Journal of Colloid and Interface Science 214, 416 – 426 (1999)
Article ID jcis.1999.6223, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on
Critical Condensate Saturation in Porous Media
X. Wang and K. K. Mohanty 1
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77204-4792
Received December 16, 1998; accepted March 16, 1999
The understanding of gas and condensate flow in porous media
is critical to the optimum exploitation of gas– condensate reser-
voirs. Critical condensate saturation and relative permeabilities
are the key parameters for the evaluation of possible recovery
strategies. This work is aimed at developing a mechanistic net-
work model for the critical condensate saturation in which phase
trapping and connectivity in the pore corners are critically exam-
ined. Porous media are modeled by networks of pore bodies inter-
connected by pore throats. Bodies and throats are characterized by
their connectivity, shapes, and radii distributions. Pore-level laws
are identified from micromodel experiments with near-critical
fluids. A nonzero critical condensate saturation can be obtained in
the absence of contact angle hysteresis due to the converging–
diverging nature of the throats. The critical saturation at which
the condensate flows is found to be a function of pore geometry,
water saturation, and interfacial tension (or the Bond number).
The modified sphere-pack model underpredicts the critical con-
densate saturation of typical sandstones. The cubic model ade-
quately predicts the critical saturation and its experimentally
observed trends. © 1999 Academic Press
Key Words: condensation; critical saturation; porous media;
Bond number.
INTRODUCTION
Gas– condensate reservoirs are becoming more common as
exploration horizons are extended to greater depths, higher
pressures, and higher temperatures. In such reservoirs, the
decrease in reservoir pressure causes a liquid, rather than a gas,
to condense from the initial single-phase fluid. The accumula-
tion of condensate partially blocks the flow channels, decreas-
ing the productivity of the gas. The understanding of the flow
of gas and condensates in a reservoir during various stages of
recovery is critical to the optimum exploitation of gas– con-
densate reservoirs. The critical condensate saturation (S cc) and
the relative permeabilities (k rg, k rc) are the key parameters
needed to evaluate possible strategies for recovery of hydro-
carbons.
There have been many laboratory studies in the past inves-
tigating the roles of rock permeability, interfacial tension,
1
To whom correspondence should be addressed. Fax: 713-743-4331, 4323.
E-mail: mohanty@uh.edu.
0021-9797/99 $30.00
Copyright © 1999 by Academic Press
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
connate water saturation (S wi), depletion flow rates, and core
orientation in the critical condensate saturation (1– 8). These
experiments are difficult to perform and their interpretation is
often questionable. The critical liquid saturation has been re-
ported to be between 0 to 20% at high permeabilities (;1
Darcy) and up to 70% at low permeabilities (;0.001 Darcy).
The critical liquid saturation reported for vertical orientations
is often lower than those in horizontal orientations for high
permeability cores (4, 7, 9). The difference is smaller between
vertical and horizontal cores at low permeability (e.g., ;2%
for a 23-md rock, ;24% for a 890-md rock). Recent experi-
ments show that S cc is much lower than the previously pub-
lished data; i.e., S cc is less than 1% in a high permeability,
vertical core and (S cc 1 S wi) is less than 20% (8). The presence
of connate water decreases S cc significantly (5). The S wi values
range from 10% for high permeability sands to 50% in lower
permeability sands. The critical liquid saturation (S wi 1 S cc)
increases with the gas– condensate interfacial tension (10).
Little work has appeared in the literature on microscopic
modeling of gas– condensate reservoirs. Fang et al. (11) used a
simple 2-D network composed of vertically interconnected,
circular capillary tubes for the representation of porous media.
Because of this simplistic geometry, the surface tension and the
contact angle hysteresis play an important role in the calcula-
tion of S cc in this model. S cc is less than 10% at low interfacial
tension, but it is over 90% at high interfacial tension. S cc
increases with the contact angle hysteresis within the range of
less than 10°, but it is hardly affected by the contact angle
hysteresis in the range higher than 10°. S cc is implied to be zero
if there is no contact angle hysteresis. Mohammadi et al. (12)
used a Bethe tree to represent the porous media, where only the
bonds of the tree contribute to its volume and flow, and the
pore bodies act merely as volumeless junctions with infinite
conductance. The S cc was found to be approximately 14% for
a coordination number of 6. Neither of the two models con-
sidered phase trapping within and connectivity through the
corners, which are important and ubiquitous in real porous
media. Also, the assumption that pore bodies are volumeless is
not realistic for naturally occurring porous media. As will be
shown later, the volume of the pore bodies plays an important
role in the evaluation of S cc.
