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FLUID INTERACTIONS
Course Outline
Capillary Pressures & CP Curves
Surface and interfacial tension
Pressure & Temperature Gradients
Fluid distribution in reservoirs
Net pay thickness & Volumetrics
Drive mechanisms
Wettability
o
o
Measure of the attraction between rock surface and the fluids in the reservoir
The wetting fluid the one most attracted to the rock surface
Water Wet
(most fields)
o
o
Wettability
The definition is defined as tendency of one fluid to spread on or adhere to a
solid surface in the presence of other immiscible fluids
It is based on contact angle of water surrounded by oil
The wettability of reservoir rocks to the fluids is important in that the
distribution of the fluids in the porous media is a function of wettability.
Because of the attractive forces, the wetting phase tends to occupy the smaller
pores of the rock and the nonwetting phase occupies the more open channels
Oil
Water
Water
Water-wet
Oil-wet
WATER-WET
OIL-WET
Air
OIL
< 90
OIL
Oil
WATER
FREE WATER
SOLID (ROCK)
GRAIN
BOUND WATER
WATE
R
WATE
R
> 90
WATER
SOLID (ROCK)
OIL
GRAIN
OIL
RIM
FREE WATER
Ayers, 2001
Wettability
Wettability
Capillary Pressure
Capillary Pressure
Capillary Pressure
Capillary Pressure
Capillary Pressure
Capillary Pressure
CP Curves
CP Curves
CP Curves
CP Curves
Capillary Pressure
Is the phase pressure difference across the interface of two immiscible fluids caused by
interfacial tension (IFT)
Pc Pnw Pw Po Pw
It is defined as:
2 cos
Pc
r
IFT
r cross sec tion pore radius
contact angle
Capillary Pressure
Can be measured directly on core in lab by several techniques:
Mercury / Air, Centrifuge, Porous Plate / Diaphragm
Choice of measurement depends on the sample type and cost.
Fluid systems are chosen to replicate the system in the reservoir and may
be:
Air-brine: brine saturated rock sample displaced by air
Oil-brine: brine saturated rock sample displaced by oil
Air-mercury: Mercury injected into dry-cleaned rock
cos res
Pcres Pclab
cos lab
Capillary Pressure
P
Threshold pressure, ct must be overcome before we are able to displace the wetting
phase.
Pc
Pc(Swc)
Transition zone
Pct
Swc
Sw
Capillary Pressure
Once Swc is reached, any further increase in pressure fails to reduce the water saturation.
Capillary pressure can be related to height above Free Water Level (FWL), H.
FWL
H w o
Pc
144
Po
Pw
H
FWL
where
0.433144 lb / ft 3
Capillary Pressure
OWC can occur at or above FWL.
Depends on threshold capillary pressure
Some height above FWL where the Sw=100%
H vs Saturation
H
OWC
FWL
0
Swc
Sw
Capillary Pressure
From lab expt, Pc is converted to reservoir condition and :
144 Pcres
H
w o
Capillary pressure can be linked with permeability and porosity for specific lithologies
using Leverett J-function.
Pc
k
J
cos
Reservoir Pressure
Lithostatic pressure is caused by the pressure of rock,
transmitted by grain-to-grain contact.
Fluid pressure is caused by weight of column of fluids
in the pore spaces. Average = 0.465 psi/ft (saline water).
Overburden pressure is the sum of the lithostatic and
fluid pressures.
Reservoir Pressure
Reservoir Pressure
A pressure distribution of a
reservoir contain both oil and a
free gas cap shown as above
figure.
The composition of
the
respective fluids gives rise to
different pressure gradient. These
gradient will be determined by a
density of the fluid which result
from the specific composition of
the fluids.
Pressure
Reservoir Pressure
Reservoir Pressure
Fluid
Gas
Oil
Water
Pressure Gradient
psi/ft
psi/m
0.08
0.26
0.35
1.15
0.43
1.41
Reservoir Temperature
The temperature of the earth increases from the surface to center.
The heat flow out-wards through the Earths crust generates a geothermal
gradient,gc
In most petroleum basins the geothermal gradient is of the order of 1.6F/100ft.
The thermal characteristics of the reservoir rock and overburden give
rise to large thermal capacity and with a large surface area in the porous reservoir
one can assume that flow processes in a reservoir occur at constant reservoir
temperature. The local geothermal gradient will be influenced by associated
geological features like volcanic intrusions etc.
During drilling the local thermal gradient can be disturbed and by analysis of the
variation of temperature with time using a bottom hole temperature (BHT) gauge
the local undisturbed temperature can be obtained.
Exercise
EXERCISE
Recovery process
Recovery of hydrocarbons from an oil reservoir is commonly
recognised to occur in several recovery stages:
1.
Primary recovery
This is the recovery of hydrocarbons from the reservoir using the natural
energy of the reservoir as a drive
2.
Secondary recovery
This is recovery aided or driven by the injection of water or gas from the
surface
3.Tertiary recovery (Enhanced Oil Recovery, EOR)
There are a range of techniques broadly label as Enhanced Oil
Recovery that are applied to reservoirs in order to improve declining production
Recovery process
Recovery of hydrocarbons from an oil reservoir is commonly
recognised to occur in several recovery stages:
1.
Primary recovery
This is the recovery of hydrocarbons from the reservoir using the natural
energy of the reservoir as a drive
2.
Secondary recovery
This is recovery aided or driven by the injection of water or gas from the
surface
3.Tertiary recovery (Enhanced Oil Recovery, EOR)
There are a range of techniques broadly label as Enhanced Oil
Recovery that are applied to reservoirs in order to improve declining production
Primary recovery
Water drive
Reservoir in contact with the supporting aquifer
As oil is produced, aquifer water expands and displaced oil
Two type of water drive
Edge water
Bottom water
Effectiveness depends on ability of water to replace volume of
oil produced
Challenge to reservoir engineer is to predict behaviour prior to
production
Difficult to justify exploration costs to determine the size of a
water accumulation
Water drive
Secondary recovery
Secondary recovery is the result of human intervention in the
reservoir to improve recovery when the natural drives have
diminished or unreasonable low efficiencies.
Two techniques are commonly used:
Water Flooding
This method involves the injection of water at the base of reservoir to;
-Maintain the reservoir pressure
-Displace oil (usually with gas and water) towards production wells
Gas Flooding
This method is similar to waterflooding in principal, is used to;
- Maintain gas cap pressure even if oil displacement is not required
Chemical
This process is using chemicals added to water in the injection fluid of a
waterflood to alter the flood efficiency in such a way as to improve oil
recovery (increasing water viscosity polymer flood)
Miscible gas
This method uses a fluid that is miscible with the oil. Such a fluid has a zero
interfacial tension with the oil and can in principle flush out all of the oil
remaining in the place. In practice a gas is used since gases have high
mobilities and can easily enter all the pores in the rock providing the gas is
miscible in the oil ( CO2,N2)
EOR
EOR
EOR
EOR
Water drive
Assignment 1