Reservoir Engineering

Module 1 and 2
Reservoir Rock Properties
Content
• Porosity
• Permeability
• Relative permeability, horizontal, vertical permeability, Klinkenberg effect
• Porosity- Permeability Relationship
• Compressibility
• Saturation: of oil, water and gas
• Capillary pressure
• wettability
• Darcy Equation, Laplace – Young Equation
 Porosity
• One of the most important parameters in reservoir engineering
• Individual sand particles with varying grain sizes were buried and
compressed
• This resulted in spaces between grains which are occupied by fluids
(HC/non-HC fluids)
• This space inside a rock which holds petroleum fluids is called
‘Porosity’
• Porosity is a measure of amount of empty space inside a rock
• More porous the rock, greater the capacity to hold petroleum fluids
Porosity Cont’d
• 
Porosity Cont’d

• A clean and dry core sample weighing 425 g was 100% saturated with
a 1.07 specific gravity (y) brine. The new weight is 453 g. The core
sample is 12 cm long and 4 cm in diameter. Calculate the porosity of
the rock sample.
Porosity Cont’d
• Types of porosities:

• There are three main types of porosities:

• Effective Porosity: Pore spaces are inter-connected throughout and
contribute towards the fluid flow
• Ineffective porosity: Pore spaces are isolated and there is no clear pathway
for the fluid to flow
• Total/Absolute Porosity: Includes effective and ineffective porosities
Porosity Cont’d
• Effective Porosity:
• Ratio of effective (interconnected) pore volume to the bulk volume of the
reservoir rock
• Ø = interconnected pore volume / bulk volume of the rock

• Ineffective Porosity:
• Ratio of isolated pore volume to the bulk volume of the rock
• Ø = isolated pore volume / bulk volume of the rock

• Total Porosity:
• Ratio of total pore volume to the bulk volume of the rock
• Ø = total pore volume / bulk volume of the rock
Porosity Cont’d
• Porosity Classification:
• Original Porosity: A native porosity that is developed during the
deposition of the rock
• Induced Porosity: As the name suggests, this type of porosity is
induced due to geologic events after the rock was deposited
• Due to diagenesis, catagenesis, earth stresses etc

• Parameters affecting porosity:

• Grain size, grain shape, clay content, compaction, cementation
Porosity Cont’d
• Grain size:
Porosity Cont’d
• Grain shape:
• Grain shape of sediments can affect porosity
• In general, sediments are not round shaped and thus can arrange themselves so
that there will be higher proportion of void spaces
• Grain sorting:
• Well sorted sediments have higher porosity than poorly sorted sediments
• Small particles fill out spaces between larger grains thus reducing porosity

• Presence of clay and organic content generally tend to yield higher porosity
due electrostatic repulsion between clay particles
• Compaction and cementation tend to reduce porosity
Porosity Cont’d
 Permeability
• A good porosity is of no use if there no flow capacity in the rock
• Petroleum reservoir fluids need a conductive pathway to flow in order to reach
well
• This flow capacity of a rock is called ‘Permeability’ and is denoted by ‘k’
• In other words, it is the measure of the cross-sectional area of the pore throats
• Permeability is one of the most important properties in reservoir engineering
• Permeability is a dynamic property as opposed to porosity which is a static
property. In other words, to measure permeability, a fluid has to flow through it
• Strictly a rock property and not dependent on the fluid that flows through the
rock
Permeability cont’d
• Permeability of a rock:
• Measure of its specific flow capacity
• Property of the medium and is a measure of the capacity of the medium to
transmit fluids
• Measure of fluid conductivity of a porous medium
• Ability to transmit fluid through a rock when a single phase is flowing
• Analogous to electrical conductivity, represents reciprocal of the resistance of
the medium to fluid flow
Permeability cont’d

• Mathematical Expression for

Permeability: Darcy’s Law

• French engineer Henry Darcy is

the pioneer behind a fluid flow
equation which since has become
one of the standard mathematical
tools in petroleum engineering
• The original equation developed
by Darcy was as follows:
Permeability cont’d

• Where, Q = Volumetric flow rate (m3/sec)

• K = proportionality constant OR Hydraulic Conductivity (m/sec)
• A = Cross Sectional Area (m2)
• L = Length of the core (m)
• h1 and h2 = Hydraulic head at inlet and outlet resp.

• Alternatively the above equation can also be written as:

• Where: dP = Δh*ρ*g
Permeability cont’d
• This Darcy’s law was applicable to flow of water through sand packs
that are 100% saturated with water
• Darcy’s law can be generalized for any other fluid is ’K’ is expressed as
the ratio of k/μ where k is the permeability of the medium and μ is
the viscosity of a given fluid
• Rewritting:
Permeability cont’d
• Integrating the above equation between limits 0 to L and P1
(Upstream pressure) and P2 (Downstream pressure), the final form of
the equation can be written as:
Q = Volumetric flow rate (m3/sec)
k = Absolute permeability (m2)
μ = Fluid viscosity (cP)
ΔP = P2-P1 (N/m2)
L = Length (m)
• This is Darcy’s Law for the flow of fluid through porous media
• This equation is applicable to the horizontal flow
Permeability cont’d

• Assumptions:
• The core plug is 100% saturated with the flowing fluid.
• The flowing fluid is incompressible.
• The flow is horizontal, steady state, and under the laminar regime.
• The flow of fluid through the porous medium takes place under viscous regime (i.e., the rate of flow
is sufficiently low so that it is directly proportional to the pressure differential or the hydraulic
gradient).
• The flowing fluid does not react with the porous medium (i.e., no fluid–rock interactions) because it
may alter the characteristics of the porous medium, thereby changing its permeability as flow
continues.
Permeability cont’d
• Dimensional analysis of the Darcy’s law suggests that the unit of
permeability is
• Therefore permeability has a unit of in English system, in CGS
system and in MKS or SI system
• However these are too big a unit for the porous medium therefore
industry invented a smaller unit called ‘darcy’
• A porous medium is said to have a permeability of 1 darcy when a
single phase fluid having a viscosity of 1 centipoise (cP) completely
saturates the porous medium and flows through it at a rate of 1
cm3/sec under a viscous flow regime and a pressure gradient of 1
atm/cm through a CSA of 1 cm2
Permeability cont’d
Permeability cont’d
• 1 darcy is relatively high permeability since most reservoir rocks have
permeabilities less than 1 D

• Therefore, 1D = 1000mD
Permeability cont’d
• Application of Darcy’s law to inclined and radial flow:

• For inclined flow:

• For radial flow:

Permeability cont’d
• Averaging of Permeabilities:

• Parallel Flow:

• Series Flow:
Permeability cont’d
• Permeability of Fractures and Channels:

