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Congrui Jin · Gianluca Cusatis Editors New Frontiers in Oil and Gas Exploration New Frontiers in Oil and Gas Exploration Congrui Jin (cid:129) Gianluca Cusatis Editors New Frontiers in Oil and Gas Exploration Editors CongruiJin GianlucaCusatis DepartmentofMechanicalEngineering DepartmentofCivilandEnvironmental BinghamtonUniversity Engineering StateUniversityofNewYork NorthwesternUniversity Binghamton,NY,USA Evanston,IL,USA ISBN978-3-319-40122-5 ISBN978-3-319-40124-9 (eBook) DOI10.1007/978-3-319-40124-9 LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2016949461 ©SpringerInternationalPublishingSwitzerland2016 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeorpartof the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilarmethodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publicationdoesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesareexempt fromtherelevantprotectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse. Thepublisher,theauthorsandtheeditorsaresafetoassumethattheadviceandinformationinthis book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained hereinorforanyerrorsoromissionsthatmayhavebeenmade. Printedonacid-freepaper ThisSpringerimprintispublishedbySpringerNature TheregisteredcompanyisSpringerInternationalPublishingAGSwitzerland Preface TheUnitedStateshasseenaresurgenceinpetroleumproduction,especiallywhen newdiscoveriesofunconventionaloilandgassourceshavedramaticallyreshaped both the energy outlook and the future of chemicals production in this country. Theyhavethepotentialtopositivelyinfluenceouroveralltradebalanceandfuture economicgrowthrate for decades tocome. Gas shale production sites throughout the United States are replacing coal power plant operations with environmental benefitsassociatedwithlowerlevelsoflife-cyclecarbondioxideemissions.How- ever, production ofgas fromlow permeability shale involves hydraulic fracturing of shale into a sufficiently dense system of cracks, and thus establishing fracture/ joint connectivity to facilitate fluid and gas flow. Unfortunately, these procedures arenotwithoutadverseenvironmentalconsequences,suchaspotentialcontamina- tionoffreshwaterresources,seismicactivitiesresultingfromthestimulationofthe rockformation(inducedseismicity),andthedisposalofflow-backandproduction water(triggeredseismicity).Itisclearthatmitigationoftheenvironmentalimpact of unconventional resource development needs to be pursued by a variety of technological innovations aiming at optimizing hydraulic fracturing protocols to increase recovery efficiency above the current level and to reduce water usage, which, however, requires the fundamental understanding of the failure and flow phenomena occurring in the heterogeneous shale formations, deeply buried under theearthsurface,whichcannotbeinvestigatedeasilythroughexperimentalorfield observations.Thisbookwillhighlighthowthisnewdomesticenergysourcemaybe utilizedandmanagedandtheprojectionforthelong-lastingeconomicimpactifthe United States is to take full advantage of this new unique opportunity. With the technologies simply changing too fast, this book will provide the latest research works and findings in this field, with a focus on key practical issues, such as computationalcharacterizationofshaleatmultiplelengthscales,mechanicalinter- actions of proppant and hydraulic fractures, and production analysis of a multi-fractured horizontal well, etc. This book will bring unique perspectives of knowledge and experience in dealing with many of the issues about oil and gas exploration. It contains both cutting-edge original research and comprehensive v vi Preface reviews addressing both theory and practice. This book focuses on key practical issues, and it is a practical reference for geoscientists and engineers in the petroleum and geothermal industries, and for research scientists interested in reservoir modeling and their application to the improvement of current design of hydraulic fractures. Binghamton,NY,USA CongruiJin Evanston,IL,USA GianlucaCusatis Contents 1 UnderstandingAsphalteneAggregationandPrecipitation ThroughTheoreticalandComputationalStudies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 CuiyingJianandTianTang 2 AdvancementinNumericalSimulationsofGasHydrate DissociationinPorousMedia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 ZhenLiuandXiongYu 3 DiscreteElementModelingoftheRoleofInSitu StressontheInteractionsBetweenHydraulic andNaturalFractures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 RiccardoRorato,Fre´de´ric-VictorDonze´,AlexandraTsopela, HamidPourpak,andAtefOnaisi 4 RockPhysicsModelinginConventionalReservoirs. . . . . . . . . . . . 137 DarioGrana 5 GeomechanicsandElasticAnisotropyofShaleFormations. . . . . . 165 MehdiOstadhassan 6 Nano-ScaleCharacterizationofOrganic-RichShale viaIndentationMethods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 Ange-ThereseAkono 7 OntheProductionAnalysisofaMulti-Fractured HorizontalWell. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 ErfanSarvaraminiandDmitryI.Garagash 8 InterfacialEngineeringforOilandGasApplications: RoleofModelingandSimulation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257 KshitijC.Jha,VikramSingh,andMesfinTsige vii viii Contents 9 PetroleumGeomechanics:AComputationalPerspective. . . . . . . . 