HIGH RESOLUTION PREDICTION OF GAS INJECTION PROCESS PERFORMANCE FOR HETEROGENEOUS RESERVOIRS

Abstract

This report outlines progress in the second quarter of the third year of the DOE project ''High Resolution Prediction of Gas Injection Process Performance for Heterogeneous Reservoirs''. This report presents results of an investigation of the effects of variation in interfacial tension (IFT) on three-phase relative permeability. We report experimental results that demonstrate the effect of low IFT between two of three phases on the three-phase relative permeabilities. In order to create three-phase systems, in which IFT can be controlled systematically, we employed analog liquids composing of hexadecane, n-butanol, isopropanol, and water. Phase composition, phase density and viscosity, and IFT of three-phase system were measured and are reported here. We present three-phase relative permeabilities determined from recovery and pressure drop data using the Johnson-Bossler-Naumann (JBN) method. The phase saturations were obtained from recovery data by the Welge method. The experimental results indicate that the wetting phase relative permeability was not affected by IFT variation whereas the other two-phase relative permeabilities were clearly affected. As IFT decreases the ''oil'' and ''gas'' phases become more mobile at the same phase saturations.