Introduction to

Capillary Pressure
 Applications of Capillary
Pressure Data
• Determine fluid distribution in reservoir (initial conditions)
• Accumulation of HC is drainage process for water wet res.
• Sw= function of height above OWC (oil water contact)
• Determine recoverable oil for water flooding applications
• Imbibition process for water wet reservoirs
• Pore Size Distribution Index, 
• Absolute permeability (flow capacity of entire pore size
distribution)
• Relative permeability (distribution of fluid phases within the
pore size distribution)
• Reservoir Flow - Capillary Pressure included as a term of flow
potential for multiphase flow ρ gZ
Φ w  po  w
 Pc,ow ; Z , water wet
D
• Input data for reservoir simulation models
 DRAINAGE AND IMBIBITION
CAPILLARY PRESSURE CURVES DRAINAGE

• Fluid flow process in which the saturation

of the nonwetting phase increases

• Mobility of nonwetting fluid phase

increases as nonwetting phase saturation
increases
Drainage IMBIBITION

• Fluid flow process in which the saturation

of the wetting phase increases
Pc
• Mobility of wetting phase increases as
wetting phase saturation increases
Pd
Four Primary Parameters
Si = irreducible wetting phase saturation
Imbibition Sm = 1 - residual non-wetting phase saturation
S
Sm Pd = displacement pressure, the pressure
i
required to force non-wetting fluid into largest
0 0.5 1.0 pores
Swt  = pore size distribution index; determines
shape
Modified from NExT, 1999, after …
 DRAINAGE PROCESS
• Fluid flow process in which the saturation of the nonwetting
phase increases
• Examples:
• Hydrocarbon (oil or gas) filling the pore space and
displacing the original water of deposition in water-wet rock
• Waterflooding an oil reservoir in which the reservoir is oil
wet
• Gas injection in an oil or water wet oil reservoir
• Pressure maintenance or gas cycling by gas injection in a
retrograde condensate reservoir
• Evolution of a secondary gas cap as reservoir pressure
decreases
 IMBIBITION PROCESS
IMBIBITION
•Fluid flow process in which the
saturation of the wetting phase increases

•Mobility of wetting phase increases as

wetting phase saturation increases

Examples:
Accumulation of oil in an oil wet reservoir
Water flooding an oil reservoir in which the reservoir is water
wet
Accumulation of condensate as pressure decreases in a dew
point reservoir
 Pc vs. Sw Function
Reflects Reservoir Quality
Core Pore Petrophysical Gamma Ray Flow
Core Lithofacies
Plugs Types Data Log Units
f vs k Capillary
Pressure

High Quality
5

2
Function moves up
and right, and
becomes less “L”
1
shaped as reservoir Low Quality
quality decreases
Effect of Permeability on Shape
20

16
Decreasing
Capillary Pressure

Permeability,
Decreasing 
12

A B
8

0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0

Water Saturation
Modified from NExT 1999, after xx)
 Effect of Grain Size Distribution on Shape

Poorly sorted
Capillary pressure, psia

Well-sorted

Decreasing 

Modfied from NExT, 1999; after …) Water saturation, %

 CAPILLARY PRESSURE
- DEFINITION -
• The pressure difference existing across
the interface separating two immiscible
fluids in capillaries (e.g. porous media).
• Calculated as:
Pc = pnwt - pwt Where:

Pc = capillary pressure
• One fluid wets the surfaces of the formation
rock (wetting phase) in preference to the other Pnwt = pressure in nonwetting phase
(non-wetting phase).
• Gas is always the non-wetting phase in both pwt = pressure in wetting phase
oil-gas and water-gas systems.
• Oil is often the non-wetting phase in water-oil
systems.
 Capillary Tube - Conceptual Model
Air-Water System

 Air
h

Water

• Considering the porous media as a collection of capillary tubes provides useful

insights into how fluids behave in the reservoir pore spaces.
• Water rises in a capillary tube placed in a beaker of water, similar to water (the
wetting phase) filling small pores leaving larger pores to non-wetting phases of
reservoir rock.
 CAPILLARY TUBE MODEL
AIR / WATER SYSTEM
• The height of water in a capillary tube is a function of:

2  aw cos 
– Adhesion tension between the air and water
– Radius of the tube
h 
– Density difference between fluids r g  aw
This relation can be derived from balancing the upward force due to adhesion
tension and downward forces due to the weight of the fluid (see ABW pg 135).
The wetting phase (water) rise will be larger in small capillaries.
h = Height of water rise in capillary tube, cm
aw = Interfacial tension between air and water,
dynes/cm
 = Air/water contact angle, degrees
r = Radius of capillary tube, cm
g = Acceleration due to gravity, 980 cm/sec2
aw = Density difference between water and air, gm/cm3
Contact angle, , is measured through the more dense phase (water in this
case).
Rise of Wetting Phase Varies with
Capillary Radius

1 2 3 4

AIR

WATER

Ayers, 2001
CAPILLARY TUBE MODEL
AIR/WATER SYSTEM
pa1
pw1 Air
h
pa2
pw2

Water

Water rise in capillary tube depends on the density difference of fluids.

Pa2 = pw2 = p2
pa1 = p2 - a g h
pw1 = p2 - w g h
Pc = pa1 - pw1
= w g h - a g h
=  g h
CAPILLARY PRESSURE – AIR / WATER
SYSTEM
• Combining the two relations results in the following
expression for capillary tubes:

2  aw cos 
Pc 
r
CAPILLARY PRESSURE – OIL / WATER
SYSTEM
• From a similar derivation, the equation for
capillary pressure for an oil/water system is

2  ow cos 
Pc 
r

Pc = Capillary pressure between oil and water

ow = Interfacial tension between oil and water, dyne/cm
 = Oil/water contact angle, degrees
r = Radius of capillary tube, cm