• For a channel system:

• For a fracture system:

Permeability cont’d
• Darcy’s Law in Oilfield Units:
• Conversion from m3/day to bbls/day
1 m3 = 6.2898 barrels
1 sec = 0.000011574 day
1 m3/sec = 543438.72 barrels/day

• Conversion from bbls/day to MKS system:

Q in bbls/day = (1/543438.72) m3/sec
= (100/543438.72) cm3/sec
= 1.8401 cm3/sec
A in ft2 =
ΔP in psi = (1/14.696) atm
L in ft = 30.48 cm

Do not convert fluid viscosity because it is specified in cP in oilfield units and in

Darcy’s equation
Permeability cont’d
• Using these conversion factors Darcy’s equation can be re-written in
oilfield units as:

• K in darcy, A in ft2, ΔP in psi, μ in cp, L in ft and Q in bbls/day

Permeability
cont’d
Permeability cont’d
• Measurement of absolute permeability using gases:
• Experimental procedures for permeability measurement using liquids and gases are similar
except one major difference
• Darcy’s law assumes that the fluid flowing through permeable medium is ‘incompressible’
• However, gases are compressible in nature and therefore issues related to the
compressibility have not been addressed in original Darcy equation
• For an incompressible fluid, the flux (Q/A) at inlet should be the same at outlet
• However, for gases the rate fluctuates due to compressible nature and thus the flux changes
too
Permeability cont’d
• Using Boyle’s Law:

• Darcy’s law can be expressed in terms of average flow rate as:

• However, the flow rate of gas is measured at the outlet of the core;
therefore rearranging above equations we get:
Permeability cont’d
• Klinkenberg Effect:
• Klinkenberg was the first to notice that the measurement absolute permeability is higher to gases as
compared to liquids for the same core
• Liquid permeability (Isooctane) for a certain core was 2.55 md however the gas permeability
measurement showed a trend increasing permeability as a function of reciprocal mean time
[1/{P1+P2}/2]
• This variation in perm was ascribed to a phenomenon called ‘gas slippage’
• Gas slippage occurs when diameter if the capillary approaches the mean free path of the gas
• The lower molecular weights, gas tends to slip more compared to at higher molecular weights
Permeability cont’d
Permeability cont’d
• Klinkenberg effect can be mathematically correlated by a straight line
fit of the relationship between the observed gas permeability data
and the reciprocal of the mean pressure

• Here: Kgas = Measured gas permeability,

• Kliquid = Equivalent liquid permeability or the Klinkenberg corrected
liquid permeability
• b = gas slip factor
Permeability cont’d

• Here, λ = mean free path of the gas molecules (mm)

• r = radius of the capillary or a pore (mm)
• C is constant
Permeability cont’d
• Factors affecting permeability:
• Rock related factors:
• Horizontal and vertical permeability
• Grain size
• Fluid phase related factors:
• Physical or chemical characteristics of a fluid that affect permeability
• Water can have significant impact on rocks that contain clays since clays
tend to swell
• Permeability reduces as a result of swelling (formation damage)
Permeability cont’d
• Thermodynamic Factors:
• Temperatures normally tend to affect the fluid and not the rock containing it
• However, observation have been made where presence of certain fluid has
affected the permeability of the rock
• Researchers have indicated that the absolute permeability to water for confined
sandstones is strongly temperature dependent
• It has been reported that for a change from 6 degC to 30 degC, the absolute
permeability decreased by a ratio of 0.8 mD/degC
• A reduction of 60% was observed over a temp range of 21 degC to 149 degC
• However other fluid (nitrogen,mineral oil, octanol) were reported to have no effect
Permeability cont’d
• Mechanical Factors:
• Magnitude of overburden or confining pressure affects the
permeability
• Overburden is inversely proportional to permeability
• Higher the permeability higher the percentage of reduction
• As much as 60% reduction has been observed for a pressure range of
0 to 15,000 psi
Permeability cont’d
• Porosity and Permeability Relationship:
• No direct correlation exists in practice or in theory between porosity and permeability
• The only relationship is at two extreme end points i.e. when porosity is 0% no permeability exists and
when porosity is 100% (open pipe) permeability is infinite
• Need to have higher porosity in order to at least have a possibility of having higher permeability
• However, rocks with low porosity can also have high permeability due to interconnecting pores (vice
versa is also true for pumice stone)
• Any practical relationship represents a mathematical best fit
• Plot of porosity vs permeability yields a ‘cloud’ of data points which can be seen to moving in the
direction higher permeability when the porosity is increasing
Permeability cont’d
• In 1927, Kozeny developed one of the most fundamental and popular
correlation expressing permeability as a function of porosity and specific
surface area
• Based on analogy between Darcy’s law for fluid flow in porous media and
Poiseuille’s equation for fluid flow through n number of capillary tubes

• Here, r = average pore throat radius (cm)

• K = in cm2
• Solving for k yields:
Permeability cont’d
• Now, porosity of the capillary tube can be defined as

Where L is the length of the capillary tube

• Therefore

• Further defining specific surface area as

• Therefore r = 2/Sp
Permeability cont’d
• Substituting for r we get;

• If for the constant ½, 1/kz is substituted, then

• Where kz is the Kozeny constant

Problem

• A core sample from a uniform sandstone formation has a permeability of

480 mD and a porosity of 0.17. Estimate:
• The average pore throat radius of the core
• Specific surface area
Problem
• In an experiment similar to that of Darcy’s, the flow rate of water was
observed to be 5.0 cm3/min. If the experiment were repeated with oil,
what should be the flow rate for oil? The difference between the
upstream and downstream hydraulic gradients Δh are the same for both
the experiments (Measured with water for water experiment and
measured with oil for oil experiment)
• Additional data:
• oil viscosity: 2.5 cP, water viscosity: 0.8 cP, oil density: 0.85 g/cm3 and
water density: 1 g/cm3
Problem
• Brine flood in a 1.9 in long and 1.5 in diameter core plug from North Sea
resulted in a stabilized pressure drop of 46.05 psi. The flood was carried
out at 0.05 mL/min with brine viscosity of 0.443 cP. Determine the
absolute permeability of this core sample.
Saturation
• Porosity is storage capacity of the rock and permeability is conductive capacity
• Porosity talks about maximum amount of space available for the fluid inside a pore;
saturation quantifies how much of it is actually available
• Saturation becomes an important parameter in case where more than one phase is existent
inside a rock
• Greater the number of phases, greater the importance of saturation
• For many reservoirs, initial fluid saturation is an unknown quantity which results in
over/under estimation of HC reserves in place
• If the reservoir is 50% saturated with water, it means that only half of the available pore
space inside a reservoir contains hydrocarbons
Saturation cont’d
• Extremely important to get an accurate estimate of water saturation
during the initial stages of the reservoir to determine the target oil for
secondary or tertiary recovery
• Most commonly used technique to measure fluid saturation is direct
measurement on core sample obtained from the interval of interest
Saturation cont’d
• Saturation Distribution in a Petroleum Reservoir:
• It was believed that initially the reservoir rock saturated with water
• Hydrocarbon fluid migration happened subsequently thus pushing aside the original water
occupying the pore space
• Gravitational and capillary forces played an important part in fluid migration and distribution
• It is extremely difficult to have complete gravity segregation due to strong capillary forces
• Therefore reservoir rocks usually have both HC fluid phases and water occupying the same
pore spaces
Saturation cont’d
• Mathematical expression for fluid saturation:
• Definition: Fluid saturation is the ratio of volume of fluid phase in
a given reservoir rock to the pore volume of sample
• In other words, it can be defined as the fraction of pore volume
occupied by a particular phase (gas, oil or water)