285 MauriceB.Dusseault,RobertGracie,DipanjanBasu, LeoRothenburg,andShundeYin 10 InsightsontheREVofSourceShalefrom Nano-andMicromechanics. . .. . . .. . . . .. . . .. . . . .. . . .. . . . .. 335 KatherineL.HullandYounaneN.Abousleiman 11 ExperimentalandNumericalInvestigationofMechanical InteractionsofProppantandHydraulicFractures. . . . . . . . . . . . . 367 CongruiJin 12 IntegratedExperimentalandComputational CharacterizationofShaleatMultipleLengthScales. . . . . . . . . . . 389 WeixinLi,CongruiJin,andGianlucaCusatis 13 RecentAdvancesinGlobalFractureMechanicsofGrowth ofLargeHydraulicCrackSystemsinGasorOilShale: AReview. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . .. . . 435 ZdeneˇkP.BažantandVietT.Chau 14 FundamentalsoftheHydromechanicalBehavior ofMultiphaseGranularMaterials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461 FrancescaCasini 15 BeyondHydrocarbonExtraction:Enhanced GeothermalSystems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487 MasamiNakagawa,KamranJahanBakhsh, andMahmoodArshad 16 SomeEconomicIssuesintheExplorationforOilandGas. . . . . . . 507 CharlesF.Mason Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519 Chapter 1 Understanding Asphaltene Aggregation and Precipitation Through Theoretical and Computational Studies CuiyingJianandTianTang Abstract Asphaltenesareknowntocauseseriousproblemsduringtheprocessing of petroleum compounds due to their aggregation and precipitation behaviors. Despite the significant amount of experimental works that have been performed, largedebatesstillexistinliterature.Parallelwithexperimentalwork,greatefforts have been spent from theoretical and computational perspectives to predict asphaltene behaviors under given conditions, to provide atomic/molecular information on their aggregation as well as precipitation, and to further shed lights on existingdebates.Thischapterpresentsadetailedreviewofprevioustheoreticaland computational works on asphaltene aggregation and precipitation. Theoretical models developed, systems simulated, and the key findings are summarized; and discrepanciesamongthoseworksarehighlighted. Abbreviations CCC Criticalclusterconcentration CMC Criticalmicelleconcentration CNAC Criticalnanoaggregationconcentration CPA-EoS Cubic-Plus-AssociationEoS EoS Equationofstate L2MS Laserdesorptionlaserionizationmassspectrometry MD Moleculardynamics MM Molecularmechanics MW Molecularweight NMR Nuclearmagneticresonance PA Polyaromatic C.Jian•T.Tang(*) DepartmentofMechanicalEngineering,UniversityofAlberta,Edmonton, AB,Canada,T6G2G8 e-mail:[email protected] ©SpringerInternationalPublishingSwitzerland2016 1 C.Jin,G.Cusatis(eds.),NewFrontiersinOilandGasExploration, DOI10.1007/978-3-319-40124-9_1 2 C.JianandT.Tang PC-SAFT Perturbed-chainSAFT-EoS EoS PME Potentialofmeanforce PR-EoS Peng-RobinsonEoS QM Quantummechanics RICO Ruthenium-ion-catalyzedoxidation SAFTEoS StatisticalAssociatingFluidTheoryEoS SAFT-VR SAFT-EoSforpotentialsofvariablerange EoS SARA Saturatearomatic,resin,andasphaltenesc-CO supercriticalcarbon 2 dioxide XANES X-rayabsorptionnear-edgestructure XPS X-rayphotoelectronspectroscopy 1.1 Introduction Petroleumresourcesareofgreatimportancetodailylifeandeconomyalloverthe world [1]. To optimize petroleum processing and utilization, it’s thus of great interest to understand the behaviors of petroleum components [2–4]. Crude oil can be categorized into saturate, aromatic, resin, and asphaltene (SARA) fraction groups [5, 6]. Asphaltenes, as the heaviest and most aromatic component, are operationallydefinedasasolubilityclassthatareinsolubleinn-alkanesbutsoluble inaromaticsolvents[7–9].Theyareknowntobethe“cholesterol”ofpetroleumdue to their deleterious effects on oil processing, from extraction to refinery [10]. For instance,asphaltenesclogrockporesandproductionfacilities,formdepositduring transportationandstorage,anddeactivatecatalysts,thusgeneratingalargecostin petroleum industry [11–15]. Most of these serious problems can be traced to asphalteneaggregationandprecipitation[16–18].Thereforeaconsiderableamount of effort, based on experimental or theoretical approaches, has been dedicated to investigateasphalteneaggregationandprecipitationdynamicsaswellastheasso- ciated mechanisms and resultant structures. Recently, with the development of computational techniques, asphaltene investigations from simulation aspect have beenemergingquickly. Many detailed reviews exist for experimental studies, such as the works of Speight et al. [19], Strausz et al. [20, 21], and Mullins et al. [22]. However, there isalackofreview ontheoreticalandcomputational studiesofasphaltenes.These studies are very useful in that they provide fundamental explanations to asphaltenes’ behaviors observed in experiments. Therefore, this chapter aims at reviewingtheoreticalandcomputationalworksperformedonasphaltenes.Asthese studies have been motivated by experimental observations, a brief summary on experimental studies is first given. This is followed by a detailed review on theoretical and computational works performed on asphaltene aggregation and precipitation.Finally,summariesandfutureperspectivesareprovided.