In this work, pore-level network models are constructed to
examine the role of the corners at grain boundaries. The
416
 CRITICAL CONDENSATE SATURATION IN POROUS MEDIA
FIG. 1. Sphere-pack model. (a) Sphere pack; (b) throat– body network; (c) connectivity of throat– corner network.
geometry of the model porous media are presented in the next
section. The mechanisms of condensation, pore occupancy,
and flow properties are described in the third section. The
effects of geometric parameters and flow parameters on the
critical condensate saturation are documented in the fourth
section. Finally, the conclusions are summarized in the last
section. Only capillary and gravitational effects are considered
in this work. Viscous effects are not considered, though a part
of the viscous effect can be modeled in a manner similar to the
one used for gravitational effect.
PORE-LEVEL MODEL FORMULATION
Two kinds of pore-level network models are studied in this
work, a modified sphere-pack model (MSPM) and a cubic
model (CM). The MSPM is based on a simple cubic packing of
spheres with a few modifications to accommodate a realistic
pore size distribution. The corners of this model originate at the
sphere–sphere contacts and provide connection between con-
densates of four adjacent pore throats. As shown later, this
model underpredicts the critical condensate saturation of typ-
ical consolidated media due to overprediction of the corner
connectivity. The cubic model which limits the connectivity of
corners is thus proposed. Both of these proposed models are
only approximations of naturally occurring media; they capture
some essential features of pore geometry, but are not com-
pletely realistic.
Modified Sphere-Pack Model (MSPM)
A simple cubic sphere-packing arrangement of monodis-
perse spheres is shown in Fig. 1a; Fig. 1b shows the topology
of its body–throat network. The center of a unit cell is a pore
417
body which is represented by the nodes of the simple cubic
network. Each body is connected with six pore throats, which
are represented by the bonds of the network. Each throat has
four corners. Each corner of a throat connects to the corners of
three other throats at any sphere–sphere contact. Thus, each
throat connects to 12 (5 4 3 3) adjacent throats through its
four corners. One can ignore the pore bodies and study the
network formed by the throats and the corners. Such a network
is relevant to condensate connectivity at low saturation because
pore bodies are often too big for condensation, as will be
shown later. The pore bodies play an important role at high
condensate saturations. This throat– corner network (ignoring
the pore bodies) has a different topology, as shown in Fig. 1c.
In this network, we consider each throat to be a site (Type I),
each corner to be a bond, and each sphere–sphere contact to be
a second type of site (Type II). The bonds and type II sites are
assumed to be always occupied in this model, since small but
nonzero amounts of condensates are present at these corners at
pressures considered in this study. Type I sites (or throats) get
occupied by the condensate as a function of system pressure.
Thus, the condensation on this sphere pack can be modeled by
pure site percolation on the Type I sites. Type I sites have an
effective coordination number of 12 with the other Type I sites.
The pore body and throat sizes in naturally occurring porous
media are never uniform. The simple cubic pack of monodis-
perse spheres is a very inaccurate model for such media. One
can computationally generate a random packing of distributed
size spheres (13). In this model, however, we take a simplified
approach. We use the topology of the simple cubic sphere
pack, but assign the pore body and throat sizes from an arbi-
trary distribution (Weibull distribution) that has been used in
the past to model Berea sandstones (14). The pore–throat and
418 WANG AND MOHANTY
FIG. 2. Cubic model. (a) Longitudinal section; (b) cross section of throat.
pore– body radii distributions are described using a probability
distribution given by
g~ x! 5
x
x 22 S D
exp 2
x2
x 22
for x # x 3 ,
50 for x . x 3 ,
where x 5 r 2 r min, x 2 5 r# 2 r min, and x 3 5 r max 2 r min, r
represents the pore throat or body radius, r min and r max define
the minimum and maximum sizes, respectively, and r# is the
average size. Thus, three parameters (r min, r max, and r# ) each for
the pore throats and pore bodies, are required to define the pore
size distribution in the network. This model is not geometri-
cally consistent, but it serves as a preliminary model for
studying condensation. Pore body radius, r b, is defined as the
radius of the largest sphere that can fit into a pore body. Pore
throat radius, r t, is defined as the minimum radius that a
collapsible sphere needs to take to pass through a throat. The
pore body radii are first distributed according to the assumed
body size distribution with no assumed spatial correlation.
Then the pore throats connecting the two pore bodies are
assigned randomly or according to a throat– body correlation.
Periodic boundary conditions are used in the directions per-
pendicular to the inlet and outlet directions. The periodic
boundary conditions help minimize finite-size effects in the
results.
Cubic Model (CM)
The shapes of all pore bodies are assumed to be cubes in this
model. The throats are assumed to be bipyramidal with a
square cross section. The network is assumed to be a simple
cubic lattice; i.e., six throats are connected to each pore. Figure
2a shows a longitudinal section of the model through two
adjacent pores. Here, r b and r t are pore body and throat radii,
respectively, and follow the given size distributions. L tt is the
path length from one body center to another and it is assumed
to be a constant for all pores. A shape parameter X is used to
change the end sizes of the throats where throats connect
bodies. The end size of the throat, r tb, is
[1]
r tb 5 r t 1 ~r b 2 r t ! X. [2]
When X equals zero, the throats are straight. When X equals 1,
r tb equals r b. The pore and throat size distributions for the
inscribed radius are assigned by using a Weibull distribution,
as in the modified sphere-pack model.
