RESEARCH TOPIC


Vahapcan Er

"Visual Investigations on the Oil Recovery and Sequestration Potential of CO2 in Naturally Fractured Oil Reservoirs"


Sequestration into oil reservoirs while enhancing oil recovery is one of the most feasible ways as the additional oil recovery would offset the cost of CO2 sequestration operation. As the matrix is the main source of oil to recovery and could be a good CO2 storage medium, we focus on the matrix-fracture interaction during CO2 injection into oil reservoirs.

Proper design of this process is essential to maximize both amount of CO2 sequestered and oil recovered. In this co-optimization process, miscibility, oil viscosity, matrix properties (permeability, porosity, pore characteristics, wettability, etc.), fracture properties (permeability, orientation, connectivity), injection rate and gravity, physical state of CO2 play a critical role.

My aim is to study the dynamics of CO2 injection and visualize displacement patterns and matrix-fracture interactions using 2-D models such as glass-bead packs and glass etched micro-models with fractures.

It is believed that the visual understanding of the process will provide substantial information for further modeling studies.


RELEVANT PUBLICATIONS

  1. Er, V. and Babadagli, T.: “Visual Investigations on the Oil Recovery and Sequestration Potential of CO2 in Naturally Fractured Oil Reservoirs,” CIPC 2007-033, CIM 58th Annual Tech. Meet., Canadian Int. Petroleum Conf., Calgary, Canada, 12-14 June 2007.

  2. Er, V. and Babadagli, T.: “Miscible Interaction between Matrix and Fracture – A Visualization and Simulation Study,” SPE 117579, 2008 SPE Eastern Regional/AAPG Eastern Section Joint Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA, 11-15 Oct.

  3. Er, V. and Babadagli, T.: “Miscible Interaction between Matrix and Fracture – A Visualization and Simulation Study,” SPE Res. Eval. and Eng. , vol. 13, no. 1, Feb. 2010.

  4. Er, V. and Babadagli, T. and Xu, Z.: “Pore Scale Investigation of Matrix-Fracture Interaction During CO2 Injection in Naturally Fractured Oil Reservoirs,” Energy and Fuels,vol. 24(2), 1421-1430, 2010.