Numerical modeling of the geomechanical behavior of Ghawar Arab-D carbonate petroleum reservoir undergoing CO2 injection

• DOI: 10.1007/s12665-016-6122-3
• Publication Date: 2016-12-17T06:46:54Z
• Authors: Sikandar Khan; A. A. Al-Shuhail; Y. A. Khulief
• Keywords: Petroleum reservoir; Reservoir Simulation

Sedimentary porous rocks can be used for long-term subsurface containment of CO2. Before injecting CO2 to sedimentary reservoirs, it is necessary to perform stability analysis of the reservoir and to estimate the maximum sustainable pore fluid pressures. In order to avoid the reservoir damage during the CO2 injection, the effective stresses in the reservoir should be evaluated. In this paper, numerical modeling techniques are used for the evaluation of stresses and deformations in a naturally fractured carbonate sedimentary reservoir. The developed numerical modeling scheme couples the behavior of the CO2 injection and the change in the geomechanical behavior of the sedimentary carbonate reservoir for a case study from Saudi Arabia. The present investigation extends the previous studies by considering the sorption-based deformation during the injection of the compressed CO2 fluid into the Arab-D naturally fractured carbonate reservoir. The change in permeability during the injection of CO2 is evaluated. The adopted CO2 injection scenario was shown to be within the safe maximum occupancy, and that the increase in the pore pressure does not result in the reservoir failure.