One of the key differences between the two models is that in
the second model each corner is isolated from any other corner
at a low enough condensate accumulation. The corners are
regions of highly positive curvature in the pore space. They are
often separated by ridges or regions of highly negative curva-
ture. The wetting fluid accumulates in corners, but not on
ridges. When the saturation of the wetting fluid builds up in a
pore, the ridges can be covered by the wetting fluid. The
condensate in a corner can be connected to the condensate in an
adjacent corner if the saturation builds up enough to cover
these ridges, as discussed in the next section.
CONDENSATION MECHANISM
During the condensation or liquid dropout process, the pres-
sure and the temperature of the fluid sets the radius of curva-
ture, r p, of the liquid/gas interface (11). The pore structure can
affect this curvature in submicron pores (15), but that effect is
not included here. In the modified sphere-pack model, the
condensate fills the small corners of each throat with an ap-
propriate meniscus, as long as the radius of the throat is greater
 CRITICAL CONDENSATE SATURATION IN POROUS MEDIA
FIG. 3. Condensation in sphere-pack model. (a) r t . r p; (b) r t , r p; (c) condensate ganglion.
than the threshold radius, r p. The mechanism of condensate
accumulation in the sphere pack is shown in Fig. 3. If the
radius of a throat, r t, is equal to or smaller than the threshold
radius, r p, the condensate fills the middle part of the throat. We
will call a condensate accumulation filling the throat cross
section a slug. Once the condensate slug forms in the throat, the
condensate in corners surrounding the throat are connected.
The condensate in this throat gets connected to the condensate
in the 12 adjacent throats due to the structure of the simple
cubic packing, shown in Fig. 1c. The connectivity of the
condensate accumulated in the throats contributes to the con-
ductance of the condensate.
In order to exist, a condensate slug has to satisfy the hydro-
dynamic force balance and the stability criterion (16) in addi-
tion to meeting the curvature requirements dictated by thermo-
dynamics. The gravitational and viscous pressure difference
between the two menisci of a slug needs to be balanced by the
capillary pressure difference due to the difference between the
two curvatures. The gravitational head across a slug of height
h is given by D r gh. The analysis of detailed viscous forces is
outside the scope of this paper, but the overall viscous pressure
drop can be treated in a manner similar to that used for the
gravitational head. The capillary pressure difference is given
by 2 s (r 121 2 r 221 ), where s is the interfacial tension and r 1
and r 2 are the radii of curvature of the two menisci. At typical
values of the interfacial tension, s . 0.01 dyne/cm, the dif-
ference in curvature is slight and can be easily accommodated
in a throat because it is converging– diverging, unlike cylin-
drical throats. The contact angle hysteresis will affect the
volume of the fluid accumulated, but it is not essential to the
presence a liquid slug in a throat, as in the cylindrical throat
model (11). If the difference in curvature is large for the liquid
slug, it cannot be accommodated in a single throat and will
flow down. The largest value the capillary pressure difference
can take is 2 s (r t21), assuming the bottom menisci is flat. A
slug cannot be accommodated in a pore throat if s ,
D r ghr t/2. For a scenario of Dr ; 0.1 gm/cc, h ; 50 mm, r t
419
; 10 mm, the critical interfacial tension is ;2.5 3 10 24
dyne/cm. The corresponding Bond number, N B 5 D r gK/ s is
;4 3 10 23. At tensions above this value (which is often the
case in gas/condensate systems), slugs can be accommodated
in single pore throats. A slug has two concave menisci in the
diverging sections of a throat and thus it is also hydrodynam-
ically stable (16). At lower tensions, or equivalently at higher
Bond or capillary numbers, the single throat slug may form and
move, as shown in the micromodel experiments of Gray and
Dawe (17).
As the fluid pressure falls, the radius of curvature at gas/
condensate menisci increases. The number of throats having
radius below the threshold radius, r p, increases. Condensates
form liquid slugs in these throats and the condensate saturation
increases. The liquid slugs in the throats connect with 12
adjacent throats through the corners. A set of condensate slugs
which are connected to each other through the condensates in
the corners can be called a condensate ganglion. A condensate
ganglion (shown in Fig. 3c) is different from a nonwetting fluid
ganglion or blob in two respects. The latter has convex menisci
and the connections are not through the corners (16). In order
to exist, a condensate ganglion has to satisfy the hydrodynamic
force balance and the stability criterion (16). These conditions
for a ganglion are similar to those for a slug except that the
length of the ganglion in the direction of gravity (or in the
direction of viscous flow) can be larger. The maximum length
of a ganglion
h max 5 2 s /D r gr t 5 2K/N Br t. [3]
For a scenario of Dr ; 0.1 gm/cc, r t ; 10 mm, K ; 1 Darcy,
this length is ;2000 mm or about 20 pore lengths at an
interfacial tension of 0.01 dyne/cm or N B ; 10 24. For a
scenario of Dr ; 0.1 gm/cc, r t ; 1 mm, K ; 0.01 Darcy, this
length is ;2 cm or about 200 pore lengths at an interfacial
tension of 0.01 dyne/cm or N B ; 10 26. Given the interfacial
420 WANG AND MOHANTY
FIG. 4. Condensation in cubic model.
