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Comprehensive Evaluation Of Co₂ Eor Numerical Modeling In The Clinton Sandstone Of The Appalachian Tri-State Region Using Compositional Reservoir Simulation (Cmg Gem), Bushra Aref Alqattan

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

ABSTRACT

The Clinton Sandstone of the Appalachian Basin represents a mature hydrocarbon-producing formation with potential for carbon dioxide (CO₂) enhanced oil recovery (EOR). This study develops a compositional reservoir simulation model using the CMG software suite (WinProp, Builder, and GEM) to evaluate the performance of CO₂ injection in improving oil recovery within the Clinton formation.

A three-dimensional reservoir model was constructed using representative geological and petrophysical properties consistent with those of the Clinton Sandstone. Fluid behavior was modeled using a compositional equation-of-state (EOS) approach to accurately capture phase behavior, miscibility development, and CO₂–oil interactions under reservoir conditions. Injection scenarios were …

Application Of High-Resolution Fiber Optic Data To Enhance Completion Design, Christian J. Pacheco

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

MS Dissertation Defense

By

Christian Pacheco

Title: Application of High-Resolution Fiber Optic Data to Enhance Completion Design Major: Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering Date: Thursday, April 18, 2024 Time: 4:00 PM Place: 141 Engineering Science Building

Abstract

Well stimulation is a technique that has been used in the industry for decades, and with the ability to drill wells horizontally the practice has become more valuable and effective than ever before. Its use is consistently being optimized and completions design plays a crucial role in the recovery of hydrocarbons. Several different downhole tools and measurements have been used to optimize these …

The Impact Of Fracture Properties On Adsorbed Gas Production From A Marcellus Shale Horizontal Well, Valcia Mildreth Vasco Bulule

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Abstract

In addition to the gas present in the pores of the rock, shale also contains gas in the adsorbed state within the surface of the organic matter within the formation. As the free gas is produced, the pressure in the reservoir depletes, causing the adsorbed gas to be released, complementing the gas production. At the same time, the pressure reduction leads to increase in the effective stress causing shale compaction. The shale compaction negatively impacts the permeability and hydraulic fracture conductivity. This study aimed to investigate the impact of hydraulic fracture characteristics on the adsorbed gas recovery and, ultimately, …

Reservoir Characteristics And Lateral Variability Of The Marcellus Formation At The Allegheny Mountain Front, Bruno J. Abersold

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The Marcellus Formation, a large shale gas reservoir located within in the Appalachian basin, produces the energy that fuels the economy across the United States. Well data and rock core for the Coastal 1H well, found in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, provides the basis to understand reservoir characteristics and depositional processes of the Marcellus Formation across the basin. The well is located near along the eastern edge of the productive fairway and adjacent to the Allegheny mountain front. We used characteristics, such as total organic carbon (TOC), geomechanical properties, and lithology, to integrate with ten other available wells across the basin. …

Cities And Citizens Seethe: A Case Study Of Local Efforts To Influence Natural Gas Pipeline Routing Decisions, Heidi Gorovitz Robertson

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Home Rule And The Environment: Exploring How Municipalities Address Environmental Policy Gaps Including Farmland Solar Policy And Pipeline Routing, Heidi Robertson, Sarah Fox, Genevieve Byrne

West Virginia Law Review Events

No abstract provided.

X-Ray Fluorescence Applications In Mudrock Characterization: Investigations Into Middle Devonian Stratigraphy, Appalachian Basin, Usa, Keithan Garrett Martin

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Mudrocks are characterized by nanometer-scale pore sizes and nano-darcy permeability, which plays a significant role in hydrocarbon flow during production. Resulting from these characteristics, mudrocks were exclusively considered a source rock, which charged overlying, more porous mediums. Hydraulic fracturing, a technology used to create artificial fractures to liberate hydrocarbons from the reservoir, enabled natural gas to be produced from mudrock reservoirs economically. Over the last fifteen years, this technology motivated research efforts to understand reservoir characteristics of mudrock. These investigations significantly improved our knowledge of mudrock systems, but have also highlighted key areas that are undeveloped and/or where conflicting hypotheses …

