Abstract
A major concern of any hydrocarbon producer is the production of brine. Since the brine is potentially environmentally hazardous certain legal guidelines for its disposal must be followed. The current process is to inject it into an empty reservoir. However, the problem of increasing cost has made this option undesirable. A possible alternative to this process is to use the brine as an injection fluid into the same active reservoir from which it was produced. The benefits from doing this are two-fold. The cost of brine disposal is reduced or eliminated and the reservoir will under go volumetric sweeping creating an increase in gas and oil production. The potential of decreasing the net production costs is important to the local producers in determining the economic feasibility of new projects.
This study includes a sample set of data that shows the level of production increase that could be expected from brine injection into a gas-condensate reservoir located in the Rose Run formation, a producing zone found throughout the Appalachian Basin. Due to the nature of a gas-condensate reservoir, the pressure increase or pressure maintenance that would be developed in the reservoir will cause the amount of gas produced to increase as well as the associated light oils. The results, calculated through application of the material balance equation of injecting 10 STB/d of brine into the reservoir shows an increase in cumulative gas recovery of 0.35%. Also included for review are the legal issues which apply to the injection of brine in the state of Ohio.
