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A coarse-scale compositional model

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Abstract

In subsurface flow modeling, compositional simulation is often required to model complex recovery processes, such as gas/CO 2 injection. However, compositional simulation on fine-scale geological models is still computationally expensive and even prohibitive. Most existing upscaling techniques focus on black-oil models. In this paper, we present a general framework to upscale two-phase multicomponent flow in compositional simulation. Unlike previous studies, our approach explicitly considers the upscaling of flow and thermodynamics. In the flow part, we introduce a new set of upscaled flow functions that account for the effects of compressibility. This is often ignored in the upscaling of black-oil models. In the upscaling of thermodynamics, we show that the oil and gas phases within a coarse block are not at chemical equilibrium. This non-equilibrium behavior is modeled by upscaled thermodynamic functions, which measure the difference between component fugacities among the oil and gas phases. We apply the approach to various gas injection problems with different compositional features, permeability heterogeneity, and coarsening ratios. It is shown that the proposed method accurately reproduces the averaged fine-scale solutions, such as component overall compositions, gas saturation, and density solutions in the compositional flow.

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Author notes

  1. Alireza Iranshahr

    Present address: Shell Global Solutions (US), Inc., Houston, TX, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Energy Resources Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Alireza Iranshahr & Denis V. Voskov

  2. Chevron Energy Technology Company, San Ramon, CA, USA

    Yuguang Chen

Authors
  1. Alireza Iranshahr
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  2. Yuguang Chen
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  3. Denis V. Voskov
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Correspondence to Yuguang Chen.

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Iranshahr, A., Chen, Y. & Voskov, D.V. A coarse-scale compositional model. Comput Geosci 18, 797–815 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10596-014-9427-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10596-014-9427-x

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