The solubility of gas components and its importance in gas-condensate reservoir development

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe authors investigated the solubility of the gas components in the natural gas-condensate systems and its importance in gas-condensate reservoir development. Also, they discuss some fundamental aspects of preferable methods for recovering trapped retrograde condensate in the formation that is left after primary production. Based on the obtained results from the constant composition expansion test of seven different gas-condensate systems provided a greater understanding of the occurrences and interchanges between liquid and gas phases in the recombined reservoir fluids. The correlation between amount of the dissolved gas in the liquid phase, the volume of vaporized condensate in the gas phase and retrograde condensation pressure was investigated. Analysis of this data identified that increasing dissolved gas in the liquid phase, increases vaporized condensate even in the same thermobaric condition and decreases the retrograde condensation pressure of the gas-condensate systems. It was determined that the solubility of gas components in the fluid should be considered when projecting the gas-condensate reservoirs development. As, improving the solubility of gas components in the condensate decreases the system fog up and retrograde condensation pressures and improves stability of aerosol condition of gas-condensate fluid, it influences on the reservoir condensate bearing to be increased. Therefore, injected gas for gas cycling or revaporization of accumulated condensate from the core can be controlled for the purpose of increasing its solubility and condensate bearing capability.