Dewatering Optimization of Coal Seam Gas Production Wells: A Review and Future Perspectives

Coal seam gas (CSG), as a type of unconventional gas resource, is playing an increasingly important role in energy generation and transition to renewables, as the world takes action to meet the climate change challenge. To produce CSG, the reservoir first needs to be dewatered, but unreasonable dewatering rates can lead to various unfavorable outcomes, such as a reduction in productivity, capillary trapping, borehole instability, excessive coal fines generation, and frequent production well workovers due to particle-induced damage to pumps. Determining the optimum dewatering strategy is currently in a very primitive stage of development, and CSG operators rely on empirical and instinctive approaches to deal with this problem. This paper conducts a comprehensive literature review to (i) explain why dewatering rate optimization remains a great challenge for the CSG industry, (ii) illustrate the complexity and nature of the issue through a conceptual model, and (iii) investigate four key factors that dominate the dewatering optimization design, borehole stability, stress-dependent permeability, gas-water two-phase flow, and generation of coal fines. A detailed summary of current dewatering optimization practices in CSG reservoirs is then presented, focusing on the employed theories, methodology, key learnings, and limitations of each practice. Finally, the remaining knowledge gaps are highlighted, and recommendations for further future work are provided.