Influence of Clay Wettability Alteration on Relative Permeability

Fan, Ming; McClure, James E.; Armstrong, Ryan T.; Shabaninejad, Mehdi; Dalton, Laura E.; Crandall, Dustin; Chen, Cheng

doi:10.1029/2020GL088545

Influence of Clay Wettability Alteration on Relative Permeability

Journal Article · Mon Sep 14 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · Geophysical Research Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL088545· OSTI ID:1664618

Fan, Ming ^[1]; ^[2]; Armstrong, Ryan T. ^[3]; Shabaninejad, Mehdi ^[4]; ^[5]; Crandall, Dustin ^[6]; ^[1]

Department of Mining &, Minerals Engineering Virginia Tech Blacksburg VA USA
Department of Mining &, Minerals Engineering Virginia Tech Blacksburg VA USA, Advanced Research Computing, Virginia Tech Blacksburg VA USA
School of Minerals and Energy Resources Engineering University of New South Wales Sydney New South Wales Australia
Department of Applied Mathematics Australian National University Canberra Australian Captial Territory Australia
Research and Innovation Center National Energy Technology Laboratory Morgantown WV USA, Leidos Research Support Team Morgantown WV USA
Research and Innovation Center National Energy Technology Laboratory Morgantown WV USA

Abstract

Understanding the wettability of porous materials is important to model fluid flow in the subsurface. One of the critical factors that influences wetting in real reservoirs is the composition of geologic materials. The wetting properties for clay minerals can have a particularly strong impact on flow and transport. In this work, we analyze the chemical composition of a Mt. Simon sandstone core to resolve the microscopic structure of clay regions and assess how alterations to the local wetting properties influence multiphase transport based on core flooding experiments and relative permeability simulations. We show that whichever fluid has greater affinity toward clay minerals will tend to accumulate within these high surface area regions, leading to dramatic shifts in the relative permeability. This work establishes the essential importance of the mineral composition and associated wetting properties in the modeling of flow and transport in reservoir‐scale systems.

View Accepted Manuscript (Publisher)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725; FE0026825; FG02-94ER14466

OSTI ID:: 1664618

Journal Information:: Geophysical Research Letters, Journal Name: Geophysical Research Letters Journal Issue: 18 Vol. 47; ISSN 0094-8276

Publisher:: American Geophysical Union (AGU)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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