Origins of pressure dependent permeability in unconventional hydrocarbon reservoirs.

ABSTRACT: Unconventional hydrocarbon assets represent a rapidly expanding proportion of North American oil and gas production. Similar to the incipient phase of conventional oil production at the turn of the twentieth century, there are ample opportunities to improve production efficiency. In this work we demonstrate that pressure dependent permeability degradation exhibited by unconventional reservoir materials is due to the mechanical response of a few commonly encountered microstructural constituents. In particular, the mechanical response of unconventional reservoir materials may be conceptualized as the superposed deformation of matrix (or ~ cylindrical/spherical), and compliant (or slit) pores. The former are representative of pores in a granular medium or a cemented sandstone, while the latte

SUBMITTER: Valenza JJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10154339 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature