Numerical Simulation of Gas Production and Geomechanical Response of Heterogeneous Gas Hydrate Reservoirs
摘要
Gas hydrate extraction involves not only gas production but also mechanical response. To address this issue, multi-field coupling simulation is introduced to predict the gas production of hydrate-bearing sediment with considering the mechanical response. This paper uses TOUGH+Hydrate software coupling a self-established mechanical model to simulate the gas production and deformation of the non-uniformly distributed hydrate-bearing sediment. This coupling model was performed on the summarized five types of hydrate distribution reservoirs based on the actual well logging data. The results revealed that the 3-year cumulative gas production was the largest at the middle well location. The gas production of types B and C was mainly affected in the early stage of exploitation, which is attributed to the different gas hydrate saturation distribution near the wellbore. The evolution of seabed settlement depends on the effective stress of the formation, and the 3-year seabed settlement of the middle well location was significantly smaller than that of the upper and lower well locations. In addition, the permeability of the overburden layer only affected the seabed settlement, whereas the permeability of the gas hydrate layer affected both the seabed settlement and gas production. The permeability of the gas hydrate layer can greatly change the range of hydrate decomposition, and thus, the pressure field of the entire formation varied. In conclusion, this research helps to understand the gas production and mechanical response of non-uniformly distributed hydrate-bearing sediment under different well locations and layer permeabilities, which can provide a basis for the design of hydrate exploitation schemes.