• Note that the fluid saturation may be a fraction of total pore

volume or effective pore volume, however in most cases it is
reported as the fraction of effective pore volume
Saturation cont’d
Since saturations are scaled down to
pore volumes, their summation should
always be equal to 100% or 1.
Saturation cont’d
• It can also be seen from previous equations that
Volume of gas + Volume of oil + Volume of water = Pore volume
• Therefore if fluid saturations are accurately measured on a rock
sample, we can use to accurately determine the effective pore volume
of the sample since fluids originated from the pore spaces of that very
sample
Sg = 40%

So = 20% Total Saturation = 100%

Sw = 20%
Saturation cont’d
• Types of Saturations:

Critical Gas Saturation:

• Petroleum reservoir exist at high pressure and high temperatures
• Due to such high pressures, gas is in dissolved state with liquids
• As the production from such reservoirs begin, reservoir pressure starts to drop
• After certain pressure, the dissolved gas starts to come out of the solution. This pressure is called
‘bubble point pressure’
• Gas saturation starts to increase from 0 steadily as the reservoir starts to deplete in pressure
Saturation cont’d
• However the gas is still in static phase since it’s trapped and doesn’t
start to move until the gas saturation reaches ‘critical gas saturation’
• During primary recovery, solution gas drive or gas cap drive is the
primary driving force which pushes the liquid toward the well
• However, as the gas saturation reaches critical gas saturation, the gas
becomes mobile and leaves significant amount of oil behind making it
difficult to recover that oil
• Denoted by
Saturation cont’d
Residual Oil Saturation:
• Residual oil saturation is the amount of oil left behind either after primary
recovery or after water/gas flooding (secondary recovery)
• It can also be described as the final saturation of oil after the reservoir core
sample is flooded with either water or gas
• Consider a core plug that is 100% saturated with oil into which either gas or
water is injected
• Initially, as the gas/water is injected from one end, it will start displacing the oil
inside the pores and the oil will be produced from the other side of the core
Saturation cont’d
• The saturation of oil inside the core sample will start to go down as more
and more of it will get produced from the other end of the core sample
• After a certain point, the amount oil produced from the other end will
start to decrease and will eventually cease
• At this point, only the displacing phase will get produced from the other
side of the core sample
• A graph of cumulative oil v/s time will show initial rise followed by a
plateau after which no more oil can be produced from the core sample
Saturation cont’d
• It is impossible to have 100% recovery
from the core sample and the amount of
oil that is left behind is called residual oil
saturation
• Residual oil saturation, denoted by can
be determined by the following simple
equation:
Saturation cont’d
Irreducible Water Saturation:
• Irreducible water saturation is defined as the minimum water
saturation inside a reservoir rock (denoted by )
• Commonly used terms for irreducible water saturation are
interstitial water saturation, initial water saturation, connate
water saturation, or capillary bound water
• Reservoir rocks are initially water saturated, oil and gas
migrates from source rock to reservoir rock and occupies pore
spaces
• Due to competition between capillary and gravity forces, it is
impossible to have complete phase separation and therefore
connate water gets distributed throughout the reservoir
Saturation cont’d
• Experiment similar to previous experiments except that in this case the core sample
must be flooded with water and the displacing fluid may be either oil or gas
• One major distinguishing factor in lab measurements is that in case of lab cores
capillary and viscous forces dominate the flow; on the other hand in reality capillary
and gravity forces dominate the flow in petroleum reservoirs
• Unlike critical gas saturation or residual oil saturation, irreducible water saturation is a
naturally driven process and is influenced only by capillary and gravity forces
• Common range is 20-40% however values ranging from as low as 5% to as high as 60%
have also been reported for North Sea chalk reservoirs
Saturation cont’d
• Saturation Averaging:
• Fluid saturation data obtained from various intervals of varying
thicknesses and porosity can be averaged as per following equation:

