• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.41-51
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• 2021

The hydraulic fracturing developed to improve permeability of tight reservoir is one of key stimulation technologies for developing unconventional resources such as shale gas and deep geothermal energy. The experimental study was conducted to improve disadvantage of hydraulic fracturing which has simple fracture pattern and poor fracturing efficiency. The fracturing experiments was conducted for tight rock using various fracturing fluids, water, N2, and CO2 and the created fracture pattern and fracturing efficiency was analyzed depending on fracturing fluids. The borehole pressure increased rapidly and then made fractures for hydraulic fracturing with constant injection rate, however, gas fracturing shows slowly increased pressure and less fracture pressure. The 3D tomography technic was used to generate images of induced fracture using hydraulic and gas fracturing. The stimulated reservoir volume (SRV) was estimated increment of 5.71% (water), 12.72% (N2), and 43.82% (CO2) respectively compared to initial pore volume. In addition, permeability measurement was carried out before and after fracturing experiments and the enhanced permeability by gas fracturing showed higher than hydraulic fracturing. The fracture conductivity was measured by increasing confining stress to consider newly creating fracture and closing induced fracture right after fracturing. When the confining stress was increased from 2MPa to 10MPa, the initial permeability was decreased by 89% (N2) and 50% (CO2) respectively. This study shows that the gas fracturing makes more permeability enhancement and less reduction of induced fracture conductivity than hydraulic fracturing.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.1-9
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• 2022

Selection of a suitable artificial lift is important in terms of efficient operation and economics for oil production. In general, process of well design includes the selection of artificial lift, but the oil recovery could be enhanced by use of hybrid system combined with two types of artificial lift method according to reservoir condition for oil production. Electric submersible pump (ESP), as a presentative artificial lift method, is a manner for supplying the pressure in the lower part of oil well by using of a multi-stage centrifugal pump with an electric energy. However, there is a disadvantage that has a limit to the application period because of mechanical defection on ESP. Accordingly, it is possible to reduce the shutdown time of production well by applying the ESP/Gas lift hybrid system, which is to switch to a gas lift when an ESP is defective. This study describes the effect of ESP/gas lift hybrid system compared with ESP method for a onshore horizontal well locating in the of Permian basin, USA. As a result of study, ESP/gas lift hybrid system could make more effective productivity than ESP method. Also, we quantitatively predicted how much economic benefit would be obtained when the hybrid system was applied in the production well.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.26-38
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• 2017

In this study, bedding rock permeability was measured using Berea sandstones with three different beddings. The fracture permeability was also measured using tight sandstone with two different fracture regimes considering in-situ stress conditions. The Berea sandstone with vertical, horizontal and non-bedding was used to analyze evolution of permeability upon in-situ stress conditions. In order to describe applied effective stress around rock in underground, the triaxial pressure cell & hydrostatic pressure cell was designed and permeability experiments were performed with controlled axial and confining pressures. The measurement of permeability was conducted by increasing and decreasing effective stress. The permeability of non-bedding rock sample is the most sensitive to applied stress conditions and fracture permeability of tight sandstone increases with fracture treatment with proppant.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.71-78
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• 2023

In general, electric submersible pumps (ESPs), which have an average life of 1.0 to 1.5 years, experience a decrease in performance and a reduction in life of the pump depending on oil and gas reservoir characteristics and operating conditions in wells. As the result, the failure of ESP causes high well workover costs due to retrieval and installation, and additional costs due to shut down. In this study, a flow loop system was designed and established to predict the life of ESP in long­term operation of oil and gas wells, and the life cycle data of ESP from the time of installation to the time of failure was acquired and analyzed. Among the data acquired from the system, flow rate, inlet and outlet temperature and pressure, and the data of the vibrator installed on the outside of ESP were analyzed, and then the performance status according to long-term operation was classified into five stages: normal, advice I, advice II, maintenance, and failed. Through the experiments, it was found that there was a difference in the data trend by stage during the long­term operation of the ESP, and then the condition of the ESP was diagnosed and the failure of the pump was predicted according to the operating time. The results derived from this study can be used to develop a failure prediction program and data analysis algorithm for monitoring the condition of ESPs operated in oil and gas wells.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2006