tension (or the Bond number), one can calculate the distance
h max over which menisci have to be connected to flow. The
condensate saturation at which the condensate ganglia of this
critical length or longer exist is called the critical condensate
saturation.
The accumulation of condensate is a site percolation process
in the throat– corner network shown in Fig. 1c because each
site represents a throat. The lowest condensate saturation at
which condensate clusters of height h max or larger form is the
critical condensate saturation, S cc. The meniscus radius at this
condition is termed the critical radius, r pc. The networks em-
ployed in this study are finite, typically 20 3 20 3 20 pores.
At low Bond number, the maximum height exceeds the sample
size. In these cases, the critical condensate saturation S cc is
defined as the lowest condensate saturation at which a sample
spanning cluster forms.
The condensation in the cubic model is similar to that of the
modified sphere-pack model except for the connectivity of the
corners. The condensation in a corner at a throat– body junction
is shown in Fig. 4. As the pressure falls, condensate liquid
forms in the corners (of both bodies and throats) and the radius
of curvature, r p, increases. As the pressure continues to de-
crease, the amount of condensate increases. The condensate in
the corners of a throat is not automatically connected to the
condensate in the corners of the adjacent bodies. The connec-
tion between the body and the throat can be established when
the condensate in the corner of the body reaches the corner of
the throat; i.e. (r b 2 r tb) is smaller than r p. Obviously, the
bigger X is, the easier the connection between the body and the
throat. The condensate in adjacent throats and bodies is also
connected, if the whole pore body is filled with the condensate.
This process is not a pure site or bond percolation; it is
controlled by the bond–site juncture. The lowest condensate
saturation at which there is a condensate ganglion of height
greater than h max is again the critical condensate saturation, S cc.
The meniscus radius at that condition is termed the critical
radius, r pc. At low Bond numbers, this critical height is ap-
proximated by the maximum network length. The key differ-
ence between this model and the MSPM is the connectivity of
the corners. Adjacent corners are connected at infinitesmally
small condensate saturation in the MSPM model. Adjacent
corners are connected only after a significant condensate sat-
uration in this model.
In the above discussion, water was assumed to be absent.
Water is the most wetting fluid in gas– condensate reservoirs
because polar hydrocarbon molecules are seldom present in
gas– condensate hydrocarbons. Connate water is usually
present in such reservoirs. Most condensates spread on water
with respect to the gas (10). The contact angle between con-
densate/gas on water and the contact angle hysteresis are
expected to be small. Water occupies the tight pores and highly
curved regions like corners, being the most wetting fluid. The
condensate accumulates on the top of the water starting with
highly curved surfaces and small pore throats (16). For a given
radius of curvature r p for the gas– condensate interface, the
condensate saturation in the presence of water is equal to the
liquid saturation minus the water saturation. This effect can
potentially decrease the critical condensate saturation in the
presence of water. The presence of water as slugs in some pore
throats implies the absence of connections in the condensate
phase across those throats. This reduction in connectivity can
potentially increase the critical condensate saturation.
The critical condensate saturation is determined numerically
in the following manner. Given the pore throat and body size
distributions of a porous medium, a network of typically 20 3
20 3 20 pores is generated for either the MSPM or the CM. A
radius of curvature, r w, is then assigned to the water– hydro-
carbon interface. All pore throats and bodies smaller than this
radius are filled with water. All corners (in unfilled throats and
bodies) are also filled with water with menisci of this radius of
curvature. If there is no connate water, then this step is skipped.
Then a radius of curvature, r p (.r w), is assigned to the
gas– condensate interface. All pore throats and bodies smaller
than this radius are filled with the condensate, except for the
space taken by the water. Then we look for the size of the
largest condensate ganglion. The connection between conden-
sate slugs in adjacent throats depends on the type of model,
MSPM or CM. If the size of the largest ganglion is smaller than
the required h max, then the radius, r p, is increased and this
procedure is repeated. When the largest ganglion reaches h max,
the saturation of the condensate phase is calculated and it is
called the critical condensate saturation.
