5962

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COMMUNICATIONTO JPT FORUM

.’

ON THE NORM4LIZA’l!tON
OF RELA’lZVE
PEZUWEABXLIWCURVES

In a recent paper’ the normalizationof imbibition,water-

oil? relativeperm=bility Ourves2 has been presentedas a step of a
method for evaluating,,imbibition~gas-water,relativepermeabilityou~
ves from “end point” gas-waterlaboratorydata.
Accordingto our experience,normalizationis, ~er se, a
very valuable tool. It allows evaluatingthe average relativeperme-
bility curves of a statisti~allyhomogeneous TOCk ~onet b~sed on ~ 1A
mited number of relativepermeabilitycurves determinedon cores cut
from said zone.
The normalizationtechniqueis not to be confinedto im’o~
bition relative permeabilityourves only. We have been using success-
fully this techniquefor a decade also for drainage,gas-oil, relati-
ve permeabilityourves.In this case the followingnormalizedquanti-
ties are employed:
s
s . . . ...(1)
gD = Hti-Sor-S@”
~,.,

m ......(2)
k
roD = kti at S
. i’o s

kr
k .......(3)
r@ = k at S = 1 - Swi- Sor
rg g

An example of normalized.drainage,
gas-oil, relativepe~
meabilit.yourves for a statisticallyhomogeneouszone of a Triassic sanQ
Stone reservoirrock is presentedin Fig. 1.
Accordingto our”experience., k p i,s”better
than k as correl_-
r
,.. .
ation parameterfor the characteristic(or “end”) points of relative pe~
meability ourves measured on each sample-plots of S&~ l-Swi-Sor-S@ ~
k at-S~ and krg at S . l-Swi--Sor versus k q for the example reser-
v
v;!r zone of Fig. 1 aregpresentedin Figs.2 and 3.
. 4
Accordingto the bundle-of-capillaries
model of porous me~a :

.-
. ., ..

* . .
 -2-

where:
c= a (Kozeny)constant,whose value depends on the averg
-0
ge shape of the pores (capillaries),
A“= speoificsurface of the porous medium, per unit pore
.P
volume.
In our opinionf k q describesbetterthan k the internal ..
F
structureof a porous medjxm. Therefore,it should provide a “better
correlationfor quantitieswhose value depends on the interactionsbe~
ween flowing fluids and porous media.
.
REFERENCES ..

1. Keelan,G.D.: “A PracticalApproachto Determinationof Imbibition

Gas-WaterRelativePermeability”,J. Pet. Tech. (Feb., 1%3) 199-
204. .

2. Perkins? F.M.tJr. and Collins ~ ROE.: “ScalingLaws for Laboratory

Flow Models of Oil Reservoirs”,Trans. AIME (1960)Q, 383-385.

3* Testerman,J.D.: “A StatisticalReservoir-Zonation’
Technique”,Trans.
AIME (1962) ~, 889 -893- Discussionat page 1394.

4. Carman,P.C.: “glow of Gases ThrouRhPorous Media” ButterworthScie~

tifiopubl.t London (1956).

G.L. Chierici,SPILAIME
AGIP’Exploration&Production
San I&nato Milanese, Italy

,’

.
&.DonatoMil., March 22, 1976
...——
.-

‘.
.

. . . .
. .
..

..
.

.’,
 ●

,1.0

Q8 .

0.6 ✎

Eji ●

0.4 ,

0.2
‘“ “k.Xfl ● ✼

i
I
-
I I
c 1
.. 1.0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
‘9D

Fig. 1 - Slormalised
‘drainege,gas-oilsrelativepermeability
,. . olm?e% . .
,

. . ..

“.

. f
. ..
 .

1.0

0.8

0.6

m
..
0.4

Q2

0 20 40 60 80 100 120
p
v ‘9, md2

lHg. 2- Correlationof Sge and of (1 - Sti - SO= - Sgo) tith

~* .
v
. .

.
 . ., . . ...’
..

●
1.0 I I I I I I

0.8 - a
●
s bo ~~ :gc
a m
0.6 “
f

.
0.4 -
1(-
x
.
krg at (l-SW{- 3) or
. v
0.2 “

1 1 I 1 I 1 +
o
o 20 .40 Go 80 100 120

f7k &,md%

Fig. 3- Correlationof km at S mdofk2gat S6=l -S Wi -S or

e
with q. .
F
. ,. .
,’

,.
—.

.
.,
,..
..l *

. .

- . . . . .

. . . .

.. .
“.

✎
✎ ..’