Gas/Condensate Relative Permeability of a Low Permeability Core: Coupling vs. Inertia

Autor: Panteha Ghahri, Shaun Ireland, Mehran Sohrabi, Mahmoud Jamiolahmady
Rok vydání: 2010
Předmět:
Zdroj: SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering. 13:214-227
ISSN: 1930-0212
1094-6470
DOI: 10.2118/120088-pa
Popis: Summary Flow around the wellbore of gas/condensate systems, when pressure drops below dewpoint, is controlled by complex interaction of capillary, viscous, and inertial forces. Hence, it is challenging to determine accurately gas/condensate relative permeability (kr) that is affected by the relative impact of these competing forces. There are a number of reports demonstrating kr of high permeability rocks affected by both coupling [the increase of kr as velocity increases and/or interfacial tension (IFT) decreases] and inertia (i.e., the reduction of kr as velocity increases) for these low IFT systems. However, there is little information on this subject for low-permeability rocks. In this work, different series of steady-state k r values for a 3.9- md sandstone reservoir rock with a porosity of 6% are reported. These k data sets have been measured experimentally at three IFT levels below 1 mNm-1 and five velocity levels below 200 md-1. The results indicate that at the highest IFT, inertia is dominant at low condensate-/gas-flow-rate ratio(CGFR) at test conditions, whereby kr reduces with increasing velocities. At higher CGFR, an increase in kr is observed because of the dominant effect of coupling. At lower IFT, the negative impact of inertia on k as velocity increases is observed at all CGFR. Jamiolahmady et al. (2008) have recently reported kr of highly conductive propped fractures showing a more pronounced effect of inertia at lower IFT, but this is the frrst report of such behavior for low permeability rocks. These k r measurements are also compared with the corresponding predicted k using the generalized kr correlation recently developed by Jamiolahmady et al. (2009). The correlation expresses the combined effect of coupling and inertia with universal parameters. The unique contribution of inertia, as observed in the experiments and predicted by the correlation, is attributed mainly to the high single-phase inertial factor of the rock and fluid properties of the flowing phases.
Databáze: OpenAIRE