Reservoir

Management
lecture ten
lecturer Ahmed Radhe
University of Basra
Petroleum Department
Q/What does mean by (SCAL)?
(Special Core Analysis Lab.) it is a report
contains some properties such as (Pc,
Kro, Krw, Sw) and figures (Kro, Krw vs.
Sw), (Sw vs. Pc).
CAPILLARY PRESSURE
In fluid statics, capillary pressure is the difference in pressure across the
interface between two immiscible fluids, and thus defined as
In oil-water systems, water is typically the wetting phase, while for gas-oil
systems, oil is typically the wetting phase.
The Young–Laplace equation states that this pressure difference is
proportional to the interfacial tension , and inversely proportional to the
effective radius,  , of the interface, it also depends on the wetting angle,  , of
the liquid on the surface of the capillary.

The equation for capillary pressure is only valid under capillary equilibrium,
which means that there cannot be any flowing phases.
RELATIVE PERMEABILITY
In multiphase flow in porous media, the relative permeability of a
phase is a dimensionless measure of the effective permeability of
that phase. It is the ratio of the effective permeability of that
phase to the absolute permeability. It can be viewed as an
adaptation of Darcy's law to multiphase flow.
For two-phase flow in porous media given steady-state
conditions, we can write

Where is the flux, is the pressure drop, is the viscosity.

The subscript indicates that the parameters are for phase .
  Is here the phase permeability (i.e., the effective
permeability of phase ), as observed through the equation above.
Relative permeability ,  , for phase    is then defined from
  , as
Where   is the permeability of the porous medium in single-
phase flow, i.e., the absolute permeability. Relative permeability
must be between zero and one.
In applications, relative permeability is often represented as a
function of water saturation; however, owing to capillary
hysteresis one often resorts to a function or curve measured
under drainage and another measured under imbibition
Q/ What does Swc mean? How can you determine it?
The connate or irreducible water saturation (Swc): is the
water saturation level below which the water becomes
immovable. We can determine from the plotting between
(Kro, Krw vs. Sw) at intercept of (Krw and Sw).

2 Chart Title 0.7

1.8
0.6
1.6

1.4 0.5

1.2
0.4
1
0.3
0.8

0.6 0.2
0.4
0.1
0.2

0 0
10 20 30 40 y=kro 50 60
y=krw 70 80 90
-- Or from (Pc vs. Sw) plot as follow figure:
Q/ What does Pc mean? When get the pc data?
Capillary pressure is the pressure difference existing
across the interface separating two immiscible fluids. It is
usually calculated as:

We can get data from (SCAL) Special Core Analysis.

Q/ What are Pc uses?
-Determine initial water saturation in the reservoir.
-Determine residual oil saturation for water flooding
applications.
-Input for reservoir simulation calculations.
-Determine fluid distribution in reservoir by establishing
the relation between the capillary pressure and height
above the free water level.
- Determine pore size distribution index.
- May help in identify zones or rock types.
Q/ on what capillary pressure depend?
1- The value of capillary pressure is dependent on the
saturation of each phase, on which phase is the
continuous phase.
2- The shape and size of the pores and pore throats.
Displacement pressure (PD): is the threshold or entry
capillary pressure needed for the non-wetting phase to
displace the wetting phase from the largest pores.
Drainage: is a process in which the wetting phase
saturation decreases and the non-wetting phase
saturation increases.
Imbibition: is process in which the wetting phase
saturation increases and the non-wetting phase saturation
decreases.
Q/ What is useful of plotting (Pc vs. Sw)?
To determine (Swc, Sor, WOC, FWL).
Q/ What is useful of plotting (Kr vs. Sw)?
To determine (Swc, Sor, Wettability).