Chapter 4 - Lecture Notes
Chapter 4 - Lecture Notes
▪ Introduction
Test plugs used for RCA are typically 1’’ or 1.5’’ diameter
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Introduction
Việc thữ hiện chủ yếu là bơm ép mẫu lõi
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Wettability
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Wetting Phase Fluid
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Nonwetting Phase Fluid
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Water-Wet Reservoir Rock
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Water-Wet Rock
ow Oil
Water
os ws os
Solid
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Oil-Wet Reservoir Rock
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Oil-Wet Rock
ow
Water
Oil
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WATER-WET OIL-WET
Oil
OIL Oil OIL
WATER WATER
< 90
WATER WATER > 90
SOLID (ROCK) SOLID (ROCK)
FREE WATER
OIL
GRAIN GRAIN
OIL
RIM
1.0 1.0
Relative Permeability, Fraction
0.6 0.6
0.2 0.2
Water
KRO 0 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100
các mõ dầu chủ yếu là water wet; xuất hiện thêm oil wet
do bị ảnh huơgr do tính dính nước, đại diện cho xu
hương chất lưu nào bám vào đá nhiều hơn, thông thường Water Saturation (% PV) Water Saturation (% PV)
là nước, 1 số trường hợp dầu sec bám vào đá do ai lực
của đá,
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Measurement of wettability
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Contact Angle method
= contact angle between the oil/water/solid interface measured through the water, degrees
os = interfacial energy between the oil and solid, milli-Newtons/m or dynes/cm
ws = interfacial energy between the water and solid, milli-Newtons/m or dynes/cm
ow = interfacial energy (interfacial tension) between the oil and water, milli-Newtons/m or
dynes/cm
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Adhesion Tension
AT os ws ow cos
• A negative adhesion tension indicates that the denser
phase (water) preferentially wets the solid surface (and vice
versa).
• An adhesion tension of “0” indicates that both phases have
equal affinity for the solid surface
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Contact Angle method
Schematic of the experimental apparatus to measure the contact
angle. In this system, the contact angle of a water droplet
surrounded by air is measured.
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Amott-Harvey method
The wetting phase fluid will spontaneously imbibe the rock, thus
displacing another non-wetting phase fluid.
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Amott-Harvey method
The Amott-Harvey procedure includes 4 steps:
1. Spontaneous imbibition:
Displaced oil
Oil-saturated sample is placed in an imbibition
cell surrounded by water. The water is allowed
to imbibe into the core sample displacing oil
Rock sample
until equilibrium is reached. The volume of
water imbibed is equal to the oil displaced;
Core holder with
rock sample
2. Forced imbibition:
The core is moved to a core holder and water is
pumped through. The volume of oil displaced
Water
may be measured;
Oil
Water index: or
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Amott-Harvey method
3. Spontaneous uptake of oil:
The core, now saturated with water at residual Rubber
Oil
tube
oil saturation, is placed in an Amott cell and
surrounded by oil. The oil is spontaneously
Core
taken up and water is displaced. The volume of sample
water displaced is measured; .
Oil index: or
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Amott-Harvey method
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Amott-Harvey method
Amott-Harvey wettability index
neutral
completely oil wetting
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Amott-Harvey method
Amott index values for different wettability states:
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U.S Bureau of Mines (USBM)
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U.S Bureau of Mines (USBM)
3. The core holder is filled with oil and rotated at a certain speeds to obtain the
primary drainage curve.
4. The core is placed in an inverted core holder filled with brine. The brine is
allowed to spontaneously imbibe into the core. Then the core is centrifuged at
incremental steps.
5. The core is placed in a core holder filled with oil and the secondary drainage
curve is obtained.
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U.S Bureau of Mines (USBM)
SWI
Primary
DRAINAGE
(Forced)
PC
(+) Secondary
DRAINAGE
(Forced)
IMBIBITION
(Spontaneous) A1
SWS SOS
0
S ws Swt
rw
S wt A2 (Residual
Oil)
IMBIBITION
S os
ro (Forced)
(-) S wt
WIAmott = rw-ro Secondary
DRAINAGE
(Spontaneous)
A1
W I USBM log
A2
0 SW % 100
From N.R.Morrow (JPT, Dec. 1990)
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U.S Bureau of Mines (USBM)
• The logarithm of the area ratio is defined as the USBM-wettability index;
𝑼𝑺𝑩𝑴 𝟏 𝟐
• The relative wetting tendencies of the liquids in a porous medium and the
distribution of pore sizes determine the shape of the capillary-pressure curves.
