(92c) Production Strategy for Marine Hydrates Reservoirs

Natural gas hydrate reservoirs have been found in large quantities in marine and arctic sediments. This research focuses on finding the optimum production strategy of natural gas production from marine reservoirs using horizontal wells. A 3-dimensional, compositional, thermal simulator has been developed in the past, which can simulate hydrate formation and dissociation in porous medium.  Three components (hydrate, methane and water) and four phases (hydrate, gas, aqueous-phase and ice) are considered in the simulator. A combination of depressurization and warm water flooding of these reservoirs is studied to find the production strategy. The production strategy is dependent on the injection water temperature, injection water pressure, production well pressure, reservoir confinement, initial hydrate saturation, size of aquifer attached to hydrate reservoirs, dip of the reservoir, orientation and positions of the wells.