RESULTS
Modified Sphere-Pack Model (MSPM)
The base case input parameters of both the models are
shown in Table 1. The last two parameters (L tt and X) do not
apply to MSPM. There is no water present for the calculations
presented for the MSPM. The condensate phase gets connected
across the sample in the base case at the critical condensate
saturation of 4.1 6 0.2%. This corresponds to a critical radius
 CRITICAL CONDENSATE SATURATION IN POROUS MEDIA 421

TABLE 1
Parameters for the Base Case

Parameter Base case

r# t 9 mm
r t (min) 0 mm
r t (max) 22 mm
r# b 25 mm
r b (min) 10 mm
r b (max) 35 mm
Size of the system 20 3 20 3 20
L tt 100 mm
X 0.1

of curvature, r pc, of 5.5 6 0.3 mm. The fraction of throats

smaller than the critical radius, F, is 18.8 6 1%. The pore size
is assigned randomly to the network from the given distribu- FIG. 5. Effect of network size (MSPM).
tion. This procedure is started with an initial random number
seed. Different realizations of the base case were simulated by
choosing 10 different random number seeds. The uncertainty in is 6*F1, where F1 is the fraction of throats open. F1 is varied
the values listed above comes from the finite (20 3 20 3 20) from 0.5 to 1. The effect of average coordination number on
size of the lattice. Many of the results listed in the figures the critical condensate saturation is shown in Fig. 6 for three
below are from single or double realizations, unless noted combinations of pore throat and body radii distributions. The
otherwise. For the pure site percolation on a FCC network with paramaters in the caption are r tmin, r# t, r tmax, r bmin, r# b, and r bmax,
the coordination number of 12, the percolation threshold is respectively, in mm. As Z decreases from 6 to 3, S cc increases
20% (18). Our calculated fraction, F, approaches this value. from 4.1 to 6.9%. As the coordination number of the lattice
The difference between the theoretical value and our numerical decreases, some of the throats used in providing the sample
value is due to the finite size of our system. This critical spanning path at the critical saturation of the base case are
condensate saturation of ;4% is significantly smaller than the removed. Thus, it takes more condensate to fill up additional
imbibition critical saturation of 20% estimated by Haines for throats to provide a sample spanning path, and so the critical
monodisperse sphere packs (19, 20). Haines’ estimates are condensate saturation increases as the coordination number
based on the connection of pendular rings in one pore (and in
all pores because they are all of the same size). In our study, the
pore size distribution is wide. Adjacent pendular rings get
connected in smaller pores first, at very small overall satura-
tion. The saturation at which these connected pendular rings
are sample spanning corresponds to the critical condensate
saturation. The size distribution of pores leads to these small
critical saturations.
Effect of network size. In the base case of MSPM, we use
a network with dimensions of 20 3 20 3 20. In order to study
the sensitivity of the model to the network size, we vary the
network size from 16 3 20 3 20 to 50 3 20 3 20. Other
parameters are kept the same. The results of S cc are shown in
Fig. 5. The critical condensate saturation increases slightly (3.8
to 4.6%) with the size of the network. There is little effect of
the network size on S cc values when the size is bigger than
30 3 20 3 20.
Effect of pore connectivity. In this work, the base case
topology is simple cubic with the coordination number being
six; i.e., six throats leave from each pore body. The coordina-
tion number of the MSPM was reduced by closing a fraction of FIG. 6. Effect of coordination number, throat radii, and body radii
throats randomly. The coordination number, Z, of such models (MSPM).
422 WANG AND MOHANTY
decreases. Permeability decreases in a set of rocks can be due
to decreases in the average coordination number or in the throat
size. If the decrease in permeability is due to the decrease in Z,
then the critical condensate saturation would increase with the
decrease in permeability. Many experiments show this trend (4,
7, 9).
Effect of throat size. To find the effect of the throat size on
S cc, several simulations were conducted in which the pore
throat size distribution was varied. The pore body size distri-
bution was kept constant in this set of simulations. Figure 6
shows S cc versus the throat coordination number Z for two
different throat sizes distributions. The shape of the throat size
distribution was kept the same, but the average and the max-
imum throat sizes were decreased from 9 and 22 microns to 5
and 12 microns, respectively. For the same Z, decreasing the
average and the maximum throat sizes causes S cc to decrease.
When the throat sizes are decreased without changing the pore
body sizes, the relative contribution of the throat volume to the
overall pore volume decreases. Since the condensate liquid
exists primarily in the throats at S cc, the volume of the con-
densate liquid is decreased when the volume of the throats is
decreased. Thus, the critical condensate saturation decreases
with the decrease in throat radii. If the decrease in permeability
is due to the decrease in pore throat size (and without any
change in pore body sizes), then the critical condensate satu-
ration will decrease with the decrease in permeability.