A Low-Cost Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (Ndvi) Payload For Cubesats And Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (Uavs), Steven Hard

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The focus of this research has been the design and fabrication of a Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) payload configuration. This unique payload employs low-cost commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware and equipment to assess photosynthetic activity and vegetation health through remote sensing on Cubesat or Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) platforms. The proposed NDVI imaging payload is comprised of three main subsystems: an electrical system, a software system, and a hardware system. The electrical system includes a custom designed printed circuit board (PCB), a single cell 3.7 V lithium-polymer battery, voltage regulator circuitry components, and wiring harnesses and connectors. The software system …

A Geologic Study To Determine The Potential To Create An Appalachian Storage Hub For Natural Gas Liquids, Kristin M. Carter, Douglas G. Patchen, Jessica P. Moore, Mohammad Fakhari, Gary W. Daft Jr, Michael Solis, Brian J. Dunst, Robin V. Anthony, Katherine W. Schmid, Kyle Metz, Philip Dinterman, Julie M. Bloxson, Erica N. Schubert, John Saucer

Appalachian Oil and Natural Gas Research Consortium

The Marcellus and Utica shale plays continue to lead the way in an ever-expanding shale revolution with average daily production, growing from about 3 billion cubic feet (BCF) in 2010 to more than 24 BCF today. Forecasts suggest that this could grow to as much as 40 BCF in the next 5 years. Fortunately, sweet spots in the Utica in eastern Ohio and in the Marcellus in northern West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania are areas of wet gas production, downdip from oil production and updip from dry gas. Production in these regions represents about 40 percent of the total from …

Multi-Tests For Pore Structure Characterization-A Case Study Using Lamprophyre, Zhen Li, Guorui Feng, Yi Luo, Shengyong Hu, Tingye Qi, Haina Jiang, Jun Guo, Jinwen Bai, Xianjie Du, Lixun Kang

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The pore structure plays an important role to understand methane adsorption, storage and flow behavior of geological materials. In this paper, the multi-tests including N2 adsorption, mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) and CT reconstruction have been proposed on Tashan lamprophyre samples. The main findings are listed: (1) The pore size distribution has a broad range ranging from 2-100000nm, among which the adsorption pores (<100nm) occupies the mainly specific surface areas and pore volume while the seepage pores (>100nm) only account for 34% of total pore volume. (2) The lamprophyre open pores are mainly slit-like/plate-like and ink-bottle-shaped pores on a two-dimensional level. The lamprophyre 3D pore structure shows more stochastic and anisotropic extension on the …

Developing A Grid-Based Surrogate Reservoir Model Using Artificial Intelligence, Shohreh Amini

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Reservoir simulation models are the major tools for studying fluid flow behavior in hydrocarbon reservoirs. They are now being used extensively in performing any kind of studies related to fluid production/injection in hydrocarbon bearing formations. Reservoir simulation models are constructed based on geological models, which are developed by integrating data from geology, geophysics, and petro-physics. This data comes from observation, measurements, and interpretations.;Integration of maximum data from geology, geophysics, and petro-physics, contributes to building geologically complex and more realistic models. As the complexity of a reservoir simulation model increases, so does the computation time. Therefore, to perform any comprehensive study …

Surrogate Reservoir Model For Generating Pressure, Saturation And Compositional Characteristics At The Grid-Block Level; Sacroc Field, Scurry County, Texas, David Moreno

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Nowadays, due to advancements in data acquisition technologies in oil and gas industry more data are available for generating reservoir simulation models. This leads to high fidelity reservoir simulation models which are highly complex and computationally expensive. The conventional reservoir management studies require hundreds realizations of the simulation models. As S. Gencer (2007) described, the reservoir simulation trend is towards "more: more users, more models, more cells, more wells, more cases, more data and more integration" [1]. In order to enhance the reservoir model descriptions, more computational power would have to be designed and engineered to keep up with our …

Systematical Analysis Of The Impacts Of Different Operations Conditions And Geological Formation Characteristics On Area Of Review (Aor), Post Injection Site Care (Pisc) And Risk Associated With Anthropogenic Co 2 Sequestration In Citronelle Dome, Alabama, Danilo Arcentales