• Where l is for gas, oil or water, i refers to individual measurement, hi

is the depth interval to which apply
Interfacial Tension and Surface Tension
• Porosity and absolute permeability defined in the previous sections are defined
in terms of single phase system
• Such single phase system rarely exists in petroleum reservoir rock
• Fluid saturation determines how much of the total volume is available for each
phase (gas,oil,water)
• Very complex multiphase system where all three phases along with asphaltenes
(heaviest fraction in crude oil) exists inside the pore petroleum reservoirs
• Therefore other definitions must be added to better classify the properties of a
petroleum reservoir
 • For a single phase system, only single force is
considered, that is between rock and fluid
• When more than one phase exists, one needs
to take in to account the forces between two
fluids in addition to the forces between the rock
and fluid
IFT Cont’d • Fluid 1 Fluid 2
• Fluid 1 Rock
• Fluid 2 Rock
• Existence of these forces gives rise to
fundamental properties such as interfacial
tension and wettability
IFT Cont’d
• First set of forces to be considered is interfacial tension followed by
wettability because wettability depends on IFT
• Capillary pressure depends on wettability and relative permeability
depends on capillary pressure
• Interfacial tension: depends on forces between 2 fluids
• Wettability: Depends on IFT
• Capillary pressure: Depends on wettability and interfacial tension
• Relative permeability: Depends on capillary pressure, wettability and IFT
IFT Cont’d
• In petroleum reservoirs up to 3 phases may co-exist
• These phases are immiscible at certain pressures and temperatures
• There exists a fine membrane between the surface of two phases which is just a few
molecular diameters thick
• The term ‘surface tension’ is used when describing forces between a liquid-gas interface
• The term ‘interfacial tension’ is used when describing forces between liquid-liquid interface
• In a petroleum reservoir with 3 different phases, three different forces are to be considered:
gas-oil (ST), gas-water (ST) and oil-water (IFT)
IFT Cont’d
• In a system of two immiscible phases oil and
water, oil molecule is surrounded by other oil
molecules (Same for water)
• Net attractive force on oil molecule is 0
• However, at the liquid-liquid interface, the net
attractive force is not 0
• This unbalanced force creates membrane like
surface with measurable tension called IFT or
surface tension
• Has dimension of force per unit length and
unit of mN/m (dyne/m)
• Denoted by σ
IFT Cont’d
• Effects of Pressure and Temperature on
Surface Tension and Interfacial Tension:
• It is important to understand the effect of
pressure and temperature on surface
tension and IFT separately
• Surface tension generally decreases with
increase in temperature and pressure
• As the temperature increases the kinetic
energy and tendency of the molecules to
fly outward increases, resulting in decrease
in ST values
IFT Cont’d
• Pressure has similar effect on ST values as that of temperature
• Increase in temperature reduces the ST
• When considering gas-liquid ST, at high pressures, the high pressure vapor over the surface of the
liquid results in low ST since fairly large number of gaseous molecules come in contact with the liquid
surface
• This to some extent will diminish the inward attractive force at the surface of liquid thus reducing the
ST
• In other words, high-pressure gas tends to develop miscibility toward the companion liquid phase
thereby reducing ST
• Effect of pressure and temperature on IFT is somewhat less understood since there is no trend existent
Wettability
• In a porous medium containing two or more immiscible fluids, wettability is a measure of the
preferential tendency of one of the fluids to wet the surface
• In a water wet brine-oil-rock system, water will occupy the smaller pores and will wet majority of the
larger pores
• In areas of high oil saturation with water wet rock, water will imbibe into smaller pores thus pushing
oil out when in contact with water
• If the rock is oil wet and highly saturated with water, oil will imbibe into smaller pores and push water
out when flooded with water
• Wettability can range from highly water-wet to highly oil-wet depending upon the type of rock
• Some systems can also be of neutral wettability or intermediate wettability (no preferential wetting
phase)
Wettability cont’d
• Fractional wettability exists when scattered areas throughout the rock are strong oil-wet whereas the rest of the
area is strongly water-wet
• Occurs when surface of a rock is occupied by various minerals thus changing its surface chemical properties
• Mixed wettability refers to the condition where the smaller pores are occupied by water and are water wet while
the larger pores are occupied by oil and are oil wet
• Mixed wettability can occur when oil with interfacially active polar organic compounds invades a water wet rock
saturated with brine
• After displacing brine from larger pores, this compound reacts with the rock surface and displaces the remaining
water film and makes it oil wet
• Wettability has dominant influence on fluid flow and electrical properties of water-hydrocarbon-rock system; it
controls capillary pressure and relative permeability behavior and thus the rate of HC displacement and ultimate
recovery
Wettability cont’d
• Contact Angle:
• When the interface is in physical contact
with the walls of the container or a
capillary tube, the interface intersects the
solid surface at an angle ϴ, which is a
function of the relative adhesive tension of
the liquids to the solid
• Two liquids water (w) and oil (o) are
associated with a solid surface (s), the
contact angle can be written as:
Wettability cont’d
• Where: = interfacial tension between the solid and oil
• = interfacial tension between the solid and water
• = interfacial tension between water and oil
 

Oil
θ Water
   
Wettability cont’d
• 
Wettability cont’d
Wettability cont’d
• Contact Angle Measurement:
• Amott Test
• USBM Method
Wettability cont’d
• Amott Test:
Wettability cont’d
• Test begins at residual oil saturation obtained by forced displcement of oil
1. Immerse the core sample in oil to observe spontaneous displacement of water
by oil
2. Forced displacement of water by oil by using centrifuge and applying high
pressure
3. Immerse the core sample in water for spontaneous displacement of oil by water
4. Forced displacement of oil by water
• Amott allowed a time period of 20 hours for spontaneous displacement and used a
centrifugal force of 1800 times gravity
Wettability cont’d
• Consider: = volume of water spontaneously displaced
• = volume of water released by forced displacement of oil

• = volume of oil spontaneously displaced

• = volume of oil released by forced displacement of water

• Displacement by oil ratio expressed as is given by

• Displacement by water ratio expressed as is given by
Wettability cont’d
• The ratios and are used as wettability indices

Displacement Ratio Water wet Neutral wet Oil wet

Zero Zero Positive
Positive Zero Zero

• approaching 1 indicated strong oil wetness

• approaching 0 indicated weak preference for oil wetness
• approaching 1 indicated strong water wetness
• approaching 0 indicated weak preference for water wetness
Wettability cont’d
• Modified Amott Test:
• Amott-Harvey wettability is calculated as as:
• This equation combines the two displacement ratios into one
wettability index that varies from +1 to -1 for complete oil wetness
Range Wettability

0.3 to 1 Water wet

0.1 to 0.3 Slightly water wet
-0.1 to +0.1 Neutral
-0.3 to -0.1 Slightly oil wet
-1.0 to -0.3 Oil-wet
Wettability cont’d
• USBM Method
• Designed to find out the average wettability of a core sample and carried
out in a centrifuge apparatus
• Test begins by establishing irreducible water saturation
1. Cores are placed in brine and centrifuged at incremental speeds until an effective
pressure (difference between two phase pressures) of -10 psi is reached. This step
is also known as brine drive since brine displaces oil from the core. During this
step the effective pressure and brine saturation is measured in for each speed of
the centrifuge

2. Core is place in oil and centrifuged. Oil displaces brine from the core. Brine
saturation and effective pressure is measured in a stepwise manner for every
increase in speed. This is continued until effective pressure of +10 psi is reached
Wettability cont’d
• Effective pressure for brine and oil is plotted against brine saturation
• Area under oil curve and brine curve is called curve II and curve I
respectively
• Wettability Index can be calculated as
•
• Where: = Wettability Index
• A1= Area under curve I
• A2 = Area under curve II
Wettability cont’d
• Wettability criteria:
• > 0, core is water wet

