Effect of wettability alteration on water/oil relative permeability, dispersion, and flowable saturation in porous media

Journal Article · Sun May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1988 · SPE (Society of Petroleum Engineers) Reserv. Eng.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2118/15019-PA· OSTI ID:6687532

Wang, F H.L.

Wettability alteration was shown to affect strongly water/oil two-phase flow behavior in Berea and Loudon reservoir cores. Two examples of wettability alteration were realized by core aging and core extraction. With a steady-state method coupled with tracer analyses, these changes in wettability were shown to affect relative permeabilities, tivedispersivities, and flowable saturations in the cores. The changes in wettability were also confirmed by waterflood and spontaneous-imbibition tests. Dispersion in steady-state two-phase flow was found to be a strong function of saturation and wettability. Dispersivity of each phase increases with decreasing phase saturation. Flow of the nonwetting phase was dispersed much more than that of the wetting phase. A large fraction of the nonwetting-phase saturation was found to be bypasses or nonflowable, while the wetting phase was completely flowable. The correlation between the flowable phase saturation and in-situ saturation was strongly affected by wettability alteration.

• Research Organization: Exxon Production Research Co. (US)
• OSTI ID: 6687532
• Journal Information: SPE (Society of Petroleum Engineers) Reserv. Eng.; (United States), Journal Name: SPE (Society of Petroleum Engineers) Reserv. Eng.; (United States) Vol. 3:2; ISSN SREEE
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020300* -- Petroleum-- Drilling & Production
DISPLACEMENT FLUIDS
ENERGY SOURCES
ENHANCED RECOVERY
FLUID FLOW
FLUID INJECTION
FLUID MECHANICS
FLUIDS
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
HYDRODYNAMICS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
MECHANICS
OIL WELLS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PETROLEUM
RECOVERY
RESERVOIR ROCK
ROCK-FLUID INTERACTIONS
STIMULATION
TWO-PHASE FLOW
WATER
WATERFLOODING
WELL STIMULATION
WELLS
WETTABILITY