Reservoir Engineering I

Fundamentals of Fluid Flow in Porous Media

Chapter 4
Arron A. T. Singhe

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Introduction

OUTLINE
FLUID SATURATION

WETTABILITY

CAPILLARY PRESSURE

RELATIVE PERMEABILITY

FLUID TYPES

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FLOW REGIMES
Introduction

INTRODUCTION

So far, the physical properties of reservoir rocks were

defined in terms of single-phase systems

Those simple cases are seldom found in actual petroleum

reservoirs.

Usually two, but in many cases three phases are involved.

Hence, all basic definitions must be modified and new definitions
added for a comprehensive description of the properties of the
petroleum reservoir

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Terms such as wettability, capillary pressure and relative
permeability must be defined for multi-phase fluid flow
situations
Introduction

FLUID SATURATION
When dealing with Fluid Flow through porous media, we
need to make assumptions on the fluid content of the rock.
In most oil-bearing formations it is believed that the rock
was completely saturated with water prior to the invasion of
petroleum
The less dense hydrocarbons are considered to migrate
into the formation by displacing water from the pores.
The oil will not displace all the water that originally occupied
those pores.
Therefore, reservoir rocks usually will contain both
hydrocarbons and water (called connate water)
To determine the quantity of hydrocarbons in a porous
medium it is necessary to determine the fluid saturation of

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the rock.
gas
oil &
connate
water water oil

water
Hydrocarbons
Introduction

FLUID SATURATION

The pore space may contain various fluid phases:

 The phase saturation is defined to be

Volume of phase p in the porous medium
Sp 
Effective pore volume of the porous medium

 p is the fluid phase and usually is either oil, gas or water

 The sum of all phase saturations, Sp is

Np

Sp 1

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 or 1

So  S g  S w  1
Introduction

WETTABILITY
 The fluid distribution in porous media is affected by the forces at
fluid/fluid interfaces, and also by forces at fluid/solid interfaces.

Wettability
 Is the tendency of one fluid to adhere to a solid surface in the
presence of another fluid.
 When two immiscible fluids are in contact with a solid surface, one
fluid is usually attracted more strongly than the other fluid. The
more strongly attracted phase is called the wetting phase

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Water-Wet System Oil-Wet System
Introduction

WETTABILITY
The wettability affects the fluid distribution and the
recovery processes (relative permeability).
Rocks are considered either water-wet, oil-wet,
intermediate-wet or having mixed wettability.
Wettability depends on
the physical and chemical compounds of the rock
the composition of the oil phase.
Intermediate wettability occurs when both fluids tend to wet the
solid surfaces
Mixed wettability results from the rock heterogeneity.

Wettability can be determined when checking for the

contact angle.

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Fluid 2

Fluid 1

Solid
Introduction

WETTABILITY
The solid is considered water-wet, if the contact angle is
smaller than 90°. At contact angles larger than 90°, the
fluid is referred to as oil-wet.
A contact angle approaching 0° indicates strongly water-wet
conditions.
A contact angle approaching 180° indicates a strongly oil-wet
system.
Intermediate wettability occurs, when the contact angle
is close to 90°
By convention, contact angles are measured through the
water phase.
Oil

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Oil
Water
Water

Solid Solid
Introduction

WETTABILITY

Contact angle
 In case of wetting fluid, the contact angle is smaller than 90°.
 At contact angles larger than 90°, the fluid is referred to as non-
wetting.

Wettability affects:
 Capillary Pressure
 Relative Permeability
 Waterflood Behavior
 Connate Water Saturation
 Residual Oil Saturation

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Introduction

TYPES OF WETTABILITY

Water-wet
 the entire rock surface of both large and small pores are coated
with water

Oil-wet
 the oil completely coats the rock surface
low connate water saturations

Intermediate wettability (the most common in reality)

 tendency for both oil and water to wet the rock surface
fractional wettability
mixed wettability

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Introduction

WETTABILITY

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Rock matrix Water Oil and/or gas
 Introduction

WETTABILITY

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Introduction

DRAINAGE AND IMBIBITION

The displacement of the wetting fluid by a non-

wetting fluid is referred to as drainage
The displacement of a non-wetting fluid by a wetting
fluid is referred to as imbibition

E.g. in water – oil displacement processes, mostly water will

be the wetting fluid.
In oil – gas displacement processes, always the gas is the
non-wetting fluid.

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Introduction

CAPILLARY FORCES
Under reservoir conditions, oil and water in the porous
medium are considered immiscible.

In any case, interfacial forces will influence the

performance of the flow processes.

A free liquid surface is illustrated here.

Air
The circles represent molecules of the
liquid.
Molecules below the surfaces are – on
average – attracted equally from all
directions.
Liquid Molecules near the air/liquid interface are
pulled back into the liquid. The liquid will

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tend to keep a minimum surface.

