THE SPE IMAGE LIBRARY SPE 5108

A Reservoir Simulator for Studying Productivity

Variation and Transient Behavior of a Well in a
Reservoir Undergoing Gas Evolution

5108

Kazemi, H., SPE-AIME,

Marathon Oil Co.

NOVEMBER 1975

A gas-oil reservoir simulator was developed to study the productivity

behavior of a well from the time the reservoir is above bubble-point
pressure until abandonment. The studies include the effect of
wellbore
shut in on subsequent oil productivity and the role of nonuniform gas
distribution on the pressure buildup curve.

Introduction

in some instances, average reservoir pressure is above

the bubble point of the in-place oil, but the in-situ
pressure distribution in the vicinity of a producing
well is below the bubble point. This situation usually
gives rise to the coexistence of oil and gas around the
wellbore in a cylindrical region with a diameter of several
feet. In the presence of gas, the permeability to oil is
reduced; this can cause substantial loss of oil productivity.
The local reduction of oil permeability in the vicinity of
the wellbore appears as a pseudodamage for the well.

As the reservoir depletes, the outer radius of the

gas-oil zone grows. Eventually, the gas-oil zone spans the
entire drainage area of the well. The gas saturation
distribution is, of course, not uniform; that is, it varies
with the radial distance from the well and in the vertical
direction. This nonuniformity in gas saturation could
affect the oil productivity and the pressure transient
responses of a well in a manner different than if the gas
saturation were uniform. Other factors, such as reservoir
layering with and without crossflow, supersaturation,
bubble-point change, residual solubility hysteresis,
gravity force, etc., can also affect the reservoir and
the well behavior.

To study the interplay of these factors and their

effect on the pressure transient responses of a well,
and possibly to take remedial action against unfavorable
situations, the reservoir simulator described in this
paper was developed.

This simulator offers many new features as compared

with the one used by Perrine and the one used by Earlougher
 THE SPE IMAGE LIBRARY SPE 5108

et al. For instance, this simulator has an added vertical

dimension, z; therefore, reservoir layering and gravity
segregation and gas coning can be studied. Also, this
simulator can cross the bubble point; it calculates the
new bubble points at each node during a buildup test as
the node pressures near the wellbore increase. A most
important feature of this simulator is that it includes
wellbore storage effect in two-phase flow as a correct
boundary condition. This feature is not included in more
than one phase in any of the published simulators. There
also are other features in the simulator that have been
included specifically for vanslent testing purposes.

Studies on supersaturation have been reported in

several articles. Based on the experimental work of Refs.
2 and 4 on small core samples, it appears that, for
prevailing pressure decline rates occurring in uniform
porosity petroleum reservoirs, the supersaturation is
between 0 and 50 psia. Furthermore it has been concluded
that the solution gas drive oil recovery in these
reservoirs is not affected by such supersaturations.
Nonetheless, it was thought that it might be beneficial
to include supersaturation phenomena in a reservoir-size
simulator where the flow conditions are more complex.

Residual solubility hysteresis was studied

experimentally by Motyakoa et al. They concluded that
in the presence of a porous medium, there is a residual
solubility hysteresis because of capillary phenomena;
this means that some gas will never dissolve during
reservoir repressurization.

JPT

P. 1401