Engineering Geology

Engineering Geology

Determination of in-Situ Stresses and Investigation of the Fractures and Faults Reactivation Potential for CO2 Injection to Enhanced oil Recovery in the Gachsaran Oilfield

Authors
Mohammadkazem Amiri
Gholam Reza lashkaripur
siavash ghabezloo
Naser hafezimoghadas
Mojtaba heidaritajri
Université Paris-Est, Laboratoire Navier-CERMES, Ecole des Ponts ParisTech, Marne la Vallée, France
Abstract
Introduction

CO2 injection in deep geological formations, such as depleted oil and gas reservoirs, in addition to the environmental benefits, is one of the effective method for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) as tertiary EOR. Presence of reservoirs with a pressure drop which require injection of gas in the southwest of Iran and having the technical and environmental effects of CO2 injection have created a huge potential for CO2 injection to EOR in this region. In the first step, to perform CO2-EOR, the geomechanical assessment is needed to find out pore pressure, in-situ stress magnitudes and orientations and fractures and faults conditions. In this paper, the initial in-situ pore pressure is predicted using modified Eaton method for 47 wells in the length of the study field and calibrated using repeat formation test and mud pressure data. In-situ stress was obtained by the poroelastic method for 47 wells in the length of the study field and calibrated using leak off test and extended leak off test. Then, the orientation of in-situ stresses is obtained based on image logs. Hydraulical and mechanical activities of fractures and faults were performed by critically-stressed-fault hypothesis

Material and Methods

In this paper, the initial pore pressure is calculated using modified Eaton method and other corrections that are proposed by Azadpour et al. (2015). The estimated initial pore pressure is validated using mud weight pressure (Pmw) and repeat formation tester (RFT) data. In-situ stresses are composed of three orthogonal principal stresses, vertical stress (SV), maximum horizontal stress (SH), and minimum horizontal stress (Sh) with specific magnitude and orientations. The magnitude of SV is calculated by integration of rock densities from the surface to the depth of interest. The poroelastic horizontal strain model is used to determine the magnitudes of the SH and Sh. Then, the estimated minimum horizontal stress from poroelastic horizontal strain model is validated against direct measurements of LOT and XLOT tests. The orientation of breakouts was determined based on compressively stressed zones observed in the UBI log and using Caliper and Bit Size (BS) logs. The hole elongates perpendicular to the SH and breakouts develop at the azimuth of Sh. Fractures and faults reactivation analyses are very important, they can potentially propagate upwards into the lower caprock and further through the upper caprock due to CO2 injection. Fractures and faults identification were performed based on image logs. Based on performed seismic interpretations by NISOC (National Iranian South Oil Company), 15 faults have been detected in the field. Fractures and faults conductivity and activity in the current stress filed affect on fluid flow and mechanical stability or instability of the CO2 injection site. Critically stressed fault hypothesis, introduced by Barton et al. (1995), states that in a formation with fractures and faults at different angles to the current stress field, the conductivity of fluids through their apertures are controlled by the interplay of principal stress orientations and fracture or fault directions. Hence, conductive and critically stressed fractures and faults in the current stress field were evaluated using critically stressed fault hypothesis. Fractures and faults are plotted in normalized 3D Mohr diagrams (normalized by the vertical stress), therefore conductive and critically stressed fractures and faults were determined.

Results and discussions

The maximum distribution of initial pore pressure was 20-25 MPa in the field and the average of initial pore pressure was 25 MPa in the field. Unlike the World Stress Map, the stress regime is normal in the reservoir. Because the Kazeroon fault and Dezful Embayment act as a strike-slip tensional basin, resulting in the subsidence of Dezful compared with other regions. The frequency distribution of calculated in-situ stress in 47 studied wells in the length of the field has been presented. The maximum frequency distribution of SV, SH and Sh were between 60-70, 50-60 and 30-40 MPa, respectively. A large amount of fracturing is observed in 20-25 m below the caprock. Based on the continuity of their low amplitude traces on the acoustic amplitude image of UBI, fractures are classified into 4 classes: discontinuous-open, continuous-open, possible-open and closed fractures. OBMI and UBI image logs processing were performed in 7 wells. As can be seen from the image log, and caliper analysis the most dominant strike of SH around the well is 27◦ and Sh strike is 117◦. These have two dominant orientation, some faults are along the strike of the Zagros fold-thrust belt (NW-SE) and the others are perpendicular to the Zagros fold-thrust belt strike (NE-SW).

Based on the normalized 3D Mohr diagrams it is clear that the fractures and faults that are oriented to the SH will be the most permeable, because the faults and fractures experience the least amount of stresses in the direction of SH and they have minimum resistance to flow in this direction, therefore will have relatively high permeability. Also, results showed the faults number 15, 6, 10 and 2 will be the most dangerous faults during CO2 injection.


Keywords
CO2 injection
pore pressure estimation
in-situ stress characterization
fractures and faults reactivation
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