Effect of pore body size. In this set of simulations, the size
distribution of throats is kept the same as in the base case, but
we change the average and the maximum body sizes. The
average and maximum pore body radii are 24 and 50 microns,
respectively, in the new distribution. The effect of the pore
body size on S cc is also shown in Fig. 6. For the same value of
Z, S cc is higher in the base case than it is for the larger pore
body size distribution. When Z changes from 3 to 6, S cc
changes from 6.9 to 4.1% for the base case, and from 4.4 to
2.8% for the larger pore body size distribution. Because the
volume of the bodies is increased when the radii of the pore
bodies is increased, the volume of condensate liquid in the
throats is almost the same for the same throat size distribution
regardless of the pore body size distribution. Hence the fraction
of the pore space the critical saturation occupies is lower. Thus,
the S cc decreases as the pore body size increases.
The critical condensate saturation was less than 7% in all our
simulations for the MSPM in the absence of any connate water.
This may be a good model for unconsolidated sands, but not
for subDarcy consolidated rocks. Experimentally higher criti-
cal condensate saturations (10 – 40%) are typically observed in
the absence of connate water. We suspect that the connectivity
of the corners in this model is unrealistically high as compared
to those of typical consolidated media. The critical condensate
saturation is more realistic in the cubic model, as discussed
next.
Cubic Model (CM)
The base case parameters of the cubic model are also listed
in Table 1. This model has two additional parameters, body-
center to body-center length, L tt, and throat shape parameter, X.
The base case values for these two parameters are set at 100
mm and 0.1, respectively. The network size and the pore size
distributions are the same as those in the modified sphere-
packing model. There is no water present for the calculations
presented here except for in the section where the effect of
water saturation is studied. The critical condensate saturation is
15.5% in the base case, compared to 4.1% for the base case of
the MSPM. The critical radius of curvature, r pc, at S cc is found
to be 10.1 mm. The fraction of throats, F, occupied at S cc is
49%. All of these values are greater than those for the base case
of the MSPM. Two factors are responsible for this increase,
decreased connectivity of the adjacent corners and presence of
condensate in the corners of cubic pore bodies.
The fluid distribution for the base case at S cc is presented
schematically in Fig. 7a. Here, white represents rock, gray
represents gas, and black represents condensate liquid. Only a
two-dimensional cross section is shown; the simulations are
three-dimensional. The pore bodies and throats are of different
radii, but the figure shows them to be of equal radii. The rock
grains are not spherical, but are shown to be so for graphical
simplicity. Several kinds of throat occupancy can be seen in
this figure. (i) If r t and r tb are both smaller than r p (the
threshold radius of curvature), the whole throat is filled with
the condensate liquid. (ii) If r t is smaller than r p and r tb is
bigger than r p, the throat is partially filled with condensate
liquid. (iii) If r t is bigger than r p, liquid exists only in the
corners of the throats. The middle of each body is full of gas
unless r b is less than r p. The connection between the liquid in
a throat and the liquid in the corners of an adjacent body is
shown only when (r b 2 r tb) is smaller than r p. Figure 7a shows
that many throats are occupied by the condensate and establish
a sample spanning network through the connections at the
throat– body corners. The sample spanning network is three-
dimensional and cannot be shown to be sample spanning in a
two-dimensional cross section.
Effect of throat shape parameter. The effect of the throat
shape parameter, X, on S cc is shown in Fig. 8. X is an important
geometric parameter in this model. Changing X changes the
ease of condensate connection at the throat– body junction and
the relative volume of the throats at the same time. When X is
zero, the throats are straight. The volume contribution of the
throats to the total pore space is the lowest, and (r b 2 r tb) is
at its maximum. It is hardest for the condensate in a throat to
connect with the condensate in an adjacent body corner. S cc is
19.8%. As X increases to 0.4, S cc decreases to 4.9%. As X
increases, r tb increases and (r b 2 r tb) decreases. The liquid
connection between bodies and throats is easier when (r b 2
r tb) decreases. Fluid distribution for X 5 0.4 is shown in Fig.
7b. In this case, r p is 6.7 mm, which is lower than that in the
 CRITICAL CONDENSATE SATURATION IN POROUS MEDIA
FIG. 7. (a) Fluid distribution at X 5 0.1 (base case). (b) Fluid distribution at X 5 0.4.
base case. About 25.6% of the throats are filled with conden-
sate liquid; i.e., F 5 25.6%, which is almost half of the value
in the base case. The condensate still has a sample spanning
network because more of the throat– body corners are con-
nected compared to the base case.
Effect of spatial correlation. In the base case, no spatial
correlations are used in assigning pore body and throat sizes. In
the correlated model, the pore bodies are assigned randomly,
but larger throats are connected to larger bodies. Throat radii
are assigned according to the average radius of the two bodies
adjacent to any throat. Figure 8 shows the effect of this spatial
correlation on the critical condensate saturation as well. S cc is
FIG. 8. Effect of spatial correlation (CM).
423
higher in the correlated model than in the uncorrelated model.
When X varies from 0 to 0.4, S cc varies from 19.8 to 4.9% for
the uncorrelated model and from 32.6 to 9.5% for the corre-
lated model. In the correlated model, smaller throats clump
together and so do larger throats. Thus the critical radius of
curvature required to establish a sample spanning network is
larger. This leads to an increase in the critical condensate
saturation.
