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Chapter Outline
▪ Introduction
▪ Porosity
▪ Permeability
▪ Saturation
▪ Wettability
▪ Capillary Pressure
▪ Relative Permeability
▪ Hysteresis
Introduction
Two main properties of reservoir rocks are porosity and
permeability;
Amount of fluids inside reservoir rocks, known as in-situ
fluid saturation and rock-fluid interaction properties
such as wettability, capillary pressure, relative
permeability are also of primary concerns;
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Porosity
Porosity represents the storage capacity of reservoir rock
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Rock Matrix and Pore Space
Rock matrix Pore space
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Porosity
Porosity depends on grain packing, NOT grain size
Rocks with different grain sizes can have the same
porosity
• Rhombohedral packing • Cubic packing
• Pore space = 26 % of total volume • Pore space = 47 % of total volume
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Pore-Space Classification
Total porosity
Total Pore Space V pore
t
Bulk Volume Vbulk
• Effective porosity
Interconnected Pore Space
e
Bulk Volume
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Permeability
Permeability is a measure of the reservoir rock
capacity to transmit fluids
There are three types of permeability:
Absolute permeability
Effective permeability
Relative permeability
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Absolute Permeability
Absolute permeability of a reservoir rock is its own
characteristic, independent of the fluids inside it
Darcy’s experiment with a single-phase fluid injected
into a sand pack was the first to define and determine
the absolute permeability of a permeable, porous
media
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Darcy’s Equation
q v: Velocity
q: Flow rate
x
Direction of flow
A A: Cross-section area
k: Permeability
: Viscosity
q k p L: Length increment
v p: Pressure drop
A x
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Effective Permeability
Darcy’s equation is used for single-phase fluid only
For multiphase flow in reservoirs, the individual fluid flow is
described by the generalized Darcy’s equation in which the
absolute permeability is replaced by the effective
permeability
ko po kg p g
vo vg
o x g x
kw pw
vw
w x
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Effective Permeability
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Relative Permeability
Relative permeability ( ) is defined as the ratio of the
effective permeability to a fluid at a given saturation to the
effective permeability to that fluid
When the relative permeability of a fluid is zero, that fluid exists
in the rock but does not move
Relative permeability can be measured by core flooding
experiments known as the special core analysis
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Relative Permeability
1.00
kro @ Swi
- Irreducible water saturation
Relative Permeability (fraction)
Saturation of water
0.80 remaining in the rock sample
after the experiment of oil
Two-Phase Flow displacing water.
0.60 Region
- Residual oil saturation :
Oil Saturation of oil remaining in the
0.40 rock sample after the experiment
of water displacing oil
0.20 - As Sw increases, kro decreases
krw @ Sor
and krw increases until oil in the
Water core reaches its residual
0 saturation
0 0.20 0.40 0.60 0.80 1.00
Water Saturation (fraction)
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Fluid Saturation
Saturation of a reservoir fluid represents how much that fluid is
present in the pore space of the reservoir rock
All fluids in a reservoir fully occupy the pore space of the
reservoir
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Wettability
• Wettability is the tendency of one fluid to spread
on or adhere to a solid surface in the presence of
the other immiscible fluid.
• Wettability refers to interaction between fluid and
solid phases.
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Wetting Phase Fluid
• Wetting phase fluid preferentially wets the solid rock
surface.
• Attractive forces between rock and fluid draw the
wetting phase into small pores.
• Wetting phase fluid often has low mobile.
• Attractive forces limit reduction in wetting phase
saturation to an irreducible value (irreducible wetting
phase saturation).
• Many hydrocarbon reservoirs are either totally or
partially water-wet.
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Nonwetting Phase Fluid
• Nonwetting phase does not preferentially wet the
solid rock surface
• Repulsive forces between rock and fluid cause
nonwetting phase to occupy largest pores
• Nonwetting phase fluid is often the most mobile
fluid, especially at large nonwetting phase
saturations
• Natural gas is never the wetting phase in
hydrocarbon reservoirs
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Water-Wet Rock
sow Oil
q Water
sos sws sos
Solid
• 0 < q < 90
Adhesive tension between water and the rock surface
exceeds that between oil and the rock surface.
