Experimental investigation on rheological property of foamy oil in Venezuela

Abstract

ABSTRACTSome heavy oil reservoirs present foamy oil flow behavior under primary production, and the foamy oil viscosity and rheological property are important factors that influence the efficiency of the process. The variation of the foamy oil viscosity during the depletion process is complicated due to the generation and migration of dispersed gas bubbles within the oil phase, and still remains as a controversial topic. This study aims to investigate this issue by measuring the foamy oil viscosity at different pressure, temperature and flow rate with a capillary viscometer system equipped with a specially designed foamy oil generator to guarantee the generation and stable flow of gas-in-oil dispersions. Meanwhile, the dead oil and live oil viscosities were also measured for comparison. Based on the results from all the tests the following conclusions can be drawn. Below the bubble point pressure, the dispersed gas-bubble volume fraction and foamy oil viscosity increase with pressure decline; the viscosity of foamy oil is higher than that of live oil, and the gap between them widens with pressure decline. Moreover, foamy oil behaves as shear-thinning power-law fluid, and the shear-thinning effect becomes stronger with the decrease of pressure. The foamy oil rheology is also affected by temperature, and the shear-thinning effect becomes milder with the increase of temperature. Based on the experimental data, a formula was established for estimating foamy oil apparent viscosity within porous media, which took flow rate, shear-thinning flow parameters, permeability, porosity and other factors into consideration.