Three Phase Calculation

By: Omar Abdulwadood Mahmoud

ABSTRACT:
An equation for three-phase (water, oil, gas) imbibition oil permeability is developed, assuming the
water to be the dominant wetting fluid. Oil isoperms are obtained for consolidated sandstones
characterized by l/Pc 2 = CS*. The evolution of an oil-gas system imbibing water from Swi to (Sw, imb
)max is shown to proceed along a line of constant oil saturation with increasing oil permeability and
decreasing gas saturations. When the gas saturation cannot be reduced further, the system evolves
along a line of constant S with decreasing oil saturation and permeability. T be initial gas saturation
IS sown to reduce markedly the effect of complete wetting by either oil or water on flow
performance.

INTRODUCTION:
Imbibition oil isoperms are required for performance prediction when a well is producing water, oil
and gas. This situation occurs in multiphase displacements such as underground combustion, steam
injection and the water flooding of highly depleted reservoirs. In a recent paper,1 a model was
presented for the prediction of two-phase imbibition characteristic s. This paper extends the
imbibition model to the case of three phases by assuming that the water is the dominant wetting
fluid. The following results were obtained from the model: (1) an analytical expression of oil
isoperms; (2) oil isoperms as functions of reduced water, oil and gas saturations, valid for all
evaluation of the three phase flow performance as dictated by complete wetting by either oil or
water. The agreement between predicted and observed oil recovery in the presence of a gas phase,
reported in Ref. 1, is a partial support for the present development. However, experimental data are
not available at this time to check fully the model predictions. Perhaps this paper will stimulate the
collection of such data.
THEORETICAL:
The imbibition model of a porous medium has been described previously, and the reader is referred
to the paper of Naar and Henderson for details. In brief, the model is formed by the random
interconnection of straight capillaries, with a provision for the blocking of the non-wetting phase by
the invading wetting fluid The .following expressions were derived from the model
1. The amount of oil blocked by the invading water is:

Where a is defined by

2. The imbibition relative permeability to the wetting phase is

 …..(2)

The permeability k is written

….(3)

3. Imbibition relative permeability to the nonwetting phase - for the nonwetting fluid during an
imbibition process, the relative permeability at a given wetting-phase saturation Sw imb is equal to
the drainage relative permeability at a saturation S*w.drain defined by the relationship

….(4)
Relative Permeability to Water If oil and gas are considered equivalent to a single nonwetting phase,
the system can be treated as having only two phases; the relative permeability to water is then
equal to the wetting-phase permeability during drainage. If only the capillary pressure curve is
known, the relative permeability to water can be computed from Eq. 18. Relative Permeability to
Gas To compute the relative permeability to gas, the system may again be treated as a two-phase
system with water and oil forming the single wetting phase. The permeability to gas is then
computed as explained in Ref. 1. Relative Permeability to Oil The permeability to oil is more complex
to compute. The mechanics of the displacement are described as follows and the analytical details
are given in the Appendix. When the water invades the porous medium and occupies the pores of
radius r which were initially full of oil, part of the oil in this size class of pores is blocked and the rest
invades pores full of gas. In turn, part of the gas phase is blocked and the remainder is pushed out.
The effects of these movements are twofold.
1. Because a certain volume of oil is trapped, the oil permeability tends to decrease.
2. Because a certain volume of oil moves from small pores into larger ones, the permeability tends
to increase.
The relative permeability to oil, therefore, is a balance between these two tendencies, and it is
possible to observe an increase in oil permeability at constant oil saturation. After the oil invades all
the size classes of gas filled pores, the oil saturation and the oil relative permeability decrease when
the water saturation increases. The permeability to oil at any stage of the imbibition process is
computed by assuming that the oil phase is wetting with respect to the gas. The water saturation
plus the blocked oil saturation form a fictitious, irreducible wetting-phase saturation. For
consolidated sandstones having a capillary pressure curve approximated by the equation liP} CS*,
kro. imb is given by

…(5)
Where S*of and S*fw are defined by

…..(6)

…..(7)

Oil isoperms for consolidated sandstones are shown on a trilinear plot in Fig. 1 as functions of the
reduced water, oil and gas saturations. The displacement mechanism proposed indicates that at the
beginning of the imbibition process the water saturation Sw will increase at the expense of the gas
saturation at constant oil saturation until no more gas is trapped. At this point the water saturation
will increase at the expense of the oil saturation at constant gas saturation. In a trilinear diagram,
therefore, the path describing the evolution of an oil-gas system is formed by two straight lines. By
following the dotted lines from a point on the S*w = 0 axis to the locus of the intersection of these
lines, the history of any element during imbibition may be traced.
LIMITS OF WATER-OIL BEHAVIOR DICTATED BY WETTABILITY:
The influence of wetting on oil-water flow behavior has been examined in Ref. 1. The geometry of
the porous medium, represented by Swi' was shown to be important in assessing this influence.
When gas is present as the third phase, the model and the assumed imbibition mechanism teach the
following.
1. The total oil recovery* will exceed the 50 per cent limit of the two-phase system and is given by