• < 0, core is oil wet

• = 0, core is neutral wet

 Wettability cont’d
Problem:
Core Displacement by oil Displacement by
No (mL) Water (mL) • The following data provides displacement data for
Amott wettability test on three core samples from
Alaska North Slope reservoir:
Spontaneo Forced Spontaneo Forced
us us
1 0.05 1.25 0.81 0.85
• Calculate Amott-Harvey wettability index for each
2 0.00 1.69 0.00 0.97 core and determine wetting characteristics for
each core
3 0.47 0.53 0.01 0.59
Wettability cont’d
• Factors Affecting Wettability:
• Composition of the reservoir oil
• Composition of the brine
• Reservoir pressure and temperature
• Depth of the reservoir structure
Wettability cont’d
• Composition in the reservoir oil:
• Although reservoir oil composition seems to have effect on wettability alteration, it is not clear as to
which components affect the wettability
• Presence and amount of asphaltenic components in a reservoir oil can cause wettability alteration
• Asphaltenes get adsorbed on the rock surface and changes the chemical properties of the rock
• Asphaltene is operationally defined as the precipitate resulting from addition of low molecular weight
alkane to crude oil
• Despite the significance of asphaltenes on wettability, it is difficult to evaluate the underlying
mechanisms that cause wettability alteration
Wettability cont’d
• Rayes et al. studied oil-water-rock system for a Libyan and Hungarian
filed to understand the effects of asphaltenes on wettability
• They concluded that asphaltenes can cause substantial alteration in
wetting characteristics of rocks
• A change in the contact angle from 40-60 deg to 120 deg was observed
i.e. complete change in wettability was obeserved
Wettability cont’d
• Composition of the Brine:
• Even though crude composition is the most important factor, brine
composition has also been shown to influence wettability
• Results of Vijapurapu and Rao showed that initial oil wet system was
changed to intermediate wettability simply by diluting the reservoir brine
with deionized water
Wettability cont’d
• Reservoir Pressure and Temperature:
• Pressure change can result asphaltene deposition
• Changes in pressure can cause changes in IFT values thus causing wettability alteration
• When contact angle is used as a measure for wettability, influence of pressure and
temperature can also be evaluated on the basis of contact angle
• Studies show existence of not a very strong correlation between pressure and
temperature and contact angle
• Effect of temperature has been studied and experiments show that average coefficient
for contact angle varies from -20 to -29deg/degC
Wettability cont’d
• Depth of the Reservoir Structure:
• Studies have shown, depending upon the location of the core sample
wettability can differ from oil wet inside the oil column to water wet near
the oil-water contact
• Studies have also shown that depending upon the location of oil water
contact (up structure or down structure) wettability can change from
completely water wet rock for OWC up structure to mixed-wet rock for
OWC down structure
 Capillary Pressure
• Capillary pressure is the difference in pressure
between two immiscible fluids across a curved
interface at equilibrium
• Curvature is the consequence of preferential wetting
of the capillary walls by one of the phases
• In other words, capillary pressure is defined as the
pressure difference between the non-wetting and
wetting phases

• The interface between the liquids will be straight if

the contact angle is 90deg
• The radii of curvature between water and oil in the
pores of the rock are functions of wettability,
saturations of water and oil, pore geometry,
minerology of the pore walls and saturation history of
the system
Capillary Pressure cont’d
• Capillary forces play a major role in dynamic system where flow of two
immiscible phases in involved
• In a reservoir, before a bubble of gas or an oil globule can flow through a
small pore diameter, the critical entry pressure or capillary pressure must
be overcome
• For example, more than 1480 psi pressure would be required to move
spherical oil globule through a 0.01 μm diameter pore, assuming oil-
water IFT of 25 mN/m and completely wetting by water
Capillary Pressure cont’d
• Three different types of capillary pressure exist:
• Gas-oil capillary pressure denoted by Pcgo
• Gas-water capillary pressure denoted by Pcgw
• Oil-water capillary pressure denoted by Pcow
• However when defining capillary pressure, wetting preference of a
given porous medium should be considered
• In case of gas-oil or gas-water system, gas is always a non-wetting
phase. Therefore in such cases:
Capillary Pressure cont’d
• However when we are dealing with oil-water system, both oil and
water can preferentially wet a rock. Considering water a wetting
phase,

• If all three phases are continuous, then

Capillary Pressure cont’d

• Mathematical Expression for Capillary

Pressure:
• Consider a capillary tube with extremely small
diameter placed in large open vessel
• The liquid rises in the capillary tube due
adhesion tension between the tube and the
liquid
• The height of the liquid column inside capillary
depends on the balance between the two
forces at the liquid interface
Capillary Pressure cont’d
Force up =
Force down =
Here: = Adhesion Tension (dynes/cm)
r = Radius of the capillary (cm)
h = Height of the capillary rise (cm)
ρ = density of the liquid in the tube (g/cc)
g = force due to gravity (cm/sec2)
Capillary Pressure cont’d
• According to definition of capillary pressure, the pressure existing on
the liquid phase beneath the air-liquid interface is less than the
pressure that exists in the gaseous phase above the interface
• For the large vessel, the air-liquid interface is horizontal and the
capillary pressure is 0
• Now, pressure in liquid at the top of liquid column is,
• OR
• From force balance, force up = force down
• Therefore:
Capillary Pressure cont’d
• OR

• From the adhesion tension definition:

• Therefore,

• Substituting for ρgh from the capillary pressure equation, we get

Capillary Pressure cont’d
• For air-water system:

• Where: = air-water capillary pressure (dynes/cm2)

= air-water surface tension (dynes/cm)
= Contact angle
r = Capillary radius (cm)
• Expression similar to this can also be developed for oil-water system
Capillary Pressure cont’d
• Po1 = Pressure in oil at 1
• Po2 = Pressure in oil at 2
• Pw1 = Pressure in water at 1
• Pw2 = Pressure in water at 2

• Po1=Pw1 for a flat water surface in the

large vessel
• Pressure in oil and water at point 2 can
be written as:
Capillary Pressure cont’d
• The capillary pressure across oil-water interface is:

• The expression for oil-water capillary pressure in terms of interfacial

tension, wettability and capillary size can also be derived similar to
air-water system
Capillary Pressure cont’d
• Capillary Pressure Behavior with respect to Rock and Fluid
Properties:
• From the expression for capillary pressure, it is evident that capillary
pressure is in direct proportion with adhesion tension and is inversely
proportional to the capillary radius
• Effect of varying capillary radius: For a same adhesion tension, higher
the capillary radius, lower the capillary pressure. In other words,
higher the capillary radius, larger would be the amount fluid it
occupies. In such cases, due to increase in weight, gravity forces
dominate the IFT and thus capillary pressure goes down
Capillary Pressure cont’d
• Effect of varying wettability: When radii of the capillary remain the
same, the denominator of the capillary pressure expression remains
the same. Capillary pressure in such case is a function of adhesion
tension and contact angle. In this case, smaller the contact angle,
greater the height of the liquid column and stronger the adhesion
tension, leading to higher capillary pressure
Capillary Pressure cont’d
• Relationship Between Capillary Pressure and Saturation History:
High Pc High Pc Low Pc
Low Pc