• Therefore, the logarithm of the area ratio for the water-wet system is greater
than zero. Conversely, the area ratio is less than unity for oil-wet systems and
the logarithm of the ratio is negative.
𝑊𝐼 =0 neutral
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Exercise
A core sample initially contained Sw= 25%. The core was placed in an
Amott cell surrounded by water for a few days. After extracting the core, it
was found that the water saturation increased to 68%.
When the core sample was placed in the core holder and water was
injected at a high flow rate, the water saturation in the core after water
injection was found to be 72%.
When the core sample was placed in an Amott cell surrounded by oil, very
little oil imbibition occurred and the water saturation decreased to 71%.
When the core sample was placed in the core holder and oil was injected
to displace the water, the water saturation reduced to 32%.
Based on the data collected, what is the wettability of the core sample?
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Relative Permeability
ko kg kw
k ro k rg k rw
k k k
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Relative Permeability
1.00
kro @ Swi • Wettability and direction of
Relative Permeability (fraction)
Non-wetting
100 phase
Wetting phase
80
Relative Permeability, %
40
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Hysteresis Effect on Rel. Perm.
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Measurement of Relative Permeability
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Steady state (SS) method
Purpose: to determine
– two phase relative permeability functions
– irreducible wetting phase saturation (drainage)
– residual non-wetting phase saturation (imbibition)
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Steady state (SS) method
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Steady state (SS) method
• Imbibition Relative Permeability
Functions
– Stage 1: Preparation for
drainage
• core saturated with wetting
phase
• steady state injection of
wetting phase used to
determine absolute
permeability
– Stage 2: Irreducible wetting
phase
• inject non-wetting phase
until steady state, measure
saturation
– no wetting phase will
be produced at steady
state
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Steady state (SS) method
• Imbibition Relative Permeability
Functions (continued)
– Stage 3 (A-C): determination of
points on imbibition relative
permeability function
• steady state injection at
constant rates of wetting
and non-wetting phase
– Initially ratio qw/qnw is
small
• measure saturation and
phase pressure drops at
steady state
– saturation ratio will in
general, not be the
same as injection ratio
• repeat with increasing
ratio, qw/qnw
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Steady state (SS) method
• Imbibition Relative Permeability
Functions (continued)
– Stage 4: determination of
residual non-wetting phase
saturation
• inject wetting phase until
steady state behavior
observed
• measure saturation and
wetting phase pressure
drop
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Unsteady state (USS) method
• Unsteady State Method for relative permeability provides
– Relative permeability ratio (kr,nonwet/kr,wet) as a function of
wetting phase saturation (Swet)
– Irreducible wetting phase saturation (drainage)
– Residual nonwetting phase saturation (imbibition)
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Unsteady state (USS) method
Saturation in Production
Core Plug Rates
• Imbibition Relative Permeability
Ratio Function
– Stage 1: Preparation for
drainage
• core saturated with wetting
phase
– Stage 2: Irreducible wetting
phase (drainage)
• inject non-wetting phase
until steady state, measure
saturation
– no wetting phase will
be produced after
steady state
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Unsteady state (USS) method
Saturation in Production
• Imbibition Relative Permeability Core Plug Rates
Ratio Function
– Stages 3-6: Inject wetting
phase
• Stage 3 (A) Wetting phase
has not yet reached
outflow face
– only nonwetting
phase produced at
outflow face
• Stage 4 (B) Wetting phase
just reaches outflow face,
called breakthrough
– wetting phase will be
produced at outflow
face
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Unsteady state (USS) method
Saturation in Production
• Imbibition Relative Permeability Core Plug Rates
Ratio Function
– Stages 3-6: Inject wetting
phase
• Stage 5 (C) As injection of
wetting phase continues,
production of nonwetting
phase decreases
(unsteady state)
– Important to take
many data points
during this decrease
» cummulative
nonwetting
phase produced
» production rate
for both phases
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Unsteady state (USS) method
Saturation in Production
• Imbibition Relative Permeability Core Plug Rates
Ratio Function
– Stages 3-6: Inject wetting
phase
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Quiz
Given a rock with 80 mD absolute permeability, 6 in length, and 1.5 in
diameter. During a two-phase steady state-relative permeability
experiment, water was injected at a rate of 0.23 cm3/min while oil
was injected simultaneously at a rate of 0.52 cm3/min. The outlet of
the rock was open to atmospheric pressure while the inlet pressure
was measured at 7 psig for both water and oil. The water viscosity is
1 cP and oil viscosity is 0.9 cP. The rock weighs 145.7 g at that stage of
the experiment. The water density is 1 g/cm3 while the oil density is
0.72 g/cm3.