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) has been one of the biggest problem concerning the climate change during these years. The concentration of these gases has increased by a disproportionate amount over the last decade due to human activities such as, deforestation, agricultural practices and burning fuel, oil and coal while natural sources are extracted and processed. Being the main cause of global warming, a variety of technology is being applied in order to diminish GHC emissions. There are two ways to achieve this goal: burning less carbon-containing fuel or by storing CO2 resulting from burning carbon-rich fuels. Potential storage …

Reservoirs Modeling Of Gas Hydrate Deposits In North Slope Of Alaska And Gulf Of Mexico, Manohar Gaddipati

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In order to address the world's growing energy demand, the necessity to explore more and more unconventional sources of energy arises. Recently there has been increased interest in the potential of natural gas hydrates as an alternate energy resource. Methane hydrates are crystalline solids, very similar to ice, in which non-polar molecules are trapped inside the cages formed by water molecules. Methane hydrates could be potentially a vast source of energy. The production of natural gas from hydrates economically poses a big challenge to today's scientific world. Two sites for greatest potential for gas production from gas hydrates as identified …

On The Optimization Of Co2-Eor Process Using Surrogate Reservoir Model, Vida Gholami

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

CO2-EOR projects are becoming increasingly popular. Since enhanced recovery processes are applied to the mature fields, it usually involves a large number of wells. While the large number of wells leads to a better geological model, it results in very large flow models that are hard to manage, history match, and use as an optimization base. Nevertheless, injection-production optimization remains the core of all modeling efforts in CO2-EOR projects.;The objective of this work is to investigate the feasibility of using state-of-the-art data-driven proxy models to facilitate injection-production optimization in a CO2-EOR process. The use of coupled grid-based---SRM G and well-based---SRMW …

Wellbore Stability In Ultra-Deep Formations Of The Gulf Of Mexico, Gbenga Kayode

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This thesis work looks into Horizontal wellbore integrity or stability in the Mars Ursa Basin of the Gulf of Mexico using different geo-mechanical properties of this highly producing formation in analyzing stress build up both around the producing wells as well as the producing formations. Different cases were analyzed using the CMG simulator where consideration was given to cases of single as well as multiple producing horizontal wells. The model built considered both the basic reservoir model as well as geo-mechanical models. The individual cases considered included different geomechanical properties of the producing formation these properties however include frictional angle, …

Comprehensive Analysis Of An Ongoing Co2 Storage Project, Daniel Moreno

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Increase in CO2 emission has become an important issue over the years due to its environmental impacts as a greenhouse gas. The fact that these emissions are primarily derived from energy consumption and that 85% of the primary power is supplied by fossil fuels (Orr, 2004), makes the reduction of CO2 emissions a major challenge. CO2 sequestration in the geological formations has been identified as an alternative to counter the impact of the emissions. CO2 sequestration refers to the capture and long term storage of CO2.;In order to properly asses the viability of CO2 sequestration in a geological formation as …

Mesozoic Tectonic History And Geochronology Of The Kular Dome, Russia And Bendeleben Mountains, Seward Peninsula, Alaska, Daniel B. Harris

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The tectonic history responsible for formation of the major basins of the Arctic and movement of landmasses surrounding these basins remains unclear despite multidisciplinary efforts. Most studies focus on one of four potential movement pathways of the Arctic Alaska-Chukotka microplate during the Mesozoic and the relationship between this movement and formation of the Amerasian Basin. Due to difficulty in access and harsh climate of the Arctic Ocean, most geological studies focus on landmasses surrounding the Amerasian Basin. For this reason, we have conducted research in the Kular Dome of northern Russia and the Bendeleben Mountain Range of the Seward Peninsula, …

Interpretation Of Well Test Data From Two Hydraulically Communicating Reservoirs, Bander Ibrahim Al Quaimi

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Naturally fractured reservoirs (NFR) have been receiving more attention than ever since the beginning of the last decade due to various reasons. The current understanding is not sufficient to achieve a favorable recovery factor due to the complexity associated with the fracture characterization and the dynamic behavior of the fractured system. The majority of the fractured reservoirs are developed. Therefore, before proceeding into secondary or possibly tertiary recovery processes a thorough understanding must be reached to avoid undesirable results. The huge reserve volume present in fractured oil and gas reservoirs motivate engineers, researchers, and geoscientists to exert additional efforts to …