Sw = 100% Sw = 80% Sw = 0% Sw = 20%

Step A Step B Step C Step D
Capillary Pressure cont’d
• Step A to B:
Pc = Pnw - Pw
Initially the capillary tube is filled with wetting fluid.
Saturation of wetting phase is 100% while that of
non-wetting phase is 0%. The non-wetting phase is
forced into the capillary in an attempt to push the
wetting phase out (Drainage). As such in step A, the
value for Pc is low due to absence of non-wetting
phase. In step B, the saturation of non-wetting
phase has increased to 10% and the saturation for
the wetting phase is down to 90%. The capillary
pressure increases due to introduction of non-
wetting phase. Therefore in step B, Pc is high
Capillary Pressure cont’d
• Step C to D:
In step C, the saturation for wetting phase is 0% and
that of non-wetting phase is 100%. In such case, Pc is
always high. Now, in step D, a wetting phase is
injected into the capillary to push the non-wetting
phase out (Imbibition). Due to this the saturation of
wetting phase has increased from 0 to 20%. Due to
this, the value for Pc decreases.
Capillary Pressure cont’d
• Capillary Pressure J-Function:
• Leverett proposed a J-function of a specific reservoir which describes the
heterogeneous rock characteristics by combining porosity and permeability
in a parameter for correlation
• For a constant pore geometry, J-function accounts for changes in
permeability, porosity and wettability of a reservoir
• All the capillary data from a specific formation usually can be reduced to a
single J-function v/s saturation curve
• Two ways to derive the equation: From dimensional analysis of the capillary
pressure equation or by substitution of the capillary pressure in to Kozeny-
Carman equation
Capillary Pressure cont’d
• Permeability has a dimension of and porosity is dimensionless
• Therefore in the capillary pressure equation, radius can be substituted
by

• OR
Problem:
• The fluids in a straight tube have an interfacial tension equal to
32mN/m and exhibit a contact angle of 80° and capillary pressure of
5.5 kPa. What is the radius of the tube?
Capillary Pressure cont’d
• Drainage and Imbibition Curves:
• Initial Condition: Wetting phase: Water and Non-
wetting phase: Oil
• During Imbibition: Wetting phase displaces the
non-wetting phase which is occupying the pores
Eg: Water pushes oil out from water wet rock and
occupies the pores. Saturation of water increases
with time
• During Drainage: Non-wetting phase pushes the
wetting phase out which is occupying the pores
• Eg: Oil pushing water out from water wet rock.
Saturation of water decreases with time
Capillary Pressure cont’d
• Experimental Measurement of Capillary Pressure:
• Porous Diaphragm Method:
• Primary component of diaphragm method is a
permeable membrane of uniform pore size
distribution containing pores of such size that the
displacing fluid doesn’t pass the diaphragm below
maximum operating pressure
• Core sample is 100% saturated with brine
• The core is subjected to displacement of water by
crude oil in stepwise manner
• The pressure applied to crude oil by nitrogen
Capillary Pressure cont’d
• The core sample is allowed to achieve equilibrium at each pressure
step
• Saturation of core sample is calculated based on the amount of brine
displaced by the crude oil which can be read through displacement of
red oil meniscus in the tube that has a scale of squared paper
attached to it
• The test is ended at certain pressure value where there is no more
displacement of the meniscus is observed, an indication that
irreducible water saturation is reached
• Although the setup is such that only the drainage curve can be
obtained, necessary modifications can be done for imbibition curve
Capillary Pressure cont’d
Capillary Pressure cont’d
• Mercury Injection Method:
• Most commonly used technique for determination of capillary pressure v/s
saturation determination
• Two phases under consideration are air and mercury
• Given the known non-wetting characteristics of mercury wrt to reservoir
rocks, it is used to remove any ambiguity with oil or water system when
they are used
• Apparatus includes mercury hand pump with vernier scale for taking
readings, a pycnometer that’s houses core and mercury, nitrogen cylinder
for pressurizing mercury and a display for reading pressure reading
Capillary Pressure cont’d
• A clean and dry core sample with know pore volume and absolute
permeability is placed in the mercury chamber and evacuated
• Mercury is forced in the sample under pressure to displace air which
act like a wetting phase
• The non-wetting phase (mercury) saturation decreases gradually
• The procedure is continued until the core is filled with mercury or
some predetermined pressure is reached
• The pressure and saturation measurement thus taken result into
drainage curve
Capillary Pressure cont’d
• The pressure is then reduced in stepwise manner and corresponding
mercury volume recovered is noted
• The process is continued until the volume of mercury recovered
remains constant for each pressure step
• This results into imbibition capillary pressure-saturation curve
Capillary Pressure cont’d
Capillary Pressure cont’d
• Converting Lab Capillary Pressure Data To Reservoir Conditions:
• Lab measurements are carried out using fluids which do not necessarily
exist in the reservoir
• For eg: Mercury-air, air-water, synthetic oil-water
• These pairs are commonly used in labs but pose a problem since the
conditions do not imitate the reservoir conditions
• The fluids do not have same IFT and the contact angle may differ in the lab
conditions from the one at reservoir conditions
• Purcell conducted some lab experiments on 6 different sands and he used
mercury injection and porous diaphragm to obtain capillary pressure and
saturation relationship
Capillary Pressure cont’d
• Purcell found out that air-mercury capillary pressure was five times as
high as the air-water capillary pressure for the same system
• For air-mercury capillary pressure:

• For air-water capillary pressure:

• Equating for same value of r,

Capillary Pressure cont’d
• Purcell assumed a value of 480 and 70 dynes/cm for air-mercury and
air-water surface tensions respectively. He also assumed a value if
140° and 0°as contact angles for mercury and water against solid
respectively
• Substituting;

• Neglecting the contact angles, Amyx et al found out that a better

correlation can be obtained given by:
Capillary Pressure cont’d
• Considering a specific case of gas-water surface tension at laboratory
conditions:

• Similarly for reservoir conditions where oil-water system exists, the

expression can be written as:

• Comparing:

• Thus, reservoir capillary pressure can be calculated based on laboratory

capillary pressure when the IFT and wettability data for the pertinent
conditions are known
Capillary Pressure cont’d
• Calculation of Permeability from Capillary Pressure:
• Purcell developed the relationship between permeability and capillary
pressure
• Measurement of permeability requires cores of regular shape and
appreciable dimensions however capillary pressure measurement can be
done on drill cuttings which are cheaper to get
• Therefore he wanted to develop the relationship so that there is no need to
obtain large core samples and the process is much cheaper
• The capillary pressure-permeability relationship was developed by using
the analogy between Poiseuille’s equation and generalized capillary
pressure equation
Capillary Pressure cont’d
• The flow rate Q, of a fluid of viscosity μ, through a single cylindrical
tube or capillary of radius r of length L is given by Poiseuille’s
equation:

