The term "Enhanced Gas Recovery" (EGR) characterizes methods to extend

natural gas production from nearly depleted gas fields. Similar to crude oil
production, the production of natural gas is divided into several stages. In
the beginning phase of production, hydrocarbons flow to the production wells
without technical aid and ascend to the surface of the well due to high
reservoir pressures.

Introduction

Meanwhile, conventional gas reserves continue to decline rapidly as demand

soars. In the cases where reservoir pressure depletes naturally with gas
production, recovery efficiency tends to be high, production, recovery
efficiency tends to be high, often approaching 90 percent. Where there is
water encroachment, recovery may be as low as 10 percent of the original
gas in place. The remaining reserves would be unrecoverable unless external
aid is provided to reduce the water influx and induce pressure provided to
reduce the water influx and induce pressure depletion.

In the past, the natural gas price did not encourage wide application of
external aid to produce these known reserves. With the increasing price and
value of gas, recovery of such reserves should be given more attention than
it currently receives.

Since huge investments may be required to enhance the recovery of these

reserves, detailed studies requiring sophisticated evaluation approaches and
computer applications are often required. The field engineer who is closest to
the data and information on the reservoirs probably has the responsibility of
initiating such studies. Unfortunately, his time is limited and routine
operations may prevent him from acquiring and applying the necessary
tools.

The aims of this work, then, are (1) to provide some information to the field
engineer regarding the magnitude of gas reserves he may be leaving in his
water drive reservoir, (2) to review the possible methods he can apply to
improve his gas recovery, (3) to show procedures for initial reservoir
evaluation which may be used as a basis for detailed studies, and (4) to
discuss the economic analysis method necessary to justify the project.

Enhanced gas recovery is used to describe the recovery of unconventional,

deep, or otherwise difficult-to-recover natural gas. Unconventional natural
gas is the gas contained in geologic formations which have not been
exploited traditionally by the oil and gas industry and include tight gas
sands, Devonian shales, formations with active aquifers, coal bed methane,
etc.. A number of these geologic formations are known to contain sizable
quantities of natural gas. However, these resources are not being fully
developed because of economic and technological limitations.

Canada's current natural gas supply is primarily from conventional resources.

However, as this production declines over time, the nation will become
increasingly dependent on higher cost resources as well as unconventional
gas supply. Increased demand for natural gas as an environmentally friendly
resource will also lead to the development of unconventional resources. In
the past, the price of natural gas did not encourage production from these
resources. With the anticipated increase in price and value of gas, recovery
of such reserves is getting more attention.

With appropriate research and development, exploitation of these resources

can begin in the near term with expanded commercial production in the long
term. Unconventional gas is currently produced from the higher quality tight
gas sands, Devonian shales and watered-out reservoirs in the United States.
However, gas recovery technology is inefficient and inadequate for unlocking
the vast bulk of the more difficult, lower grade resource. The technical
challenges vary by type of unconventional resource and each type requires
improvements in the knowledge base, the controlling characteristics as well
as advances in well completions and stimulation technology. The size of the
gas potential from unconventional sources, to a large extent, is dependent
on how rapidly the technologies develop.

1. Introduction

CO2 emissions from fossil fuel had strong impacts on the environment, and
its amount in the atmosphere was far beyond to be ignored [19]. Currently
there is a rising global attention to reduce carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions
from fossil fuels burning. Conversely, there is a rising interest in petroleum
companies to use CO2 as an approach for enhanced oil or/and gas (EOR &
EGR) relatively to deal with the rapid growth in world energy demands [2].
These two concepts together are promising through the application of
CO2injection for enhanced hydrocarbon recovery and sequestration. The use
of CO2 in enhanced oil recovery had proven to be a technical and economic
success for more than 40 years, but the same had not been applied for
enhanced gas recovery and storage [18]. Although, the idea for EGR had
been around for more than 10 years, meanwhile, it had not been well
recognized yet and also it has not been put into practice
economically [9] and [5].

To obtain additional comprehension about these two approaches, current

literature reviews had been studied, typically about these two approaches for
two similar processes such as storage and enhanced recovery. As a result,
there were some features of natural gas reservoirs well understood as oil
reservoirs[4]. In terms of geological carbon sequestration, natural gas
reservoirs are considered to be more preferable than oil reservoirs (source).
For instance, for both natural gas and oil reservoirs two points of view could
be demonstrated, natural gas reservoirs were considerably able to store
more quantities of CO2than depleted oil reservoirs with the consideration of
both reservoirs with the same volume of hydrocarbon initially in place. First
of all, ultimate gas recovery (about 65% of initial gas in place) was almost
about two times that of oil (average 35% of initial oil in place). Second, gas
was some 30 times more compressible than oil or water [12]. Thus, natural
gas reservoirs came into view to be nearly more utilizable for this concept.
However, displacement of natural gas by supercritical CO 2 had not been
properly investigated

With their proven records of gas recovery, demonstrated integrity against

gas leakage, existing infrastructure of wells and pipelines, and land use
history of gas production and transportation, depleted natural gas fields are
attractive targets for carbon sequestration by direct carbon dioxide (CO2)
injection. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that as much as
140 GtC could be sequestered in depleted natural gas reservoirs worldwide
(IEA, 1997) and 10 to 25 GtC in the U.S. alone (Reichle et al., 1999). Although
target gas reservoirs for carbon sequestration are depleted in methane (CH4)
with pressures as low as 2050 bars, they are not devoid of methane. Prior
studies have suggested that additional methane can be recovered from
depleted natural gas reservoirs by CO2 injection (van der Burgt et al., 1992;
Blok et al., 1997; Oldenburg et al., 2001). The idea is to inject CO2 at some
distance from producing wells and take advantage of the repressurization of
the reservoir to produce additional CH4. The augmented methane production
can be used to offset the cost of CO2 injection. We have termed this process
CSEGR, or Carbon Sequestration with Enhanced Gas Recovery. Although
simulations of CO2 injection into depleted natural gas reservoirs have been
carried out (e.g., van der Burgt et al., 1992; Oldenburg et al., 2001), field
testing of CSEGR 2 has not yet been done to validate results of these
simulations. This is an important next step in the development of this
concept. Moreover, some critical issues for the success of the process are
best studied in the field, including injectivity of liquid-like CO2 at pipeline
pressures (~150 bars), cooling due to phase change and Joule-Thomson
effects as injected CO2 flashes and expands into the relatively low-pressure
depleted gas reservoir. A well designed field test can address these issues in
addition to those already studied by numerical simulations such as flow
bypassing and early breakthrough of CO2 to production wells, and mixing of
CO2 with CH4 that reduces the quality of produced gas. In order to address
the critical issues and thereby further evaluate the feasibility of CSEGR, we
propose a pilot study that consists initially of a Phase I field test of CO2
injection into a natural gas reservoir. Subsequent phases of the pilot study
may involve varying injection and production schedules and the use of
multiple injection and production wells to optimize CSEGR. The purpose of
this paper is to outline the objectives of the Phase I field test of CSEGR,
discuss the expected processes, discuss the test approach including
monitoring strategies, and present some criteria for site selection.

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