Effect of throat length. Throat length, L t, is given by L t 5
L tt 2 (r b1 1 r b2), where r b1 and r b2 are the adjacent body radii
of the throat. L tt is the distance between adjacent body centers
and is chosen to be a constant for all throats in this model. Thus
L t decreases when L tt decreases while the other parameters are
kept the same. The ease of liquid connection between adjacent
throat– body junctions does not change when L tt changes. Only
the volume of the liquid in the throats and the volume of the
throats change. At low values of X, many throats are filled with
the condensate and the critical condensate volume comes pri-
marily from the throats. In such cases, reducing the throat
length decreases the critical condensate saturation. At high
values of X, the critical condensate volume can come primarily
from the body corners. In such cases, the throat length does not
appreciably change the critical condensate saturation.
Effect of throat size. The sensitivity of the critical conden-
sate saturation to the throat size distribution in this model is the
opposite of that in MSPM, as shown in Fig. 9. When the
average and maximum throat sizes are changed from 9 and 22
microns to 5 and 12 microns, S cc increases at all values of X.
The pore body size distribution is kept the same for this
comparison. As the throat radii decrease, (r b 2 r tb) values
424 WANG AND MOHANTY
increase, and this makes it difficult for condensates in throats to
connect with those in bodies, especially at low values of X. S cc
increases from 19.8 to 44.9% when X is zero and from 4.9 to
18.1% when X is 0.4. Permeability decreases in a set of rocks
can be due to decreases in the average coordination number or
in the throat size. If the decrease in permeability is due to the
decrease in throat radii, then the critical condensate saturation
will increase with the decrease in permeability. Many experi-
ments show this trend (4, 7, 9).
Effect of pore body size. Increasing the maximum pore
body size from 25 to 50 mm (and keeping other parameters
unchanged) results in a small decrease in the critical conden-
sate saturation. The effect of pore body size on S cc is also
shown in Fig. 9. S cc decreases from 4.9 to 4.5% at X 5 0.4 and
from 19.8 to 16.2% at X 5 0. The S cc decreases because the
increase in the pore body size leads to a higher pore volume
and a lower contribution of the throat (and thus condensate)
volume to the overall pore volume. As pore body size in-
creases, (r b 2 r tb) also increases, which makes it difficult for
condensates in throats to connect with those in bodies. This
tends to increase the S cc, but this effect is overshadowed by the
pore volume effect.
Effect of pore connectivity. In this model, the topology is
again simple cubic for the base case with the coordination
number being six. The coordination number of the model is
again reduced by closing a fraction of throats randomly. The
average coordination number, Z, of such models is 6*F1,
where F1 is the fraction of throats open. F1 is varied from 0.5
to 1. The effect of average coordination number on the critical
condensate saturation is shown in Fig. 10. As Z decreases from
6 to 3, S cc increases from 15.5 to 30.7%. As the average
coordination number of the lattice decreases, some of the
FIG. 9. Effect of throat shape parameter, throat radii, and body radii (CM).
FIG. 10. Effect of coordination number (CM).
throats used in providing the sample spanning path at the
critical saturation of the base case are removed. Thus it takes
more condensate to fill up additional throats to provide a
sample spanning path, so the critical condensate saturation
increases as the coordination number decreases. If the decrease
in permeability in a set of rocks is due to the decrease in Z,
then the critical condensate saturation will increase with the
decrease in permeability. This trend is consistent with many
experimental observations (4, 7, 9).
Effect of water saturation. The simulations of condensate
saturation discussed above were conducted in the absence of
any water. Some amount of water is often present in the
gas– condensate reservoirs. In this section, the effect of water
saturation on the condensate distribution is studied. The me-
dium is first saturated with some amount of water following the
rules used for condensate saturation. The condensate is then
distributed following the same rules. Water saturation has two
effects on the condensate distribution. First, water occupies the
highly curved, smallest pores, being the most wetting fluid.
This effect alone reduces the critical condensate saturation.
Second, if the water saturation is high enough, it reduces the
connectivity of the condensate phase compared to the connec-
tivity of the combined liquid saturation. For example, if water
occupies the middle of a throat, then the condensates on either
side of the water plug are not connected through the throat.
This effect alone would tend to increase the critical condensate
saturation. Figure 11 shows the effect of water saturation on
the critical condensate saturation in the base case. As the water
saturation increases, the critical condensate saturation de-
creases. The sum of the two saturations is essentially a constant
at low water saturation. This indicates that in this water satu-
ration range, the water blocking is not very important. At water
saturations greater than 10%, the sum of water and condensate
saturation is no longer constant. The condensate has to estab-
lish alternate paths to be sample spanning. The critical con-
densate saturation at high (;16%) water saturation is fairly
 CRITICAL CONDENSATE SATURATION IN POROUS MEDIA 425

low (;4%) because the condensate spreads on top of the water

in corners and establishes the connectivity for the condensate
phase without much saturation.
