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Waterflood relative permeabilities in composite cores

Journal Article · · J. Pet. Technol.; (United States)
OSTI ID:5115688

When cores longer than about 3 in. are desired for waterflood testing, it is common to assemble a composite core from a set of short core pieces. The assumptions made in using such a composite core for waterflooding testing are that all the core selections: (1) have nearly identical relative permeability curves, (2) are homogeneous and isotropic, and (3) have nearly identical connate water and residual oil values. It is further assumed that there is good contact between sections and that the flooding rate is high enough to make capillary pressure effects unimportant in all core sections. To test the validity of the proposed ordering scheme, waterflood simulations were performed using one-dimensional, 2-phase difference equation approximations to describe immiscible water-oil displacement. The difference equations, which were implicit in water pressure and capillary pressure, were solved using a Newtonian residual iteration scheme with the alternating direction iteration procedure (ADIP). After the waterflood simulation was performed from the resulting fluid production and pressure drop data, a set of waterflood relative permeability curves was calculated using the standard computational procedure applicable to homogeneous cores.

Research Organization:
Esso Production Res Co
OSTI ID:
5115688
Journal Information:
J. Pet. Technol.; (United States), Journal Name: J. Pet. Technol.; (United States) Vol. 21; ISSN JPTJA
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English