• Where ΔP is the pressure drop across the tube

• Volume of this capillary is given by
• Thus,
Capillary Pressure cont’d
• Capillary pressure equation for this capillary is given by:

• Substituting the value of r, we get

• If the porous medium is assumed to be of N capillary tubes of equal
length but random radii, the total flow can be expressed as:

• On the other hand the flow Qt through the same system of capillaries
is given by Darcy’s law:
Capillary Pressure cont’d
• Equating previous two equations, we get relationship between
permeability, capillary pressure and pore volume:
(Equation 1)

• This equation can further be simplified by expressing volume of

each capillary as a percentage of the total volume of the system

• Also:
Capillary Pressure cont’d
• Therefore equation 1 reduces to

• Purcell noted that this equation is only applicable to a system of

cylindrical capillaries of equal length, but various radii. Due to seldom
existence of such system in reality, he modified the equation and
introduced a lithology factor λ to account for the differences in the
flow in hypothetical media and that in naturally occurring rock
Problem
• A gas bubble is confined in a capillary tube of ID 0.0007 cm. Oil and
water are present on either sides of the gas bubble thus forming an
interface having ϴ gas-oil and ϴ gas-water of 35° and 15° respectively.
The gas-oil and gas-water surface tension values are 25 and 72
dynes/cm (mN/m) respectively. Assuming static conditions, calculate
the pressure in the gas and the oil phases if the pressure in the water
phase is 110kN/m2
Problem
• A 0.03 cm ID glass capillary tube contains gas, oil and water, thus
forming two interfaces namely gas-oil and oil-water. The contact
angles or these two interfaces are 35° and 25° respectively, while the
surface and IF tensions are 15 and 30 mN/m respectively. Calculate
the gas-water capillary pressure.
Problem
• If a generalized such as one depicted in previous problem is applied to
reservoir a reservoir oil and brine having density 0.85 and 1.05 g/cc
respectively, what would be the height of the capillary rise in 0.0002
cm ID capillary and corresponding Pc? Additional data can be taken
from the previous problem.
 Relative Permeability
• Effective permeability of a fluid is a function of its saturation and wettability
of the medium
• Thus it becomes necessary to specify saturation when dealing with effective
permeability
• Similar to symbol ‘k’ for absolute permeability, effective permeability is
denoted by ko, kg and kw as effective permeability to oil, gas and water
respectively
• The saturations So, Sg and Sw must be specified to completely define the
system in which a given effective permeability exists
• Effective permeability is measured in labs and there can be numerous
combinations of saturations for which an effective permeability can exist
Relative Permeability cont’d
• Therefore lab data are usually summarized in ‘relative permeability’
• The absolute permeability is a property of a medium and is a measure
of capacity of a medium to transmit fluids
• When two or more phases exist in a reservoir, relative permeability in
such cases is a ratio of effective permeability of the phase at certain
saturation to absolute permeability
Relative Permeability cont’d
• kro = relative permeability to oil
• krg = relative permeability to gas
• krw = relative permeability to water
• k = absolute permeability of the medium
• ko = effective permeability to oil at given oil saturation
• kg = effective permeability to gas at given gas saturation
• kw = effective permeability to water at given water saturation
Relative Permeability cont’d
• For example if the absolute permeability of the medium is 200 md
and the effective permeability ko of the rock at an oil saturation of
80% is 60 md, the relative permeability Kro is 0.3 at So = 0.8
• Effective permeability may range from 0 to k however relative
permeability can range only from 0 to 1
0≤ kro, krg, krw ≤1
• If three phases are present inside, the sum of the relative
permeability is variable and is always less than or equal to 1
Relative Permeability cont’d
• 2-Phase Relative Permeability:
• Since wetting phase occupies the smaller pores and do not contribute
materially to flow, presence of wetting phase can only affect the non-
wetting phase relative permeability to a certain extent
• On the other hand, since the non-wetting phase occupies the larger
pores and contributes towards the flow, therefore presence of non-
wetting phase even in small volume will drastically reduce the wetting
phase relative permeability
Relative Permeability cont’d
• 2-Phase Oil-Water Rel Perm Curve

 
4

3 2
Relative Permeability cont’d

WATER Swi + So (initial oil

or 1-Swi)

Swi+So1(reduced
from 1-Swi)
Water
Saturation>Swi

Terminal Water
Saturation
Swterminal
Sor = 1-Swterminal
Relative Permeability cont’d
• 
Relative Permeability cont’d
• 
Relative Permeability cont’d
• 2 Phase Gas-Oil Rel Perm Curve:
• The plot is gas-oil rel perm plotted
against total liquid saturation
• Irreducible water saturation normally
occupies the smallest pores in the
presence of oil
• Rel Perm curve representing oil changes
its shape completely compared to oil-
water system
• In oil-water system, oil usually is non-
wetting phase whereas in gas-oil
system, oil is wetting phase
Relative Permeability cont’d
• 
Relative Permeability cont’d
• 2-Phase Relative Permeability Correlations:
• In many cases, the relative permeability data for the reservoir under
study is not available, in which cases it is necessary that the relative
permeability data is obtained by some other ways
• Several methods have been developed for calculating relative
permeability relationships
• Various parameters have been used to calculate the relative
permeability including:
• Residual and initial saturations
• Capillary pressure data
Relative Permeability cont’d
• 
Relative Permeability cont’d
• 

Drainage Oil-Water Relative Permeabilities

Type of formation Kro Krw Equation
Unconsolidated sand, Well sorted 1
Unconsolidated sand, Poorly sorted 2
Cemented sandstone 3
Relative Permeability cont’d

Drainage Gas-Oil Relative Permeabilities

Type of formation Kro Krg Equation
Unconsolidated sand, Well sorted 4
Unconsolidated sand, Poorly sorted 5

Cemented sandstone, rocks with 6

vugular porosity
Relative Permeability cont’d
• 
Relative Permeability cont’d
• 
Relative Permeability cont’d
For the non-wetting phase
• Imbibition:

