An Analysis of Reservoir Mechanics of Geopressured Geothermal Aquifers
- Key words
- Aquifers; Pressured; Moderate Temperature; Methane; USA; Gulf Coast; Reservoir Model; Two-Phase Flow; Compaction; Dewatering; Well Test; Vapor Saturation; Dissolved Gas; US DOE; University of Texas Austin
- Location
- Texas; Louisiana; Alabama; Mississippi; Florida
- Conference
- Geothermal Resources Council Transactions
- Year
- 1979
- Session
- Geopressured reservoirs; Reservoir modeling; Two phase flow;
- Language
- English
Abstract
Aquifers of abnormally high pressures, known as "geopressured geothermal aquifers", underlie extensively in the Gulf Coast region of the United States. The hot water in the aquifers contains significant dissolved hydrocarbon gas. A two phase two dimensional simulator using finite difference techniques was used for a series of areal and cross sectional model calculations to analyze reservoir mechanics operative in a geopressurred aquifer. It was found from these calculations that formation compaction is the driving energy of prime importance and that dewatering of interbedded shale layers appears to have appreciable effects on aquifer pressure performance if vertical permeabilities of shales are sufficient large. However, it would be difficult to detect intensity of shale water influx from well test data of a short time period.
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