New Experimental Correlations to Predict Water-Oil Relative Permeability Curves Affected from Asphaltene Deposition

Abstract

This paper was prepared for presentation at the Offshore Technology Conference A sia held in K uala Lum pur, M alaysia, 25-28 M arch 2014. This paper was sel ected for presentation by an OTC program com m ittee following review of inform ation contain ed in an abstract subm itted by the author(s). Contents of the paper have not been reviewed by the Offshore Technology Conference and are subject to correction by the author(s). The m aterial does not necessarily reflect any position of the Offshore Technolo gy Conference, its officers, or m em bers. E lectronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper without the written consent of the Offshore Technology Conference is prohibited. P erm ission to reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not m ore than 300 words; illustrations m ay not be copied. The abstract m ust contain conspicuous acknowledgm ent of OTC copyright. AbstractAsphaltene precipitation and deposition may occur during natural depletion, displacement of reservoir oil by CO 2 , hydrocarbon gas or WAG application. They can affect reservoir performance and cause formation damage such as porosity and permeability reduction, wettability alteration and relative permeability changes. Moreover, asphaltene deposition may lea d to plugging of wellbore and production surface facilities. The dynamic displacement efficiency in porous media is controlled by relative permeability, and asphaltene deposition can alter the original characteristics of the relative permeability. To t he best of our knowledge, there exists no correlation available in the literature that can be used to predict the relative permeability alteration due to asphaltene deposition which considers the amount of asphaltene as an independent variable. Although the exact physics on how this alteration occurs is still a research topic, it has been reported that some of its effect may be captured by wettability change and relative permeability shift from a water-wet to an oil-wet (or a mixed-wet) system. In this paper, new experimental correlations are presented to predict the effect of asphaltene deposition on irreducible water saturation, residual oil saturation and relative permeability for water-oil systems. The correlations are obtained by history matching experimental data from several dynamic displacement experiments (conducted on different core -plug samples, but having the same rock properties under reservoir conditions) with the corresponding data from a two -phase one-dimension black-oil simulation model.