• Drainage:
Relative Permeability cont’d
4. Relative Permeability from Capillary Pressure Data:
• Rose and Bruce (1949) showed that capillary pressure Pc is a measure
of the fundamental characteristics of the formation and could also be
used to predict relative permeabilities
• Willie and Gardner (1958) developed the following expression for
mathematical expression for determining the drainage water-oil
relative permeability from capillary pressure data
Relative Permeability cont’d
Relative Permeability cont’d
• Willie and Gardner also presented two expressions for generating the
oil and gas rel-perms in the presence of connate water saturation
Relative Permeability cont’d
• Relative Permeability Ratio:
• Useful relationship that derives from relative permeability concept is
relative permeability ratio
• The quantity lends itself more readily to analysis and to the flow
performance correlation that relative permeability itself
• The relative permeability ratio expresses the ability of a reservoir to
permit flow of one fluid as related to its ability to permit another
under the same circumstances
• Expressed as relative permeability to gas w.r.t. that of oil and
Relative Permeability cont’d
• May vary in magnitude from 0 to infinity
• In describing two phase flow mathematically, it is always relative
permeability ratio that is used in the flow equations
• Because of the wide range of relative permeability ratio values, the
relative permeability ratio is plotted on log scale of semilog paper as a
function of saturation
• Central portion is linear
Relative Permeability cont’d
• Plot of v/s saturation
• Most common way to express the straight line portion
in the following analytical form
• The constants a and b may be determined by selecting
the co-ordinates at two different points on straight line
portion of the line and substituting in above equation
• Point 1: at Sg=0.2, the rel-perm ratio is 0.07
• Point 2: at Sg=0.4, the rel-perm ratio is 0.70
• Substituting we get
Relative Permeability cont’d
• Solving simultaneously, we get a = 0.0070 and b = 11.513 OR

• In a similar manner semilog plot of v/s water saturation can be

plotted
• The middle straight line portion can be expressed as
• The slope b has a negative value
Relative Permeability cont’d
Problem
• Generate drainage relative permeability data for an unconsolidated
well sorted sand by using Willie and Gardner method. Assume the
following critical saturations.
Soc = 0.3, Swc = 0.25, Sgc = 0.05
Problem
• Resolve previous problem using Pirson’s correlation for water oil
system. Assume drainage process and use appropriate correlation.
Problem
• The laboratory capillary pressure curve for a water-oil system
between the connate water saturation and a water saturation of
100% is represented by the following linear equation:
Pc = 22 - 20 Sw
The connate water saturation is 30%. Using Wyllie and Gardner
methods, generate the relative permeability data for the oil-water
system.
Relative Permeability cont’d
• 3-Phase Relative Permeability:
• Direct measurement of 3-phase relative permeability characteristics is
extremely difficult and requires complex techniques to determine the
fluid saturation distribution along the length of the core
• For this reason, the more easily measured two-phase relative
permeability characteristics are experimentally determined
• In a 3-phase system, it is assumed that water occupies the smallest
pores and therefore its flow does not depend upon the kind of fluid
occupying the other pores
• Similarly, gas relative permeability depends only on the gas saturation
Relative Permeability cont’d
• 
Relative Permeability cont’d
• 
Relative Permeability cont’d
• Oil iso-perms not parallel Gas 100%

to any saturation lines

• Kro is a function of both Krw = 0.001
Krw = 0.005
Water and gas Oil Iso-perms
= 0
So Krw = 0.01
Sg = 0.50
saturation Krw = 0.05
on
rati

Krw = 0.1
atu

Wa tura
Sa = 0
lS

ter tion
So
Sw
Oi

0
=

0.5
0.5

=
0

So
Oil 100%
Water 100%
Gas Saturation So = 0
Relative Permeability cont’d

Sw=0.25
So=0.40
Sg=0.35
Relative Permeability cont’d
• Gas isoperms Krg:
• Approximately parallel to gas
saturation lines
• Krg is a function of gas saturation
• Gas is in largest pores
Relative Permeability cont’d
• 3-Phase Relative Permeability Correlations:
• The simplest approach to predict relative permeability to the oil in a
three phase system is given by:

• There are several practical and more accurate correlations that have
most commonly been used:
• Willie’s Correlation
• Stone’s Model I
• Stone’s Model II
Relative Permeability cont’d
• Willie’s Correlations:
• Proposed following correlation for a three phase relative
permeabilities in a water wet system
• In a cemented sandstone, Vugular rock, or oolitic limestone
Relative Permeability cont’d
• In unconsolidated, well sorted sand:
Relative Permeability cont’d
• Stone’s Model I:
• Developed probability model to estimate 3-phase relative permeability data
from laboratory measured 2-phase data
• Model combines channel flow theory in porous media to determine the
relative permeability of oil in presence of water and gas flow
• The channel flow theory implies that water relative permeability and water
capillary pressure are functions water saturation alone, irrespective of
relative saturations of oil and gas
• Also, they are the same function in a three phase system as in the 2-phase
water oil system
• Similarly, gas three phase relative permeability and gas capillary pressure
are functions of gas saturation is 2 and 3 phase systems
Relative Permeability cont’d
• Stone suggested a non-zero residual oil saturation, called minimum oil
saturation, Som exists when oil is displaced by water and gas
• Different than critical oil saturation is oil-water system and the
residual oil saturation in the gas-oil system
Relative Permeability cont’d
• Oil relative permeability in a 3-phase system is then defined as:

• The two multipliers βw and βg are determined from:

Where: Som = minimum oil saturation
= oil relative permeability as determined from
oil-water 2-phase rel-perm at Sw
= oil relative permeability as determined from
2-phase gas-oil rel-perm at Sg
Relative Permeability cont’d
• Method to determine Som was suggested by Fayers and Matthews:

= residual oil saturation in the oil-water rel-

perm system
= residual oil saturation in the gas-oil rel-
perm system

• Aziz-Sattari’s normalized form of Stone’s Correlation:

• It should be noted that it is usually assumed that the krg and krog curves
are measured in presence of connate water
Relative Permeability cont’d
• Stone’s Model II:
• It was the difficulties in choosing Som that led to development of
Stone’s Model II
Relative Permeability cont’d
• Factors Affecting Relative Permeability:
• Even though relative permeability is strictly function of fluid saturation,
there have been evidences which suggest that relative permeability is also a
function of other parameters:
• Fluid Saturation
• Saturation History (hysterisis effects)
• Magnitude initial water saturation (Swi)
• Wettability
• Effect of rock pore structure
• Overburden stress
• Clay and fine contents
• Temperature, IFT and viscosity
Relative Permeability cont’d
• Effect of fluid saturation, history of saturation, and Initial water
saturation:
• Fluid saturation is directly proportional to fluid saturation; higher the fluid
saturation higher the relative permeability
• Similar to capillary pressure-saturation curve, relative permeability-
saturation curve also shows hysteresis through drainage and Imbibition
processes
• This is explained by the fact that oil and water move differently through
porous media, hence as one phase forces the other out, the distribution of
the saturations inside the volume changes significantly, which in turn
affects the phases capacity to flow, producing a process that is not exactly
reversible.
Relative Permeability cont’d
• The result is that knw is a function not only of Sw but also of the
previous state of the system, i.e. its history. This dependence on the
past of the system is called hysteresis