The force is called surface tension, s, which is the force

per unit length required to create additional surface area.
Surface tension is expressed in dynes/cm.
Introduction

SURFACE TENSION – INTERFACIAL TENSION

Surface tension
Is reserved for the case of liquid/air interface
Surface tension between water-air at room
temperature is approx. 73 dynes/cm.

Interfacial tension (IFT)

Is used for the interface between two different r
liquid phases
IFT between crude oils and water varies
between 10 and 30 dynes/cm. Air
r   w   a   g  h
h 
s
2 cos

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Water
The surface tension can be measured
through capillary rise:
At static conditions, the force of surface tension
will be balanced by gravity acting on the fluid
column
Introduction

CAPILLARY PRESSURE

 Due to the interfacial tensions, a pressure difference exists

across the interface.

This pressure is called Capillary Pressure.

 The fluid above the water is oil, and because the water
preferentially wets the glass of the capillary, there is a capillary
rise.
 Two pressures can be identified: pw and po.
patm

h1 po

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Oil

h pw

Water
Introduction

CAPILLARY PRESSURE
pw is the water-phase pressure just below the interface,
po is the oil-phase pressure at a point just above the
oil/water interface. patm
Balcance of forces yield the following:
po  p atm   o gh1 h1 po
p w  p atm   o g h1  h    w gh Oil

Subtracting the equations above yields: h pw

po  p w  patm   o gh1   patm   o g h1  h    w gh
  w   o gh
Water
 Pcow

Recall that the surface tension is

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r  w   o gh
s ow 
2 cos

Therefore 2  s ow  cos
Pcow 
r
Introduction

CAPILLARY PRESSURE
The capillary pressure is related to:

the fluid/fluid interfacial tension

the relative wettability of the fluids 2  s ow  cos
the size of the capillaries Pcow 
r

Pcow Drainage

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Imbibition

0 Swi 1-Sor 1.0

Sw
Introduction

CAPILLARY PRESSURE
Definition:

Pc ( S w )  pnw  pw

Therefore,

Pcow ( S w )  po  pw
Drainage
Pcow

Pcgo (S g )  pg  po

Imbibition

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0 Swi 1-Sor 1.0
Sw
Introduction

DRAINAGE - IMBIBITION
Drainage
 Initially saturated by the wetting
phase
 Displacement of the wetting
phase by the non-wetting
phase
 Finally connate (residual)
saturation of the wetting phase
+ non-wetting fluid

Imbibition
 Connate wetting fluid + non-
wetting fluid
 Displacement by the wetting
fluid

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 Finally residual saturation of
the non-wetting fluid + wetting
fluid (Hysteresis!)
Introduction

CAPILLARY PRESSURE

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Introduction

MULTI-PHASE FLOW

What happens, if multiple fluid phases share the same

pore channels?
 1949-1950 API project
 Visualization of the displacement process
Result:
The water and oil use separate flow channel systems
The wetting fluids occupies the smaller pores
The flow channels are maintained by the flowing phases
The flow is laminar at typical flow rates

AMOCO experiments
 Confirmed the theory of separated flow through the pore
channel

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 Must be distinguish between two kinds of displacements:
The wetting phase is the displacing fluid (imbibition)
The wetting phase is the displaced fluid (drainage)
Introduction

RELATIVE PERMEABILITY

Definition:
1.0

krw  f Sw 

krg  f Sg 
kr
kro
krow  f Sw 

krog  f S g 
krw

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0
Swi 1-Sor 1.0
Sw
Introduction

RELATIVE PERMEABILITY

Note!
The sum of k*kro + k*krw is not equal to the total absolute
permeability k!

Relative Permeability

0.8

0.6
kr

0.4 krw

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kro
0.2 keff

0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

Sw
Introduction

COMPARISON OF RELATIVE PERMEABILITY CURVES

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Introduction

DARCY LAW AND RELATIVE PERMEABILITY

Single Phase:
k p
q   A
 L

Two-Phase Darcy Law:

k  k rw pw
Water qw 
w
 A
L

k  k ro po
qo   A

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Oil o L
Introduction

FLUID TYPES
In general, reservoir fluids are classified into three
groups:

 Incompressible fluids
 Slightly compressible fluids
 Compressible fluids

The isothermal compressibility coefficient controls

the fluid type and identifies the type of the reservoir
fluid
Mathematically, the isothermal compressibility
coefficient is defined as
1  V 
c    

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 In terms of fluid volume
V  p T const
1   
 In terms of fluid density c   
  p T const
Introduction

FLUID TYPES

Incompressible Fluids

An incompressible fluid is defined as a fluid whose

volume (or density) does not change with pressure
V
0
p

or 
0
p

In reality, incompressible fluids do not exist.

