The Development and Prospect of Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Drilling

Wang, H.; Shen, Zhonghou; Li, G.

doi:10.1080/10916466.2010.516301

Cited by 18 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Moreover, the low viscosity of SC-CO 2 , compared to conventional drilling fluids, help in lowering the frictional head loss. 80 SC-CO 2 drilling, because of its above-mentioned special physical properties, can achieve higher rates of penetration and lower threshold pressure, thus enabling it to have incomparable technical advantages over other drillings techniques. 74 Typical SC-CO 2 -based drilling process involves storage of liquid CO 2 in a high-pressure tank.…”

Section: Sc-co 2 -Based Drillingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Supercritical CO₂ on Shale Reservoirs and Its Implication for CO₂ Sequestration

et al. 2022

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Hydraulic fracturing has transformed the international energy landscape by becoming the go-to method for the exploitation of natural gas from unconventional shale reservoirs. However, in the recent years, the search for an alternative method of shale-gas exploration has intensified, because of various problems (e.g., contamination of ground and surface water, overexploitation of precious water resources, air pollution, etc.) associated with the usage of water-based fracturing techniques. The use of CO2 for shale gas exploitation has emerged as a better alternative to aqueous-based gas exploration techniques. CO2 when injected into deep shale reservoirs, transitions into supercritical CO2 (SC-CO2) when temperature and pressure condition exceeds the critical point, i.e., 31.1 °C and 7.38 MPa. In this paper, we comprehensively review the impact of SC-CO2 on shale gas reservoirs during the different stages of shale-gas exploration, i.e., (i) drilling, which involves the superiority of SC-CO2 over water-based drilling fluids, in terms of achieving under-balanced well condition, higher rates of penetration, and resistance to formation damage; (ii) fracturing, which involves factors affecting the tortuosity of fractures created by SC-CO2 fracturing, breakdown pressure, and proppant-carrying capacity; and (iii) injection, which involves the twin-headed benefit of enhanced recovery due to CO2/CH4 competitive adsorption and geological sequestration, CO2 vs CH4 excess sorption as a function of pressure, etc. Several research works have indicated discrepancies on how SC-CO2 impacts different shale properties. Some studies show low-pressure N2-gas-adsorption-derived surface area and total pore volume to be increasing with SC-CO2 imbibition, while others show a decreasing trend for the same. Similarly, for some shales, the quartz content, along with the clay mineral contents, decreased as the exposure to SC-CO2 increased, while in some other studies, with similar long-term exposure to SC-CO2, the quartz content was observed to increase along with the decrease in clay content and vice versa. Essentially, the increased exposure to SC-CO2 results in the dissolution of primary porous structures and fractures, and reformation of newer porous structure and conduits in shales. Nonetheless, these changes in the mineralogy weaken the microstructure of the rock bringing significant changes in the mechanical properties of the shales with implications on the wellbore stability and fracturing efficiency. The mechanical properties such as uniaxial compressive strength (UCS), Young’s modulus, and tensile strength decrease as the SC-CO2 saturation period increases. However, some studies have shown factors like bedding angle and phase-state of CO2 having varying effect on the strength behavior of the shales. Moreover, changes in the structure of shales caused by the creation of fractures and the reduction of their strength can also pose major risks, because of potential leakage of CO2 through these created pathways. How these processes would i...

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Section: Sc-co 2 -Based Drillingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Supercritical CO₂ on Shale Reservoirs and Its Implication for CO₂ Sequestration

et al. 2022

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“…Compared with conventional drilling fluid, developing unconventional oil and gas resources under the condition of supercritical carbon dioxide drilling has many advantages when working with rocks that can be broken easily and swollen with difficultly . Recently, the feasibility of drilling a vertical well with supercritical carbon dioxide has been confirmed .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…C ompared with conventional drilling fluid, developing unconventional oil and gas resources under the condition of supercritical carbon dioxide drilling 1,2 has many advantages when working with rocks that can be broken easily and swollen with difficultly. 3,4 Recently, the feasibility of drilling a vertical well with supercritical carbon dioxide has been confirmed. [5][6][7] In order to achieve greater benefits and further enhance oil recovery, applying the technology of a horizontal well with supercritical carbon drilling is inevitable, so the extension limit of a horizontal well with supercritical carbon drilling should be researched urgently, which can insure drilling security.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Study on the extension limit model of a horizontal well with supercritical carbon dioxide drilling

Li³

2019

Greenhouse Gases

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Rational prediction of the extension limit of a horizontal well under the condition of supercritical carbon dioxide drilling can ensure drilling security for developing unconventional oil and gas resources. Based on the physical property of supercritical carbon dioxide and the mechanics theory on the rock surrounding the wellbore, the extension limit model of a horizontal well under the condition of supercritical carbon dioxide drilling has been established, which can analyze the flow distribution in the horizontal well and the influence of the azimuth angle, the bedding dip angle, drilling parameters, and so on. The result shows that when the supercritical carbon dioxide is flowing in the borehole, the pressure at the horizontal section at 3320 m is 2.21 MPa lower than the pore pressure, which is in the safe pressure range of underbalanced drilling (∼0–3 MPa), and the wellbore is stable. The extension limit changes periodically as the azimuth angle increases. Under actual working conditions, reducing the inlet mass flow rate or wellhead back pressure within a safe range helps to increase the extension limit. The maximum extension limit of a horizontal well with supercritical carbon dioxide drilling is 8081 m in the paper, which is longer than that of clear water drilling under the same condition due to low pressure loss. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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“…Through this method, underbalanced drilling can be easily realized in a downhole region because of the low density of gas media. In drilling treatment, water-based drilling fluid can cause the clay swelling and water blocking [2,3]. However, the issues of formation damage can be solved perfectly when drilling with gas [4,5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical simulation on downhole flow and temperature fields during drilling with nitrogen jet

et al. 2019

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In petroleum engineering, nitrogen drilling is an important technology for building wellbores between surfaces and reservoirs. To uncover the downhole flow field and the change rules of rock temperature during drilling with nitrogen jet, we constructed a CFD model by coupling the property equations of nitrogen. The flow fields of nitrogen jet and rock temperature distribution at different times were simulated. Results showed that the high speed nitrogen jet can be efficiently generated because of the nozzle acceleration and the impingement effect can be induced during drilling. The temperature of the nitrogen jet decreased due to the Joule-Thomson effect. This phenomenon suggested that the nitrogen jet induced additional thermal cracks on the bottomhole rock, which was very beneficial for the improvement of rock-breaking efficiency.

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The Development and Prospect of Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Drilling

Cited by 18 publications

References 3 publications

Impact of Supercritical CO₂ on Shale Reservoirs and Its Implication for CO₂ Sequestration

Impact of Supercritical CO₂ on Shale Reservoirs and Its Implication for CO₂ Sequestration

Study on the extension limit model of a horizontal well with supercritical carbon dioxide drilling

Numerical simulation on downhole flow and temperature fields during drilling with nitrogen jet

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The Development and Prospect of Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Drilling

Cited by 18 publications

References 3 publications

Impact of Supercritical CO2 on Shale Reservoirs and Its Implication for CO2 Sequestration

Impact of Supercritical CO2 on Shale Reservoirs and Its Implication for CO2 Sequestration

Study on the extension limit model of a horizontal well with supercritical carbon dioxide drilling

Numerical simulation on downhole flow and temperature fields during drilling with nitrogen jet

Contact Info

Product

Resources

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Impact of Supercritical CO₂ on Shale Reservoirs and Its Implication for CO₂ Sequestration

Impact of Supercritical CO₂ on Shale Reservoirs and Its Implication for CO₂ Sequestration