Geological storage of captured $CO_2$ is a new way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to protect the climate, but is based on the established technology associated with injection of fluids underground. The geological formations of interest for this technique include operational and depleted oil and gas fields, and deep saline aquifers. Prediction of storage performance will depend on models of the behaviour of $CO_2$ in geological formations; these need to be refined and verified, and methods of monitoring developed and proved. These needs can be met through monitored demonstration and research projects. Current commercial projects that are demonstrating $CO_2$ storage include Sleipner, Weyburn, ORC, and In Salah; research projects include West Pearl Queen, Nagaoka, and Frio. In this paper, some of the monitored injection projects are described. The reservoirs employed for storing $CO_2$, and the associated monitoring techniques, are briefly reviewed. It is argued that small-scale research projects, used to develop techniques and prove models, are complementary to the large-scale monitored injections that will establish the viability of this technique for mitigating climate change.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.187-201
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• 2014

Compared with the separated inversion of electromagnetic (EM) and seismic data, a joint inversion using both EM and seismic data reduces the uncertainty and gives the opportunity to use the advantage of each data. Seismic fullwaveform inversion allows velocity information with high resolution in complicated subsurface. However, it is an indirect survey which finds the structure containing oil and gas. On the other hand, marine controlled-source EM (mCSEM) inversion can directly indicate the oil and gas using different EM properties of hydrocarbon with marine sediments and cap rocks whereas it has poor resolution than seismic method. In this paper, we have developed a joint EM inversion algorithm using a cross-gradient technique. P-wave velocity structure obtained by full-waveform inversion using plane wave encoding is used as structure constraints to calculate the cross-gradient term in the joint inversion. When the jointinversion algorithm is applied to the synthetic data which are simulated for subsea reservoir exploration, images have been significantly improved over those obtained from separate EM inversion. The results indicate that the developed joint inversion scheme can be applied for detecting reservoir and calculating the accurate oil and gas reserves.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.7-15
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• 2023

The electric submersible pump (ESP) has been operating in production wells around the world because of its high applicability and operational efficiency among artificial lift techniques. When operating an ESP in a reservoir, variables such as temperature, pressure, gas/oil ratio, and flow rate are factors that affect ESP performance. In particular, free gas in the production fluid is a major factor that reduces the life and operational efficiency of ESP. This study presents the flow loop system which can implement the performance and damage tests of ESP considering field operating conditions to quantitatively analyze the variables that affect ESP performance. The developed apparatus in an integrated system that can diagnose the failure and causes of ESP, and detect leak of tubing by linking ESP and tubing as one system. In this study, the flow conditions for stable operation of ESP were identified through single phase and two phase flow experiments related to evaluation for the performance of ESP. The results provide the basic data to develop the failure prediction and diagnosis program of ESP, and are expected to be used for real-time monitoring for optimal operating conditions and failure diagnosis for ESP operation.

• 한국석유지질학회:학술대회논문집
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• autumn
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• pp.28-46
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• 2001

Natural gas is a mixture of hydrocarbon gases and impurities such as nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide, and carbon dioxide and a clean energy producing no pollution materials for combustion. Currently, the demand of the natural gas is rapidly increasing due to worldwide environmental problems. According to Hubbert's study in the past, the natural gas was predicted as rapidly depleted resources, and then the results led to high gas price and limitation of usage during 1980s. Afterward, the study of natural gas resources based on geology identified the additional natural gas resources that were not considered in Hubbert's study. They are unconventional gas, additional resources in the existed reservoirs, and natural gas in deep subsurface areas. Such additional resouces made the future of natural gas bright and pormised low and stable gas price in the future. Deep natural gas is defined as the gas existing at or below 15,000ft$(4,752{\cal}m)$ in depth from the surface. According to the study from the U.S. Geological Survey(USGS) in 1995, 1,412 TCF of technically recoverable natural gas was remained to be discovered or developed in the onshore of United States. A significant part of that resource base, 114 TCF, exists at deep sedimentary basins, and it shows wide distribution with various geological environments. In 1995, the deep gas contributed to $6.7\% of total supply amount of natural gas in the United States and is expected to be $18.7\% by 201.5. However, the development of the deep gas is a high risky business due to expensive investment and high portion of dry holes, although it is developed. Thus, for developing the deep gas economically, it is necessary to overcome many technical challenges. In this paper, for increasing success rate of the deep gas, 1) geologic and compositional characteristics, and production cost have been analyzed according to depth, 2) technical problems related to deep gas production have been summarized, and 3) finally future study areas for increasing application of the deep gas have been suggested. For reference, this paper was written based on the study results from USGS and Gas Research Institute(GRI), for the United States is doing the most active R&D in the deep gas area, and thus, has many reliable data.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.53-61
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• 2018