Aqueous Geochemistry Of Springs Along Peters Mountain In Monroe County, West Virginia., Brian G. Richards

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

A hydrologic and hydrochemical investigation of aquifer characteristics beneath Peters Mountain in Monroe County, West Virginia is presented. Hydrologic zones were classified into three groups based on surface geology. Springs and seeps were located within the Second Creek and Indian Creek watersheds and their waters analyzed for chemistry to interpret the similarities and differences between springs. The three geological classes were Silurian/Devonian clastic rocks on the east slopes of Peters Mountain (Group 1), the Martinsburg Formation near the top of Peters Mountain (Group 2), and Ordovician carbonate aquifers on the west slopes of Peters Mountain (Group 3). Groundwater chemistry differed …

Integrating Visible, Near Infrared And Short Wave Infrared Hyperspectral And Multispectral Thermal Imagery For Geological Mapping At Cuprite, Nevada, Xianfeng Chen

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Visible, near infrared (VNIR), and short wave infrared (SWIR) hyperspectral and thermal infrared (TIR) multispectral remote sensing have become potential tool for geological mapping. In this dissertation, a series of studies were carried out to investigate the potential impact of combining VNIR/SWIR hyperspectral and TIR multispectral data for surface geological mapping. First, a series of simulated data sets based on the characteristics of hyperspectral AVIRIS and multispectral TIR MASTER sensors was created from surface reflectance and emissivity library spectra. Five common used classification methods including minimum distance, maximum likelihood, spectral angle mapper (SAM), spectral feature fitting (SFF), and binary encoding …

Three-Dimensional Seismic Interpretation And Synthetic Modeling Of The Atoka And Morrow Formations, In The Buffalo Valley Field (Delaware Basin, New Mexico, Chaves County) For Reservoir Characterization Using Neural Networks., Alejandro Sanchez A.

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

While the advantages of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) for reservoir characterization are widely known, this project expands such benefits by providing a method by which an ANN can be trained prior to its application to real data. First, a geological and 3D seismic interpretation of the lower Pennsylvanian Atoka-Morrow sequence in the Buffalo Valley Field, New Mexico was executed. Then, to design the ANN and to test its predictions, I generated well-logs and synthetic seismic models for seismic attributes extraction. In order to bridge the vertical resolution gap between well-logs (high resolution) and seismic data (low resolution), VSP data was …

The Role Of Geology And Engineering Properties Of The Gettysburg Formation In The Geomorphic Form Of The Susquehanna River At Highspire, Pennsylvania., Joan L. Hawk

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The Gettysburg Formation preserves the sedimentological record of the Late Triassic – Early Jurassic filling of the Newark-Narrow Neck-Gettysburg rift basin and subsequent intrusion by diabase. In the study area, bedrock is exposed only on the floor of the Susquehanna River. Exploratory borings drilled across the river, as part of a geotechnical investigation to obtain data for design of a foundation system for a replacement of the existing bridge carrying the Pennsylvania Turnpike (S.R. 0076) over the Susquehanna River, provided an opportunity to document the general stratigraphy of the surficial materials and the Gettysburg Formation in areas inaccessible to previous …

Structural Geometry Of The Jura-Cretaceous Rift Of The Middle Magdalena Valley Basin, Colombia., Luisa F. Rolon

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The Middle Magdalena Valley (MMV) basin, Colombia, evolved to its actual configuration through several stages closely linked with the tectonic events of the northwest corner of South America. Early Jurassic extensional deformation related to the break-up of Pangea, resulted in the development of rift structures in the MMV basin area. The syn-rift infill consists of fluvial and lacustrine sedimentary rocks (Jordán, Girón and Santos formations), overlain by limestones and shales (Basal Lime Group). Irregular discontinuous reflectors, rotated by normal faults and increasing thickness towards the south-east, characterize the Jurassic syn-rift section. In Early Aptian, a post-rift phase controlled by thermal …

Predicting A Detailed Permeability Profile From Minipermeameter Measurements And Well Log Data, Shawn D. Nines

