Reservoir Water Loss Modeling and Measurements at Fenton Hill, New Mexico.

摘要

An extensive series of pressurized reservoir water loss experiments are presently being conducted in the deeper Phase II reservoir, at the Laboratory's Fenton Hill site in north-central New Mexico. The objectives of these experiments are: to measure the reservoir water leak-off rate at a number of equilibrium reservoir pressure levels, and as a function of time; and with this pressure- and time-dependent water-loss data, to determine the joint dilation (i.e., mean joint porosity) of the reservoir as a function of pressure up to about 24 MPa (as measured at the surface). The permeability model of Gangi has been used to explain the Phase II reservoir water loss as measured during two reservoir flow tests of 7 and 30 days duration. During the 30-day flow test, the model strongly suggests that the reservoir was actively growing by fracture extension, even at injection pressures as low as 27 MPa, which is confirmed by our seismic observations. 3 refs., 6 figs., 1 tab.