Cevat O Karacan
Dr. C. Özgen Karacan is a Research Petroleum Engineer with the USGS Geology, Energy & Minerals (GEM) Science Center in Reston, VA.
Biography
Dr. Karacan conducts research related to CO2-EOR, CO2 sequestration, reservoir engineering of petroleum system, and coal mine and abandoned mine methane resources. Before joining the USGS, Dr. Karacan worked for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s (NIOSH) Pittsburgh Mining Research Division for 13 years, where he managed research projects related to ventilation, and sources of gob gas and its control in coal mines.
Dr. Karacan is one of the Editors of International Journal of Coal Geology, and a Bureau member and vice chair of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’s (UNECE) Group of Experts on Coal Mine Methane. He holds associate professor of petroleum engineering accreditation in Turkey and an adjunct professor position at China University of Geosciences in Beijing (CUGB). Dr. Karacan won NIOSH Alice Hamilton Award in 2013 and 2016.
Dr. Karacan received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in petroleum and natural gas engineering from Middle East Technical University, in Ankara, Turkey and worked for the Pennsylvania State University between 1998 and 2003 as a research associate.
Education
- Ph.D. Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey, 1998
- M.S. Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey, 1993
- B.S. Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey, 1991
Work Experience
- 2017-present: USGS, Eastern Energy Resources Science Center, Reston VA
- 2003-2017: CDC/NIOSH, Pittsburgh Mining Research Division, Pittsburgh PA
- 1998-2003: The Pennsylvania State University, University Park PA
- 1991-1998: Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey
Science and Products
Assessing Emissions from Active and Abandoned Coal Mines
The gas emission zone liberates and accumulates significant amounts of coal mine methane as a by-product of active mining. In most active mines, coal mine methane is controlled by wellbores, called gob gas ventholes. Despite the presence of these wellbores, it is not possible to capture all of the methane generated within the gas emission zone. As a consequence, a large amount of gas migrates...
Insights on the characteristics and sources of gas from an underground coal mine using compositional data analysis
Coal mine gas originates from the gas emission zone (GEZ) of the mine, as well as the longwall face and pillars. Gas emissions are controlled directly at the sources using horizontal or vertical boreholes drilled from surface or from the entries in advance of mining, or it is captured from the fractured and caved zones (gob) using...
Karacan, C. Özgen; Martín-Fernández, Josep Antoni; Ruppert, Leslie F.; Olea, Ricardo Single-well production history matching and geostatistical modeling as proxy to multi-well reservoir simulation for evaluating dynamic reservoir properties of coal seams
Reservoir properties of coal seams such as gas and water effective permeabilities and gas content, as well as spatial distributions thereof, affect the success of gas production and CO2-enhanced gas recovery (EGR) with simultaneous CO2 sequestration. These properties change during production and injection operations due to...
Karacan, C. Özgen Assessing gas leakage potential into coal mines from shale gas well failures: Inference from field determination of strata permeability responses to longwall-induced deformations
This paper summarizes the changes in permeability at three boreholes located above an abutment pillar at a longwall coal mine in southwestern Pennsylvania. The motivation of this study was to better characterize the potential interaction between shale gas wells and the mine environment, through measurement of permeability changes in the coal mine...
Watkins, Eric; Karacan, C. Özgen; Gangrade, Vasu; Schatzel, Steven A two-stage step-wise framework for fast optimization of well placement in coalbed methane reservoirs
Coalbed methane (CBM) has emerged as a clean energy resource in the global energy mix, especially in countries such as Australia, China, India and the USA. The economical and successful development of CBM requires a thorough evaluation and optimization of well placement prior to field-scale exploitation. This paper presents a two-stage, step-wise...
Zhang, Jiyuan; Feng, Qihong; Zhang, Xianmin; Bai, Jia; Karacan, C. Özgen; Elsworth, Derek Methodology for estimating the prospective CO2 storage resource of residual oil zones at the national and regional scale
Residual oil zones (ROZs) are increasingly gaining interest as potential reservoirs for carbon dioxide (CO2) storage. Here, we present a national- and regional-scale methodology for estimating prospective CO2 storage resources in residual oil zones. This methodology uses a volumetric equation that accounts for CO2 storage as a free phase...
Sanguinito, Sean; Singh, Harpreet; Myshakin, Evgeniy M.; Goodman, Angela L.; Dilmore, Robert M.; Grant, Timothy C.; Morgan, David; Bromhal, Grant; Warwick, Peter D.; Brennan, Sean T.; Freeman, Philip A.; Karacan, C. Özgen; Gorecki, Charles; Peck, Wesley; Burton-Kelly, Matthew; Dotzenrod, Neil; Frailey, Scott; Pawar, Rajesh
Assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources in the Central North Slope of Alaska, 2020
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean resources of 3.6 billion barrels of oil and 8.9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas (associated and nonassociated) in conventional accumulations in Mississippian through Paleogene strata in the central North Slope...
