Natural gas production from hydrate dissociation: An axisymmetric model

This paper describes an axisymmetric model for natural gas production from the dissociation of methane hydrate in a confined reservoir by a depressurizing well. During the hydrate dissociation, heat and mass transfer in the reservoir are analyzed. The system of governing equations is solved by a finite difference scheme. For different well pressures and reservoir temperatures, distributions of temperature and pressure in the reservoir, as well as the natural gas production from the well are evaluated. The numerical results are compared with those obtained by a linearization method. It is shown that the gas production rate is a sensitive function of well pressure. The simulation results are compared with the linearization approach and the shortcomings of the earlier approach are discussed.