Coupled multi-phase thermo-poromechanical effects. Case study: CO2 injection at In Salah, Algeria

Coupled simulations of fluid injection and extraction in porous media are an important tool for assessing feasibility, safety and productivity of such operations. Different methods for coupling the fluid flow with geomechanics are currently used. In this paper we compare one-way and iterative coupling with full coupling. With the fully coupled two-phase thermo-poromechanical model we simulate the CO2 injection operation, which is ongoing at In Salah, Algeria. The results suggest that pressure increase in the well and ground uplift for a given data set can accurately be modeled using our method. Finally, we illustrate the crucial effect of the temperature difference between injected fluid and reservoir on the possibility of creating and/or re-opening fractures perpendicular to the well in the cap rock that were observed in the field.