

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