Abstract
A heavy-oil sample derived from a block of Venezuelan oil was used to investigate effects of temperature on relative permeability to oil and water. Measurements of relative permeability were based on one-dimensional core-flow simulated systems using an unsteady-state technique at different temperatures, and then impact rules of temperature dependency were discussed. Both water and heavy oil in cores were reconfigured under the consideration of actual reservoir conditions. Study results suggest that relative permeability is high to oil phase and is very low to water phase, and fluid flow capability is extremely imbalanced between oil and water. As temperature increases, irreducible water saturation linearly increases, residual oil saturation performs a nonlinear decrease, and water saturation exhibits a nonlinear increase at equal-permeability points. The water-wettability of rocks is heightened and overall relative permeability curves shift to the right with increasing temperature; furthermore, two-phase flow area becomes wider and both oil and water relative permeability increases apparently, but the increase ratio of water is less than that of oil.
Highlights
Relative permeability to heavy oil and water is one of the most important parameters of production and prediction in oilfields
Lo and Mungan indicated that relative permeability to oil increases with increasing temperature, but the increase rate of water relative permeability presents more in both water-wet and oil-wet systems[8]
The irreducible water saturation linearly increased from 31.34% at 45 °C to 39.31% at 200 °C with an average increase of 2.66% per 50 °C
Summary
Both two curves are in quadratic function relationships. It can be found from the figure that the increase in the ratio of water relative permeability at temperatures from 45 °C to 100 °C is smaller than that at temperatures higher than 100 °C The rules of oil and water relative permeability with temperature are mainly rooted in three mechanisms: viscosity change of live heavy oil, adsorption and desorption function of fluid molecules, and thermal expansion of rock particles and fluid. This pressure contributes to the improvement of oil-water relative permeability
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