Fundamentals of Foam Transport in Porous Media

Kovscek, A. R.; Radke, Clayton J.

doi:10.1021/ba-1994-0242.ch003

Cited by 247 publications

(125 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…The same mechanism occurs during invasion of gas to pores filled with liquid. It takes place regardless of the presence or absence of surfactant, but if a stabilizing surfactant is not present, snapped off bubbles quickly coalesce (Kovscek and Radke, 1993). The snap-off process is a result of the difference in the capillary pressure between the pore body and pore throat.…”

Section: Foam Generation Mechanisms Inside a Realistic Porous Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating the application of foam injection as an enhanced oil recovery in unconsolidated sand

FALODE¹,

OJUMOOLA²

2015

J. Petroleum Gas Eng.

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In the Niger Delta, low oil recovery rates less than 30% results mainly due to oil production problems such as water coning, wax deposition and high gas/oil ratios. Meanwhile, the remaining oil becomes a good candidate for EOR methods such as CO 2 injection, polymer and foam injection, in-situ combustion and steam injection. But as it stands, the practice of these known methods of enhanced oil recovery is scarce in the Nigeria's Oil and Gas industry. However, this project is aimed at evaluating the application of foam injection as an enhanced oil recovery method in sandstone reservoir and exploring possible improvement of oil production in the Niger Delta. The project was carried out using two cases. In Case 1, a synthetic model built with static modeling software, later imported to dynamic modeling software and simulated to mimic foam injection process while in Case 2 a real life model with an aquifer fully populated with the necessary reservoir and fluid properties and production history. From the results obtained in Case 1, production indices, field oil recovery, etc. were compared with gas flooding process. For foam flooding, a significant increase in oil recovery as compared to gas flooding and reduction in gas oil ratio and gas produced were observed while in Case 2, field oil recovery, oil production rate, cumulative oil production, gas oil ratio and water cut were compared and significant increase oil recovery using foam flooding, and reduced field water cut was also observed. The economic viability of the project in both cases was also investigated using some economic indicators. Improved displacement efficiency resulting into increased recoverable reserves, and subsequently increased total field oil production has been achieved by foam injection.

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Section: Foam Generation Mechanisms Inside a Realistic Porous Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating the application of foam injection as an enhanced oil recovery in unconsolidated sand

FALODE¹,

OJUMOOLA²

2015

J. Petroleum Gas Eng.

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“…At steady state, "strong" (low-mobility) foams can be non-Newtonian, usually shear-thinning (Kovscek and Radke 1994;Rossen 1996;Alvarez et al 2001;Rong 2002). Data on steady state foam mobility are available only over a relatively narrow range of injection rates compared to the variation of superficial velocity between a wellbore and the bulk of the formation.…”

Section: Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fractional Flow Theory Applicable to Non-Newtonian Behavior in EOR Processes

et al. 2011

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The method of characteristics, or fractional-flow theory, is extremely useful in understanding complex Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) processes and in calibrating simulators. One limitation has been its restriction to Newtonian rheology except in rectilinear flow. Its inability to deal with non-Newtonian rheology in polymer and foam EOR has been a serious limitation. We extend fractional flow methods for two-phase flow to non-Newtonian fluids in one-dimensional cylindrical flow, where rheology changes with distance from injection well. The fractional flow curve is then a function of position and we analyze the characteristic equations for two applications-polymer and foam floods. For polymer flooding, we present a semi-analytical solution for the changing fractional flow curve where characteristics and shocks collide. The semi-analytical solution is shown to give good agreement with the finite-difference simulation thus helping us understand the development and resolution of shocks. We discuss two separate cases of foam injection with or without preflush. We observe that the fractional flow solutions are more accurate than finite-difference simulations on a comparable grid and hence the method can be used to calibrate simulators. For SAG (alternating-slug) foam injection, characteristics and shocks collide, making the fractional-flow solution complex. Nonetheless, one can solve exactly for changing mobility near the well, to greater accuracy than with conventional simulation. The fractional-flow method extended to non-Newtonian flow can be useful both for its insights for scale-up of laboratory experiments and to calibrate computer simulators involving non-Newtonian EOR. It can also be an input to streamline simulations.

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“…[19][20][21] and references therein). Experiments shows that CGA formed with anionic surfactants percolate through sand carrying most of the oil [1].…”

Section: Motivationsmentioning

confidence: 99%