Combining two- And three-phase coreflooding experiments for reservoir simulation under WAG practices

Abstract

Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes may often involve simultaneous flow of two or three immiscible fluids inside the reservoir. A precise evaluation of relative permeabilities is critical to quantify multi-phase flow dynamics, assisting improved management and development of oil- and gas- bearing formations. This study illustrates the results of laboratory-scale investigations of multiphase flow on a sandstone reservoir core sample to evaluate relative permeabilities under two- and three-phase (i.e., water, oil, and gas) conditions. We use the ensuing information to simulate WAG injection at reservoir scale. The experiments are conducted at high temperature, consistent with reservoir conditions, to obtain two- (oil/water and oil/gas) and three-phase (oil/water/gas) relative permeabilities through Steady-State (SS) technique. Our laboratory workflow allows for an improved investigation by combining coreflooding experiments with in-situ X-Ray evaluation of local saturation distribution. The latter technique permits to asses slice-averaged phase saturation along the rock core, enabling to compute saturation profiles and average saturations while flooding, thus yielding significant advantages over traditional methodologies based on mass balance. Three-phase steady state (SS) experiments are performed by following diverse saturation paths, and the complete experimental dataset is provided to (a) assess the occurrence of local three-phase saturation conditions and (b) possibly investigate hysteretic effects of relative permeabilities. We evaluate three-phase relative permeabilities across the entire three-phase saturation region by leveraging a Sigmoid-based model (Ranaee et al., 2015). The resulting set of experimental two- and three-phase coreflooding results constitute a unique dataset which is then employed for reservoir simulation studies mimicking WAG injection and results are discussed in comparison with reservoir production under a waterflooding scenario.