Houseknecht, David W.; Whidden, Katherine J.; Connors, Christopher D.; Lease, Richard O.; Schenk, Christopher J.; Mercier, Tracey J.; Rouse, William A.; Botterell, Palma J.; Smith, Rebecca A.; Sanders, Margaret M.; Craddock, William H.; DeVera, Christina A.; Garrity, Christopher P.; Buursink, Marc L.; Karacan, C. Özgen; Heller, Samuel J.; Moore, Thomas E.; Dumoulin, Julie A.; Tennyson, Marilyn E.; French, Katherine L.; Woodall, Cheryl A.; Drake, Ronald M.; Marra, Kristen R.; Finn, Thomas M.; Kinney, Scott A.; Shorten, Chilisa M.
A probabilistic assessment methodology for carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery and associated carbon dioxide retention
The U.S. Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 authorized the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to conduct a national assessment of the potential volume of hydrocarbons recoverable by injection of carbon dioxide (CO2) into known oil reservoirs with historical production. The implementation of CO2 enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR) techniques could...
Warwick, Peter D.; Attanasi, Emil D.; Olea, Ricardo A.; Blondes, Madalyn S.; Freeman, Philip A.; Brennan, Sean T.; Merrill, Matthew D.; Verma, Mahendra K.; Karacan, C. Özgen; Shelton, Jenna L.; Lohr, Celeste D.; Jahediesfanjani, Hossein; Roueché, Jacqueline N. A fuzzy logic approach for estimating recovery factors of miscible CO2-EOR projects in the United States
"Recovery factor (RF) is one of the most fundamental parameters that define engineering and economical success of any operational phase in oil and gas production. The effectiveness of the operation, e.g. CO2-EOR (enhanced oil recovery with carbon dioxide injection), is usually defined by multiplying the resultant recovery factor by the original...
Karacan, C. Özgen Petrology and geochemistry of migrated hydrocarbons associated with the Albert Formation oil shale in New Brunswick, Canada
Samples of the Carboniferous oil shale of the Albert Formation in New Brunswick, Canada, were examined using reflected white and fluorescence light microscopy, Rock-Eval pyrolysis, and ICP-MS (for elements). The presence of fractured filled solid bitumen in contact with, and within the Albert Formation oil shale, particularly in fractures at the...
F. Goodarzi; T. Gentzis; Karacan, C. Özgen; H. Sanei; P.K. Pederson An ANCOVA model for porosity and its uncertainty for oil reservoirs based on TORIS dataset
Porosity is one of the most important parameters to assess in-place oil or gas in reservoirs, and to evaluate recovery from enhanced production operations. Since it is relatively well-established to determine porosity using different laboratory and field methods, its value is usually determined at many locations across a reservoir as part of the...
Karacan, C. Özgen Assessment of coal mine methane (CMM) and abandoned mine methane (AMM) resource potential of longwall mine panels: example from Northern Appalachian Basin, USA
"Coal mine methane (CMM) and abandoned mine methane (AMM), are by-products of underground coal mining. The quantity and the emission rate of CMM and AMM may vary depending on the type of mine, gas content of the mined coal seam, and gas sourced from strata and coal beds in overlying and underlying formations affected by mining. Therefore, if a...
Karacan, C. Özgen; Warwick, Peter D. Insights from Rock-Eval analysis on the influence of sample weight on hydrocarbon generation from Lower Permian organic-matter rich rocks, West Bokaro basin, India
Among the different Rock-Eval parameters, the hydrocarbons released under S2 peak of Rock-Eval is of significance as it indicates the residual hydrocarbon content of the rock. Further, through its relationship with TOC content, it helps in calculating hydrogen indices (HI) which helps in understanding the type of organic-matter present in a rock [...
Hazra, B; Karacan, C. Özgen; Devleena, Mani T; Singh, Pradeep K.; Singh, Ashok K.
Remediating the effects of emissions from coal mines
Remediating the effects of emissions from coal mines: Technical and Economic Analysis 2019 poster
Evaluation Tools for CMM Opportunities and AMM Resources
"Tools to assist with evaluating CMM project opportunities in active mines and AMM resources" presentation by C. Özgen Karacan at the 30th GMI Coal Mines Subcommittee Meeting, 16th UNECE Annual Session of the Group of Experts on Coal Mine Methane, March 3-4, 2021.
Mapping the change of effective permeabilities of Black Creek coal
20th Conference of the International Association for Mathematical Geosciences (IAMG), 2019, Session 1, S0112 poster.