Change In Effective Permeability Research Articles

Well Test Analysis: Wells Producing by Solution Gas Drive

Abstract Drawdown and buildup data in a homogeneous, uniform, closed, cylindrical reservoir containing oil and gas and producing by solution gas drive at a constant surface oil rate were investigated. The well was assumed to be located at the center of the reservoir. Gravity effects were not included. Though the reservoir systems studied were assumed to be homogeneous, the effect of a damaged region in the vicinity of the wellbore was examined. Recently, alternate expressions for describing multiphase flow through porous media have been presented. These expressions incorporate changes presented. These expressions incorporate changes in effective permeability and fluid properties (formation volume factor, viscosity, gas solubility) with pressure by means of a pseudopressure function. The validity of applying the pseudopressure-function concept to drawdown and pseudopressure-function concept to drawdown and buildup testing for multiphase-flow situations was investigated. The pseudopressure function for analyzing drawdown behavior is calculated difrerently from that required to analyze buildup data. Consequently, two pseudopressure functions are required for analysis of well behavior in multiphase-flow systems. Dimensionless groups are used to extend the results to other situations having different permeabilities, spacing, reservoir thickness, well permeabilities, spacing, reservoir thickness, well radii, porosity, etc., provided the PVT relations and relative-permeability characteristics are identical to those used in this study. The pseudopressure-function concept used to analyze pseudopressure-function concept used to analyze drawdown and buildup behavior extends the applicability of the results to a wide range of PVT relations and relative-permeability characteristics. Introduction During the past 30 years, more than 300 publications have considered various problems publications have considered various problems pertaining to well behavior. Except for a few (about pertaining to well behavior. Except for a few (about 10), most papers examining transient pressure behavior assume that the fluids in the reservoir obey the diffusivity equation. This implies the use of a single-phase, slightly compressible fluid. The reason for the popularity of this approach is twofold:(1)the ease with which the diffusivity equation can be solved for a wide variety of problems, and(2)the demonstration by some problems, and(2)the demonstration by some workers that, for some multiphase-flow situations, single-phase flow results may be used provided appropriate modifications are made. The necessary modifications are summarized in Ref. 1. The main objective of this study is to present a method for rigorously incorporating changes in fluid properties and relative-permeability effects in the properties and relative-permeability effects in the analysis of pressure data when two phases of oil and gas are flowing. This should enable the engineer to calculate the absolute formation permeability rather than the effective permeability to each of the flowing phases. This method is based on an idea suggested by Fetkovich, who proposed that if an expression similar to the real gas pseudopressure is defined, then equations describing pseudopressure is defined, then equations describing simultaneous flow of oil and gas through porous media may be simplified considerably. The validity of the equations and methods for calculating the pseudopressure function, however, was not presented pseudopressure function, however, was not presented by Fetkovich. LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS General equations of motion describing multiphase flow in porous media have been known since 1936. These equations, and the assumptions involved in deriving them, are discussed thoroughly in the literature and will not be considered here. Equations for two-phase flow were first solved by Muskat and Meres for a few special cases. Evinger and Muskat studied the effect of multiphase flow on the productivity index of a well and examined the steady radial flow of oil and gas in a porous medium. Under conditions of steady radial porous medium. Under conditions of steady radial flow the oil flow rate is given by (1) SPEJ P. 196

The Effect of Overburden Pressure on Relative Permeability

Laboratory relative permeability data on reservoir rock are obtained onsamples which are not subjected to overburden pressure during the permeabilitymeasurements. These data are then used for calculating the performancecharacteristics of reservoirs in which the rock is under the pressure of theoverburden. Recent observations have shown that the permeability and porosityof reservoir sandstones are decreased by application of overburden pressure.These observations led us to a study of the effect of overburden pressure onthe relative permeability characteristics of sandstones. A previous note from this laboratory showed that overburden pressure, simulated by applying hydraulic pressure to the outside of a plastic mountedcore, caused a reduction in permeability of the core by as much as 50 per centat 10,000 psig. In a multi phase fluid flow system, the relative permeabilityat a given saturation will change if the permeability or the effectivepermeability changes but not if both permeability and effective permeabilitychange by the same ratio. The tests described in this note were made todetermine the effect of overburden pressure on permeability and effective gaspermeability in the gas-oil system. The gas-oil system was chosen because theavailable equipment was best suited for studying this system. The resultantdata can be applied to other systems of interest because the gas permeabilityin the gas-oil system is the permeability of the nonwetting phase and, as such, is equivalent to the gas permeability in the gas-oil-water system and to theoil permeability in the oil-water system. Cylindrical test plugs, one in. in diameter and one in. long, were cut fromsandstone core samples from three different reservoirs. After extraction intoluene, the plugs were mounted in Lucite by conventional core mountingmethods. The core properties are given in the legend in Fig. 1. The mountedcores were machined to fit the apparatus shown in Fig 4. Air permeabilities asa function of overburden pressure were measured by connecting lines (1) and (2)to a conventional air permeameter. T.N. 194