Article outline

Purpose: Numerical study of gas extraction from a gas hydrate reservoir without exposure to external sources.

The paper considers a homogeneous reservoir in the form of a pancake with characteristic linear dimensions corresponding to real deposits: with a radius of the order of several kilometers, and a height of tens of meters. Since the radii of such layers are much larger than their thickness, this allows one to take into account the thermal interactions of the field with the surrounding rocks through the upper and lower boundaries of the layer in a flat one-dimensional approximation.

Methods: A finite-difference scheme based on the use of the Euler method was chosen as a numerical method for solving a system of partial differential equations.

Results: The following parameters characterizing the state of the gas hydrate reservoir were used in this task: a radius of R=3000 m, a thickness of H=50 m, a porosity of m=0.25, an initial hydrate saturation of S_h0=0.4, a reservoir pressure of p₀=7.4 MPa and its temperature of T₀=T_s(p₀)=283.6 K. In this case, the gas was taken in a constant mass flow rate at Q^(m)_g=2.6×10⁶ t/year. It was found that at this rate of gas production, the achievement of reservoir pressure to a value of p=2.6 MPa and, accordingly, a temperature of T=273 K occurred in about 5 years. In this case, during the decomposition of gas hydrate formation, its saturation decreases from a value of 0.4 to 0.25.

Conclusion: as a result of the study, it was established that at the given parameters for a gas hydrate reservoir, the achievement of reservoir pressure up to 2.6 MPa and, accordingly, a temperature of 273 K occurred in about 5 years. It is shown that when gas is taken from a reservoir with a radius of 3000 m and a thickness of 50 m, its hydrate saturation decreases by about 38% over 5 years.