Experimental Study of Temperature Effect on Oil Relative Permeability in Porous Media

Abstract

In the modeling of thermal recovery processes of heavy oil, it is important to know the oil primary relative permeability in the reservoir; moreover we have to be aware of effects of the temperature on oil relative permeability as well. In this study, a sand pack of quartz (SiO2) has been used to simulate and make a porous medium. Quartz is naturally water wet. During experiments there was no change in the pore volume of the media at different temperatures because of the low expansion coefficient of quartz. The fluid used in experiments is engine oil 50. Glass pipes with length of 91cm and diameter of 2.6cm have been used in the experiments. At first, columns have been filled with sand, which sand grains had different diameters, then carbon dioxide was injected to the columns to deplete the air in the pores , then the porous media have been saturated with water to calculate the porosity using the scale model. In addition according to Darcys law in steady state, the absolute permeability was calculated. In the next step, oil was injected to columns until the water saturation reached connate water saturation and finally, water injection was begun to get residual oil saturation (Sor). Experiments results showed that increase of temperature increases the oil relative permeability, note that wetability was constant. Increasing the temperature decreases the oil viscosity then this reduction causes the fluid to move easier and its velocity increases as well.