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Capillary pressure
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Pc in Drainage and Imbibition Processes
DRAINAGE
• Fluid flow process in which the saturation
of the wetting phase decreases
IMBIBITION
• Fluid flow process in which the saturation
Drainage of the wetting phase increases
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Water-Wet Reservoir, Imbibition
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Oil-Wet Reservoir, Imbibition
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Drainage Process
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Measurement of Capillary Pressure
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Porous Diaphragm Method
Porous diaphragm method of
measuring capillary pressure
Nitrogen
pressure
Saran tube
Crude oil Scale of
Neoprene squared
paper
stopper
Nickel-
Core plated Seal of
spring red oil
Kleenex
paper
Ultra-fine
fritted
glass disk
Brine
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Porous Diaphragm Method
Measured
data points
Irreducible
Wetting Phase
Saturation
Displacement
pressure
• Advantages
– Very accurate
– Can use reservoir fluids
• Disadvantages
– Very slow (days, weeks, months)
– Range of capillary pressure is limited by “displacement
pressure” of porous disk
• Wetting phase of disk should be same as core sample
• Holes in porous disk act as capillaries, allowing only
wetting to flow out until displacement pressure is
exceeded
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Mercury injection method
0-200 psi pressure gauge
0-2,000 psi pressure
gauge
Regulating valve
To
Lucite window atmosphere
Cylinder
U-tube monometer
Lucite window
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Mercury injection method
• Advantages
– Results obtained quickly (minutes,hours)
– Method is reasonably accurate
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Centrifuge method
Seal Cap Core holder body Window
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Centrifuge method
• Advantages
– Results can be obtained fairly quickly (hours, days,
weeks)
– Reasonably accurate
– Can use reservoir fluids
• Disadvantages
– Complex analysis required can lead to calculation
errors
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Dynamic method
Gas Gas
outlet inlet
Po
Pg Pc
Core
Oil inlet
To
atmosphere Porcelain
plate
Oil burette
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Dynamic method
• Advantages
– Simulates reservoir flow conditions
– Can use reservoir fluids
• Disadvantages
– Very tedious to perform (weeks,
months)
– High cost
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The Leverett J-Function
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Definition of Leverett J-Function
The Leverett J-function (in SI units):
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Definition of Leverett J-Function
The Leverett J-function (in field units):
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Example for J-Function
10.00
9.00
Jc
Jmatch
8.00 Jn1
Jn2
7.00 Jn3
6.00
J-function
5.00
4.00
3.00
2.00
1.00
0.00
0.00 0.10 0.20 0.30 0.40 0.50 0.60 0.70 0.80 0.90 1.00
Water saturation, fraction
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Pc(Sw) Depends on k, φ
Core Pore Petrophysical Gamma Ray Flow
Core Lithofacies
Plugs Types Data Log Units
f vs k Capillary
Pressure
High Quality 5
1
Low Quality
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Leverett J-Function for Conversion of Pc Data
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Leverett J-Function Usage
• J-function is useful for averaging capillary pressure data
from a given rock type from a given reservoir
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Exercise
Use Excel to calculate and graph the Leverett J-Function, J(Sw) for the following
laboratory data. Remember that J(Sw) is dimensionless and to work in consistent
units.
Sample 10A 48D 77C Other Lab Data
Depth 9304.1 ft 9342.6 ft 9374.8 ft Fluid System: Air-
Water
k(md) 45 6.3 11 = 0 degrees
f 0.197 0.129 0.133 = 72 dynes/cm
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Exercise
Capillary pressure measurement on a reservoir rock in the laboratory
gavethe following results:
Lab conditions
(Sw)
Lab Pc / [N/m] 0.005
2.4 0.16 / 0o
1 0.16
0.75 0.2 Reservoir conditions
0.5 0.35
/ [N/m] 0.03
0.25 0.85
0.1 0.96 / 25o
0.05 1
a) What is the flow process for this capillary pressure curve: drainage or
imbibition? Explain?
b) What is the irreducible water saturation? Why?
c) Convert the capillary pressure to oil/water (reservoir conditions)
system and plot it using a semi-log scale.
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