Improved method to calculate pseudorelative permeabilities to model gravity and capillary effects in reservoir simulation

Thesis/Dissertation · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1985

OSTI ID:5371208

Al-Yousef, H Y

A numerical investigation of the effects of injection rate on oil recovery performance was made. A homogeneous model and a layered model with three different permeability arrangements were considered. Two oils of viscosity 2 and 20 cp were used to give a mobility ratio of 1 and 10. The results of the homogeneous system indicate that the ultimate oil recovery at a given pore volumes injected increases slightly with a decrease in injection rate. The number of pore volumes injected required to produce a given amount of oil decreases substantially for mobility ratio of 1. In layered systems, the recovery performance depends on the degree of stratification and the arrangement of the layers. Accordingly, the breakthrough and ultimate oil recoveries may increase or decrease with a decrease in injection rate. Pseudorelative permeabilities and capillary pressures are used to predict the performance of three-dimensional, areal models. In this work a technique was developed to improve the procedure to calculate the pseudorelative permeabilities. The derivation was based on material balance and fluid flow equations. Once the average pressures and saturations are obtained, the determination of the pseudorelative permeabilities become an inversion problem. In this new technique the directional dependence of the pseudorelative permeabilities and the pseudocapillary pressure have been eliminated. An extension of the pseudofunction concept to nonisothermal systems has been presented. A computer program which simulates a two-phase, three-dimensional reservoir and calculates the pseudorelative permeabilities was developed.

• Research Organization: Stanford Univ., CA (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5371208
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020300* -- Petroleum-- Drilling & Production
CALCULATION METHODS
CAPILLARY FLOW
COMPUTER CODES
CORRELATIONS
ENERGY SOURCES
ENHANCED RECOVERY
FLOW RATE
FLUID FLOW
FLUID INJECTION
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
GRAVITATION
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
OIL WELLS
PERMEABILITY
PETROLEUM
POROSITY
PRODUCTIVITY
RECOVERY
WELLS