Production from Two-phase Reservoirs:

- Phase diagram
- Gas oil ratio in saturated reservoirs
- Properties of two phase fluids, relative permeability
- Comparing single and two phase flows
Steady state
Pseudo steady state
- Inflow performance relationship (IPR
Single phase flow
!wo phase flow
"ogel#s correlations
Generali$ed "ogel#s correlations
%eto&ovich#s appro'imation
(arlier flow relationships have considered only single-phase flow of oil) !he effect
of simultaneously producing li*uid (oil and gas on the li*uid flow rate will now be
considered)
(%rom, +a&e, %undamentals of Reservoir (ngineering
If the reservoir is below bubble point pressure, as depicted in fig) ,)-(b, the situation is
more complicated) .ow there are two hydrocarbon phases in the reservoir, gas saturated
oil and liberated solution gas) +uring production to the surface, solution gas will be
evolved from the oil phase and the total surface gas production will have two
components/ the gas which was free in the reservoir and the gas liberated from the oil
during production) !hese separate components are indistinguishable at the surface and the
problem is, therefore, how to divide the observed surface gas production into liberated
and dissolved gas volumes in the reservoir)
In a saturated reservoir each stoc& tan& barrel of oil is produced in con0unction with R scf
of gas, where R (scf1stb is called the instantaneous or producing gas oil ratio and is
measured daily (see fig ,)2) 3s already noted, some of this gas is dissolved in the oil in
the reservoir and is released during production through the separator, while the remainder
consists of gas which is already free in the reservoir) %urthermore, the value of R can
greatly e'ceed Rsi, the original solution gas oil ratio, since, due to the high velocity of
gas flow in comparison to oil, it is *uite normal to produce a disproportionate amount of
gas) !his results from an effective stealing of liberated gas from all over the reservoir and
its production through the relatively isolated offta&e points, the wells) 3 typical plot of R
as a function of reservoir pressure is shown as fig) ,)4)
!he producing gas oil ratio can be split into two components as shown in fig) ,)2, i)e)
R 5 Rs 6(R-Rs
!he first of these, Rs scf1stb, when ta&en down to the reservoir with the one stb of oil,
will dissolve in the oil at the prevailing reservoir pressure to give 7o rb of oil plus
dissolved gas) !he remainder, (R -8Rs scf1stb, when ta&en down to the reservoir will
occupy a volume
and therefore, the total underground withdrawal of hydrocarbons associated with the
production of one stb of oil is
(9nderground withdrawal1stb 5 7o 6 (R :8Rs 7g (rb1stb
!he shapes of the 7o and Rs curves below the bubble point, shown in fig) ,);(a and
(b, are easily e'plained) 3s the pressure declines below pb, more and more gas is
liberated from the saturated oil and thus Rs, which represents the amount of gas dissolved
in a stb at the current reservoir pressure, continually decreases) Similarly, since each
reservoir volume of oil contains a smaller amount of dissolved gas as the pressure
declines, one stb of oil will be obtained from progressively smaller volumes of reservoir
oil and 7o steadily declines with the pressure)
!he presence of a gas phase reduces the relative permeability of oil)
Relative permeabilities are laboratory-derived relationships, are functions of fluid
saturations and functions of specific reservoir roc&)
!he e'pansion of free gas creates an effective mechanism for the production of fluids)
!he reservoir pressure, which is the driving force for the flow, decreases rapidly with
production from a reservoir containing li*uid only)
Comparing the Flow Equations for Single and Two-phase Flows:
S!(3+< S!3!( I.%=>?@
PS(9+>-S!(3+< S!3!( %=>?@
dp
B
k
s r r
hk
q
e
wf
p
p
o o
ro
w e
o

+
=
A 1 Bln( , ) -4-
dp
B
k
Dq s r r
hk
q
p
p
o o
ro
w e
o
wf

+ +
=

A
4
2
1 Bln( , ) -4-
(
A 1 Bln( , ) -4-
wf e
w e
o
p p
s r r B
hk
q
+
=

o wf e
w e o o
o
o
p p
s r r B
hk
q (
A 1 Bln( , ) -4-

+
=

(
A
4
2
1 Bln( , ) -4-
wf
w e
o
p p
s r r B
hk
q
+
=

I.%=>? P(R%>RC3.C( R(=3!I>.SDIP (IPR@

3ll well deliverability e*uations relate the well production rate and the driving force in
the reservoir, that is, the pressure difference between the initial, outer boundary or
average reservoir pressure and the flowing bottomhole pressure)
If the bottomhole pressure is given, the production rate can be obtained readily)
Dowever, the bottomhole pressure is a function of the wellhead pressure, which, in turn,
depends on production engineering decisions, separator or pipeline pressures, etc)
!herefore, what a well will actually produce must be the combination of what the
reservoir can deliver and what the imposed wellbore hydraulics would allow)
It is then useful to present the well production rate as a function of the bottomhole
pressure) !his type of presentation is &nown as an Einflow performance relationshipE
(IPR curve) 9sually, the bottomhole pressure, p
wf
, is graphed on the ordinate and the
production rate, q, is graphed on the abscissa)
Pseudo steady state IPR calculation is the most useful and most commonly done
for the forecast of well performance) (ach IPR curve reflects a FsnapshotG of well
performance at a given reservoir pressure) !his is time dependent calculation done in
discrete intervals) In combination with Fvolumetric material balancesG it will allow the
forecast of rate and cumulative production versus time)
!he comple' analytical solutions to the two-phase flow e*uations will not be
considered in this course) !he two-phase correlations of "ogel and %et&ovitch will
be presented)
A HI ) J ,2 ) 2 log( Blog(
K ) -K,
,
S
r c
k
t
kh
B q
p p
w t
o
wf i
+ + =

A Bln(
, ) -4-
s
r
r
hk
qB
p p
w
e
wf e
+ =

A
4
ln
,
-
B
, ) -4-
,
s
r C
A
kh
qB
p p
w A
wf
+ =

Vogels Correlations:
"ogel developed a set of inflow performance relationship (IPR correlations) !he
particular correlation that is appropriate is dependent on the magnitude of the average
reservoir pressure, P , and the wellbore pressure, P
wf
, relative to the bubble-point
pressure, P
b
) !hese correlations are valid for a wide range of reservoir and fluid
properties) >nly the properties of the oil phase associated with the two-phase flow are
re*uired for "ogelLs correlations)
Case !: P
wf
" P P
#
(original "ogel Correlation

In this case there is two-phase flow throughout the reservoir@

o
and 7 are evaluated at P )
Case $: P % P
#
#ut P
#
P
wf
&Vogels 'eneralised Correlation(
3 limiting volumetric flow, *
b
, is defined which represents the flow that occurs in the
specific case when the wellbore pressure is e*ual to the bubblepoint pressure (P
wf
5P
b
)
Fet)ovitch *nflow Performance Relationship:
In some cases "ogelLs correlations do not accurately represent well 1reservoir
behavior) !he correlation of %et&ovitch can also be applied to two-phase systems)
%et&ovitch developed an empirical e*uation based on two correlation parameters,
*
o,ma'
and n) !o apply the correlation, well measurements must be performed during at
least two stable flow conditions) %et&ovichLs e*uation is ad0usted to fit to the data
using the parameters)
!he following two e*uations are combined to give the final empirical e*uation@