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Permeability, along with the porosity, comprises one of the two most important properties in petroleum engineering with respect producing hydrocarbon fluids.;It is standard practice in the petroleum industry to determine permeability in one of two ways. These are pressure transient testing and core analysis. Both methods are expensive in their own ways. This research focuses on a way to minimize or limit the need for both of these testing procedures.;The purpose of this research was to utilize well log data, mainly gamma ray and density, Minipermeameter values, and basic information such as depth and spatial coordinates to predict permeability in …

Sedimentology Of Historic And Prehistoric Deposits In The Drainage Basin Of Deep River And Muddy Creek On The Piedmont Of North Carolina, Victoria Leanne Spurgeon

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Deep River and Muddy Creek flow across a granitic and volcanic terrain intruded by diabase dikes in the Piedmont physiographic province of central North Carolina. Geoarchaeological and sedimentological investigation of these Piedmont streams included fourteen trenches dug at four floodplain localities. Soils in these trenches were described using standard soil taxonomy and sampled for particle-size, magnetic susceptibility, and mineralogical analyses.;Increased upland erosion rates, after European settlement, left more than a meter of historic sediments in some areas of the floodplains. A paleosol, indicated by an Ab horizon, records the floodplain surface at the time of European contact. This paleosol, dated …

Seismic Evaluation Of The Mississippian Greenbrier Limestone And Devonian Ohio Shale In The Big Ugly Area, Southwestern West Virginia., Li Zheng

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The Mississippian Greenbrier Limestone and Devonian Ohio Shale were studied in the Big Ugly area of southwestern West Virginia by reprocessing and interpreting existing seismic and geological data. Careful design of routine processing parameters and the use of a modified tau-p filter significantly enhanced the quality of seismic data from the area. The presence of detached structures above three decollement zones and cross-strike discontinuities (CSD's) associated with the Alleghanian deformation west of Mann Mountain anticline is suggested. A basement growth structure, the Griffithsville basement high, localized detached structures along its southeast flank. High producing trends in the Devonian Ohio Shale …

The Vegetation Of Canaan Valley, West Virginia: A Taxonomic And Ecological Study., Ronald Howard Fortney

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Canaan Valley Is an upland valley located in the Allegheny Mountains of W est Virginia. H isto rically , it had probably the finest Picea rubens Sarg. forest in North America. Its most distinguishing features are: (1) its large o v al-sh ap e, 14 miles long and from two to four miles wide; (2) the presence of a relict Pleistocene flora and boreal communities; and (3) a wetland area of approximately 6,000 acres at a mean elevation of 3,200 feet. The vegetation of Canaan Valley was studied in respect to its flo ristic composition and its ecological im plications. …

The Development Of Design Criteria For Soil Slopes On West Virginia Highways., George Alan Hall

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The western two-thirds of West Virginia is a significant portion of one of the major landslide areas in the United States. Landslides in soil slopes produce millions of dollars of damage to West Virginia highways annually. The research described in this dissertation was devoted to the development of criteria for recognizing potential slide areas and for analyzing soil slope designs. The results were produced through engineering practice using the equipment and methods employed by the Vlfest Virginia Department of Highways. The research was divided into four studies: slide topography; geology of slide areas as revealed in available literature; stability analyses; …

Petrology And Stratigraphy Of The Greenbrier Limestone And Upper Pocono Sandstones, Wayne And Lincoln Counties, West Virginia., Bernard Robert Henniger

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

A petrographic and stratigraphic study of the Middle Mississippian Greenbrier Group ("Big Lime") and associated units of southwestern West Virginia was undertaken by using 879 thin sections from 15 wells, 633 drillers' logs, and 66 mechanical logs. The "Big Lime" of southwestern West Virginia was deposited in a shallow- shelf, shoaling environment following slow transgression of the subtropical Greenbrier seas over a Pocono-Maccrady, deltaic-tidalflat complex. Regressive-transgressive fluctuations caused shoaling during lower to middle Union time, producing halo and crestal type oolite accumulations over Maccrady topographic highs. Biosparites were intimately associated with the shoal areas. Deepening of waters upon continued transgression …