Low-salinity water based polymerflooding (LSPF) is one of promising enhanced oil recovery (EOR) method that has the synergetic effect of combining polymer injection method and low-salinity water injection method. In order to maximize EOR efficiency, it is essential to design low-salinity water appropriately considering the properties of polymer. In this aspect, the main purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of pH and $SO_4{^{2-}}$ ion which one of PDI (Potential Determining Ion) on oil production when applying LSPF to carbonate oil reservoir. First, the stability and adsorption of polymer molecule were analyzed in different pH of injection water and $SO_4{^{2-}}$ concentration in injection water. As a result, regardless of pH and $SO_4{^{2-}}$ concentration, when $SO_4{^{2-}}$ ion was contained in injection water, the stability of polymer solution was obtained. However, from the result of polymer retention analysis, in neutral state of injection water, since $SO_4{^{2-}}$ interfered the adsorption of polymer, the adsorption thickness of polymer was thinner as $SO_4{^{2-}}$ concentration was higher. On the other hand, when injection water was acidic as pH 4, the amount of polymer adsorption increased with the injection of polymer solution, so the mobility of polymer solution was greatly lowered. From the results of wettability alteration due to low-salinity water effect, in the case of neutral injection water injected, as $SO_4{^{2-}}$ concentration was increased, more oil which attached on rock surface was detached, altering wettability from oil-wet to water-wet. On the other hand, in acidic condition, due to complex effect of rock dissolution and polymer adsorption, wettability of the entire core system was less altered relatively to neutral condition. Therefore, it was evaluated that better EOR efficiency was obtained when injecting low-salinity water based polymer solution containing high concentration of $SO_4{^{2-}}$ with neutral condition, enhancing the oil production up to 12.3% compared to low-salinity water injection method.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.57 no.1
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• pp.51-71
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• 2024

Seismic exploration is one of the widely used geophysical exploration methods with various applications such as resource development, geotechnical investigation, and subsurface monitoring. It is essential for interpreting the geological characteristics of subsurface by providing accurate images of stratum structures. Typically, geological features are interpreted by visually analyzing seismic sections. However, recently, quantitative analysis of seismic data has been extensively researched to accurately extract and interpret target geological features. Seismic attribute analysis can provide quantitative information for geological interpretation based on seismic data. Therefore, it is widely used in various fields, including the analysis of oil and gas reservoirs, investigation of fault and fracture, and assessment of shallow gas distributions. However, seismic attribute analysis is sensitive to noise within the seismic data, thus additional noise attenuation is required to enhance the accuracy of the seismic attribute analysis. In this study, four kinds of seismic noise attenuation methods are applied and compared to mitigate random noise of poststack seismic data and enhance the attribute analysis results. FX deconvolution, DSMF, Noise2Noise, and DnCNN are applied to the Youngil Bay high-resolution seismic data to remove seismic random noise. Energy, sweetness, and similarity attributes are calculated from noise-removed seismic data. Subsequently, the characteristics of each noise attenuation method, noise removal results, and seismic attribute analysis results are qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed. Based on the advantages and disadvantages of each noise attenuation method and the characteristics of each seismic attribute analysis, we propose a suitable noise attenuation method to improve the result of seismic attribute analysis.