Effect of low interfacial tension. In the above calculations,
the critical length, h max, of the condensate ganglion was taken
to be the length of the whole lattice, i.e., 20 pore lengths. This
is valid for interfacial tension greater than 0.01 dyne/cm in a
system with Dr ; 0.1 gm/cc, r t ; 10 mm, K ; 1 Darcy, and
N B ; 10 24, for example. For lower interfacial tension, h max is
lower, which leads to lower critical condensate saturation, as
shown in Fig. 12. As interfacial tension increases from 0.0025
to 0.01 dyne/cm (or equivalently, the Bond number decreases
from 4 3 10 24 to 10 24), the critical condensate saturation
increases from 4 to 15%. The rate of increase of S cc decreases
with the increase in interfacial tension. The maximum length
for flow, h max, is directly proportional to interfacial tension
FIG. 12. Effect of interfacial tension (CM).
from Eq. [3]. But the saturation needed to make a cluster of
length h max is not linear with h max. At high values (.15 pore
lengths) of h max, a small increase in the condensate saturation
makes a large increase in the cluster size. Therefore, the because of the converging– diverging nature of pore throats. In
dependence of the critical condensate saturation on interfacial the modified sphere-pack model, the critical condensate satu-
tension is small at high tensions (or equivalently, at low Bond ration is usually under 10% even in the absence of any connate
numbers). Our numerical results are limited by the finite size of water. It decreases when the connectivity of the medium in-
our network, but they can be extended using the finite size creases, throat sizes decrease, body sizes increase, and the
scaling of percolation theory (18). throat– body sizes are correlated. This model underpredicts the
critical condensate saturation for typical sandstones because of
the overestimation of the connectivity of the corners.
CONCLUSIONS
The critical condensate saturation predicted in the cubic
The critical condensate saturation in porous media has been model is more realistic. It can get as large as 45% in the
studied through two structural pore-network models. These absence of water and as small as 4% in the presence of water.
models are similar to previous pore-network models used for It decreases when the connectivity of the medium increases,
multiphase flow except that the role of pore corners, distribu- throat sizes increase, body sizes increase, and the throat– body
tions of low wetting fluid, and low interfacial tension are sizes are uncorrelated. It also decreases when the length and
investigated critically. A nonzero critical condensate saturation the converging– diverging character of the throats increase. As
can be obtained in the absence of contact angle hysteresis the connate water saturation increases and the gas– condensate
interfacial tension decreases (or the Bond number increases),
the critical condensate saturation is reduced. Beyond a critical
value, interfacial tension has a minimal effect on the critical
condensate saturation. Such a model can be used in the future
to estimate relative permeabilities of gas– condensate systems.

APPENDIX: NOMENCLATURE

F fraction of throats smaller than the threshold radius (%)

K permeability (Darcy)
L tt path length from one body center to an adjacent body
center (mm)
NC capillary number
NB bond number
nx network size in x-direction
rb body radius (mm)
rp threshold gas– condensate meniscus radius (mm)
rt throat radius (mm)
FIG. 11. Effect of initial water saturation (CM). r tb end radius of a throat at a throat– body junction (mm)
426 WANG AND MOHANTY

r min minimum value of the radius (mm) 7. Morel, D. C., Lomer, J. F., Morineau, Y. M., and Putz, A. G., in “Pro-
r max maximum value of the radius (mm) ceedings, 67th Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition of the SPE,
Washington, D. C., Oct. 4 –7, 1992.” SPE 24939.
r# average value of the radius (mm)
8. Morel, D. C., Nectoux, A., and Danquigny, J., in “Proceedings, 72nd
S cc critical condensate saturation (%) Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition of the SPE, San Antonio,
S wi connate water saturation (%) TX, Oct. 5– 8, 1997.” SPE 38922.
X throat shape parameter 9. Ali, J. K., et al., in “Proceedings, Europec 94, London, UK, Oct. 25–27,
Z throat coordination number 1994.” SPE 28848.
10. Kalaydjian, F. J-M., Bourbiaux, B. J., and Lombard, J. M., in “Proceed-
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ings, 71st Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition of the SPE,
Denver, CO, Oct. 6 –9, 1996.” SPE 36715.
This work was partially funded by Texas HECB, ARCO, Chevron, Exxon, 11. Fang, F., Firoozabadi, A., Abbaszadeh, M., and Radke, C., in “Proceed-
Mobil, and the NPTO of the Department of Energy. ings, 71st Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition of the SPE,
Denver, CO, Oct. 6 –9, 1996.” SPE 36716.
12. Mohammadi, S., Sorbie, K. S., Danesh, A., and Peden, J. M., in “Pro-
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