2. For equal values of the oil recovery, the value of ko/kw is not a function of Swi but is a function of
the wettability and of the initial gas saturation. This dependence is shown in Fig. 3 where (kolkw)
water-wet/(ko/kw) oil-wet is plotted.
vs Sgi for Np/N = .40. This ratio decreases rapidly when Sgi increases. From the standpoint of oil
recovery and flowing water-oil ratio, the higher the initial gas saturation, the Iess significant the
wettability of the medium becomes. The values of ko/kw for an oil-wet medium and for increasing
water saturation were computed from Eqs. 23 and 24 of Ref. 1. The water isoperms for that case are
shown in Fig. 2.
3. The water saturation at a given recovery is a function of Sw; and the initial gas saturation. This
can be seen in Fig, 3 where (Sw) water-wet/(SJ oil wet is plotted against Sgi for Swi = .15 and Swi =
30. This ratio increases with Sgi and its rate of increase is an increasing function of Swi' The physical
significance of this increase is immediately evident - water must be imbibed in sufficient quantity to
displace the gas phase before the oil phase can be expelled.
The proposed displacement mechanism applies to a small elemental volume (ΔV) of porous rock.
The gross production behavior then can have the appearance of an initial gas production followed by
an oil bank. This type of apparent behavior was observed by Kyte, et al. 3
The observation that, during imbibition, the gas phase is produced first was also made in this
laboratory. We are indebted to J. J. Taber for the curves of Fig. 4 which show the imbibition history
of a Berea core. The agreement between observed and predicted final gas and oil recoveries
reported in Ref. 1 further supports this theory. It is also felt that, while experimental oil isoperms are
not available at this time, the success of the predictions of relative permeability and oil recovery in
two-phase flow are strong points in favor of the present development.
CONCLUSIONS:
A mechanism to describe three-phase water imbibition has been proposed and applied to a
theoretical model of a consolidated porous medium.
 FIG. 3 - INFLUENCE OF WETTABlLITY ON FLOWING OIL-WATER RATIO AND WATER SATURATION AT 40 PER CENT RECOVERY.

A formula has been derived for the imbibition oil permeability and has been used to compute oil
isoperms for consolidated sandstones. The gas phase has been shown to decrease the influence of
wettability and to be important in determining the amount of water required to effect a given oil
recovery.

FIG. 4 - IMBIBITION OF WATER INTO A BEREA CORE CONTAINING WATER, OIL AND GAS.
 Flow Equations for Three-Phase Flow
The flow equations for an oil, water, and gas system are determined by specifying the
fluxes and concentrations of the conservation equations for each of the three phases. A
flux in a given direction can be written as the density of the fluid times its velocity in the given
direction. Letting the subscripts o, w, and g denote oil, water, and gas, respectively, the fluxes
become:

mass conservation equation

…..(8)

….(9)

….(10)
where Rso and Rsw are gas solubilities; B0, Bw, and Bg are formation volume factors; the subscript sc
denotes standard conditions (usually 60°F and 14.7 psia in oilfield units); and p denotes fluid
densities. The velocities v are assumed to be Darcy velocities and their x components are
Principles of Applied Reservoir Simulation
….(11)

….(12)

….(13)

where g is the acceleration of gravity in ft/sec2, andgc is 32.174 ft/sec2 (WINB4Dassumes g - gc).
These equations should be valid for describing fluid flow in porous media even if g and gc change,
such as on the Moon, Mars, or the space shuttle. Similar expressions can be written for the y and z
components.
The phase mobility Ae is defined as the ratio of the relative permeability to flow of the phase divided
by its viscosity, thus
….(14)

The phase densities are related to formation volume factors and gas solubilities by
…..(15)

….(16)

….(17)

Besides fluxes, we also need concentrations. These are given by

….(18)

….(19)

….(20)

where ϕ is the porosity and S is the saturation of phase ι. The saturations satisfy the constraint
….(21)

Combining Eqs. Mass conservation eq., (8) through (10), and (18) through (20) gives a mass
conservation equation for each phase:
Oil
….(22)

Water
….(23)

Gas

….(24)

The densities at standard conditions are constants and can be divided out of the above equations. This
reduces the equations to the following form:
Oil
….(25)
Water

….(26)

Gas
….(27)

Flow Equations in Vector Notation

Equations (11 through (17), (21), and (25) through (27) are the basic fluid flow equations which are
numerically solved in a black oil simulator.
A glance at Eqs. (25) through (27) illustrates the computational complexity of the basic three-
dimensional, three-phase black oil simulator equations. Equivalent but much simpler appearing forms
of the flow equations are presented in terms of vector operators as

…(28)

….(29)
And

…(30)

where the symbol for the divergence of the velocity vector is shorthand for the expression

….(31)

References:
** SPE Three Phase Imbibition Relative Permeability, J.NAAR JUNIOR MEMBER AIME
R.J.WYGAL.
**APPLIED RESERVOIR SIMULATION BY JOHAN R. FANCHI.