A New Technique to Predict Relative Permeability for Two-Phase Gas/Oil System at Different Interfacial Tension

Abstract

Many physical factors are affecting relative permeability. These factors could be wettability, interfacial tension, and pore size distribution of the porous media. All these factors significantly change the shape of the relative permeability curve. The change of interfacial tension of flowing phases can considerably change flow characteristics especially in gas condensate reservoir or gas injection into wells with near miscible conditions. Assuming that physical core properties and experiment conditions are constant, interfacial tension as the only variable would change relative permeabilities. Here our objective is to estimate relative permeability at lower interfacial tensions from immiscible relative permeability. We will also estimate the change of residual oil saturation with interfacial tensions. In this paper, we have implemented Michaelis Menten Kinetics model to evaluate residual oil as a function of interfacial tension. Also, a new set of correlations was purposed to calculate gas and oil relative permeability at different IFT. The accuracy of the model is then assessed against experimental data available in literature and predictions of a default model in commercial simulators (Coat's model). Although the model needs fewer input data and it requires fewer calculations than Coat's model, it improved predictions.

Analytical solution of Buckley-Leverett equation for gas flooding including the effect of miscibility with constant-pressure boundary

“…Compared with the traditional way, the technique showed good results and the overall numerical error was reduced. The interpolation parameter is the function of IFT in these models (Al-Nuaimi et al, 2018;Alzayer et al, 2018;Hustad and Browning, 2010;Mott et al, 2000). Mott et al and Al-Nuaimi et al established empirical formulas to determine the interpolation parameter by fitting the experimental data (Al-Nuaimi et al, 2018;Mott et al, 2000).…”

“…The model further revised by many researchers and widely used in commercial simulators, such as Eclipse and CMG (Al-Nuaimi et al., 2018; Coats, 1980; GeoQuest, 2014; Hustad and Browning, 2010). This is a simple and practical approach to evaluate the effect of miscibility on the relative permeability.…”

“…Compared with the traditional way, the technique showed good results and the overall numerical error was reduced. The interpolation parameter is the function of IFT in these models (Al-Nuaimi et al., 2018; Alzayer et al., 2018; Hustad and Browning, 2010; Mott et al., 2000). Mott et al.…”

“…and Al-Nuaimi et al. established empirical formulas to determine the interpolation parameter by fitting the experimental data (Al-Nuaimi et al., 2018; Mott et al., 2000). The limitation of the method is that it needs to perform experiments which are time-consuming and costly.…”