Reservoir modelling and numerical analysis of the ignik sikumi gas hydrate field trial

On May 5, 2012, ConocoPhillips, in a cooperative effort with the Japan Oil, Gas, and Metals National Corporation and the U.S. Department of Energy, completed the first field program designed to investigate the potential for CO2-CH4 exchange in naturally-occurring methane hydrate reservoirs. The field team, operating from a temporary ice pad constructed in the Prudhoe Bay Unit on the Alaska North Slope, achieved incident- and injury-free operations. The program met its primary goal of conducting a controlled scientific experiment in a field setting to further our understanding of the response of gas hydrate reservoirs to gas injection. The project team is currently checking and validating the field data, after which the final quantification of time-series downhole pressures and temperatures synchronized to gas and fluid flow rates and chemistries will be available. These data, in conjunction with the various associated pressure and temperature datasets from sensors installed in the well, will then be analyzed to interpret the nature of the various processes that occurred during the test. Current efforts are focused on the interpretation of the data from this field trial using NETL's hydrate reservoir simulator, HydrateResSim and will be discussed in this work.