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We use this assumption, however, to simplify fluid
flow problems and to enable analytical solutions
 E.g. over small pressure differences, undersaturated
oil or water may behave similar to incompressible
fluids
Introduction

FLUID TYPES

Slightly Compressible Fluids

These fluids exhibit a small change in volume or

density with changes in pressure
Integrating the compressibility coefficient definition
from a reference point (Vref, pref) leads to:
p V
1
c 
pref
dp  V V dV
ref


c pref  p  V
e 

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Vref
or

c pref  p 
V  Vref  e
Introduction

FLUID SATURATION FLUID TYPES

WETTABILITY

CAPILLARY PRESSURE Slightly Compressible Fluids

RELATIVE  The exponential function can be represented by a series
PERMEABILITY
expansion as
FLUID TYPES
c 2 c3 cn
FLOW REGIMES e  1 c   
c

2! 3! n!

 Because the exponent c*(pref-p) is very small, we can

truncate the series after the linear term.

ec  1  c
 Therefore,

V  Vref  e

c pref  p 
 
 Vref  1  c pref  p 

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 Similarly,
  ref  1  c pref  p 

 Note that oil and water systems fit into this category.
Introduction

FLUID TYPES
Compressible Fluids

 These fluids experience large changes in volume as a

function of pressure
 All gases are considered compressible fluids.
As a result, the truncation of the exponential function series
expansion as done before is not valid.
Therefore, we use the original definition of the compressibility
coefficient and the real gas law
1 V RTZ
c
V p
pV  RTZ V
p
• The derivative of volume with respect to pressure is
Z

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 
V  1 Z Z 
 RT     RT   
p
 2 
p p  p p p 
RT  Z Z 
    
p  p p
Introduction

FLUID TYPES

Compressible Fluids

Knowing that
V RT  Z Z  RTZ
    V
p p  p p  p

The compressibility for a (real) gas is

1 V
c
V p
p V p  RT  Z Z 
cg        
RTZ p  p p 

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RTZ  p
1 1 Z
 
p Z p
Z 1
Note: for ideal gas :  0 and Z  1, then cg 
p p
Introduction

FLUID TYPES - SUMMARY

Pressure-Volume Relationship for Fluid Types

Incompressible

Slightly Compressible
Volume

Compressible

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Pressure
Introduction

FLUID TYPES - SUMMARY

Pressure-Density Relationship for Fluid Types

Compressible
Fluid Density

Slightly Compressible

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Incompressible

Pressure
Introduction

FLOW REGIMES

There are three types of flow regimes that must be

recognized in order to describe the fluid flow behavior
and reservoir pressure distribution as a function of time.

Steady State flow

Non-Steady State flow
Pseudo-Steady State flow

The following section will describe those flow regimes. It

is very important to know about the flow regime in order
to apply the appropriate fluid flow equations

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Introduction

FLOW REGIMES
Steady State Flow

The flow regime is identified as steady state flow, if the pressure

at every location in the reservoir remains constant.
i.e. the pressure does not change with time

Mathematically, this is expressed as:

 p 
  0
 t  x
This states that the pressure change with respect to time at any

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location x in the reservoir is zero.
In real reservoirs, this condition can only be fulfilled, if the
production rate is constant and fluid withdrawal will be exactly
balanced by fluid entry across an open boundary.
Strong aquifer or pressure maintenance operations
Introduction

FLOW REGIMES
Non-Steady State Flow

The non-steady state flow (also called unsteady state or

transient flow) is defined as the fluid flow condition at which the
rate of pressure change with respect to time is not zero and not
constant.
i.e. the pressure derivative is a function of time and location

Mathematically, this is expressed as:

 p 
   f  x, t 
 t 
This condition is valid at an early, relatively short time, where

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the pressure response in the reservoir is not affected by the
influence of a boundary and the reservoir appears infinite acting
(transient flow)
Well testing
Introduction

FLOW REGIMES

Pseudo-Steady State Flow

When the pressure at different locations in the reservoir is declining linearly

as a function of time, the flowing condition is characterized as pseudo-
steady state (or semi-steady state)
i.e. the pressure declines at a constant rate
Mathematically, this is expressed as:
 p 
   constant
 t  x
This states that the rate of change of pressure with respect to time at every

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position is constant.
This condition is valid for a reservoir which has been producing for a
sufficient period of time so that the boundary effect are observed by the
pressure response.
Introduction

FLOW REGIMES - SUMMARY

Pressure Declines as Function of Time for the Different Flow

Regimes at a given Location x in the Reservoir

Steady State

Pseudo-Steady State
Pressure

Non-Steady State

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Time
Introduction

FLOWING FLUID PHASES

The number of flowing fluid phases influences the

mathematical expressions used to predict the pressure
behavior of the reservoir
In general, the complexity of the mathematical models and
the description of fluid flow increases with the number of
mobile fluids in the reservoir.

There are generally three cases:

Single-phase flow
Flow of oil, water or gas

Two-phase flow

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Flow of oil & water, oil & gas or gas & water

Three-phase flow
Flow of oil, water and gas simultaneously