Determining Diffusion Coefficients for CO2 Injection in Oil Saturated Chalk Using a Constant Volume Diffusion Method
Authors: Ghasemi M. , Astutik W. , Alavian S. A. , Whitson C. H. , Sigalas L. , Olsen D. , Suicmez V. S. 
Published: March 2016

This paper presents a novel technique to determine multi-component diffusion coefficients for CO2 injection in a North Sea Chalk Field (NSCF) at reservoir conditions. Constant volume diffusion (CVD) method is used, consisting of an oil-saturated chalk core in contact with an overlying free-space, which is filled with the CO2. The experimental data are matched with an EOS-based compositional model.

Transport by diffusion controls the dynamics of the constant-volume system, together with phase equilibria, allowing a consistent estimation of diffusion coefficients needed to describe the observed changes in system pressure.

We conduct two experiments at reservoir condition: one utilizes a core plug saturated with live-oil, and the other with stock tank oil (STO). Once the experiments are completed, EOS-based compositional simulation is performed to match the experimental data using the oil and gas diffusion coefficients as history matching parameters. The modeling work is conducted with a commercial reservoir simulator using a two dimensional radial grid model to describe the experimental setup.

The experiment utilizes a vertically-oriented core holder with a height of 92 mm and 37.6 mm in diameter. An outcrop chalk core with a sealing sleeve is mounted in the core holder, which has the same diameter and a height of 64.6 mm, thus resulting in an overlying void space. The system is initially saturated with oil at reservoir condition. CO2 is then injected from the top, forming an overlying CO2 chamber, and displacing oil towards the bottom of the core holder. Once CO2 fills the overlying bulk space, the system is isolated with no further injection or production.

The CO2 and oil reach and remain in equilibrium locally at the gas-oil interface throughout the test, initiating and maintaining the diffusion mechanism. Diffusion of CO2 into the oil results in a decreasing pressure, which is the main history matching parameter.

The multi-component diffusion coefficients are found to match the model pressure-time prediction to the experimental data. This suggests the modelling workflow incorporates a representative EOS model and the main transport dynamics controlled by diffusion are being treated properly.

The two main challenges in the modeling are (1) the limitation on setting an appropriately-high permeability for the CO2 chamber, and (2) the reservoir simulator neglects compositional dependency of diffusion coefficients.

Proper simulation of CO2 injection in fractured chalk reservoirs requires the ability to model multi-component diffusion accurately. The proposed CVD-method provides such modeling capabilities. Our modeling and experimental work indicate the novelty of the CVD method to determine the diffusion coefficients of a system where diffusion is the dominant displacement mechanism. The fact that the oil is contained within a low-permeability chalk sample reduces density-driven convection that could result due to non-monotonic oil density changes as CO2 dissolves into the oil.