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Water-Wet Reservoir Rock
• Reservoir rock is water-wet if water preferentially
wets the rock surfaces
• The rock is water-wet under the following
conditions:
• sws > sos
• AT < 0 (Adhesion tension is negative)
• 0 < q < 90
If q is close to 0, the rock is considered to be
strongly water-wet
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Oil-Wet Reservoir Rock
• Reservoir rock is oil-wet if oil preferentially wets the
rock surfaces.
• The rock is oil-wet under the following conditions:
• sos > sws
• AT > 0 (Adhesion tension is positive)
• 90 < q < 180
If q is close to 180, the rock is considered to be
strongly oil-wet
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Oil-Wet Rock
sow
Water
Oil
q
sos sws sos Solid
• 90 < q < 180
The adhesion tension AT between water and the rock
surface is less than that between oil and the rock surface.
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WATER- OIL-WET
WET
Oil
OIL Oil OIL
q
q
q WATER q WATER
q < 90
WATE WATE q > 90
SOLID (ROCK) R R SOLID (ROCK)
FREE WATER
OIL
GRAIN GRAIN
OIL
RIM
BOUND WATER FREE WATER Ayers, 2001
Contact Angle
The contact angle, q,
Oil measured through the
sow denser liquid phase,
Oil q Water Oil defines which fluid wets
the solid surface.
sos sws Solid sos
AT = adhesion tension, milli-Newtons/m or dynes/cm)
q = contact angle between the oil/water/solid interface measured through the water,
degrees
sos = interfacial energy between the oil and solid, milli-Newtons/m or dynes/cm
sws = interfacial energy between the water and solid, milli-Newtons/m or dynes/cm
sow = interfacial energy (interfacial tension) between the oil and water, milli-
Newtons/m or dynes/cm
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Adhesion Tension
• Adhesion tension is expressed as the difference
between two solid-fluid interfacial tensions.
AT s os s ws s ow cos q
• A negative adhesion tension indicates that the denser
phase (water) preferentially wets the solid surface (and vice
versa).
• An adhesion tension of “0” indicates that both phases have
equal affinity for the solid surface
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Imbibition Process
• Imbibition is a fluid flow process in which the saturation
of the wetting phase increases and the nonwetting
phase saturation decreases.
• Mobility of wetting phase increases as wetting phase
saturation increases
– mobility is the fraction of total flow capacity for a
particular phase
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Water-Wet Reservoir, Imbibition
• Water will occupy the smallest pores
• Water will wet the circumference of most larger pores
• In pores having high oil saturation, oil rests on a water
film
Imbibition - If a water-wet rock saturated with oil is placed
in water, it will imbibe water into the smallest pores,
displacing oil
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Oil-Wet Reservoir, Imbibition
• Oil will occupy the smallest pores
• Oil will wet the circumference of most larger pores
• In pores having high water saturation, water rests on an
oil film
• Imbibition - If an oil-wet rock saturated with water is
placed in oil, it will imbibe oil into the smallest
pores, displacing water
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Drainage Process
Fluid flow process in which the saturation of the
nonwetting phase increases.
Quiz: Fill in the gaps below with appropriate terms
– Drainage process is associated with a waterflood
of an oil reservoir that is …
– Injection of … in an oil-wet reservoir is a drainage
process
– Accumulation of gas in trap in a (an) ... wet
reservoir is a drainage process
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Effect of Wettability
1.0 1.0
Relative Permeability, Fraction
Relative Permeability, Fraction
0.8 0.8
0.6 0.6
Oil Oil Water
0.4 0.4
0.2 0.2
Water
0 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100
Water Saturation (% PV) Water Saturation (% PV)
Strongly Water-Wet Rock Strongly Oil-Wet Rock
• Water flows more freely
• Higher residual oil saturation
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Capillary Pressure Curves in Drainage and
Imbibition Processes
DRAINAGE
• Fluid flow process in which the saturation of
the nonwetting phase increases
IMBIBITION
Drainage
• Fluid flow process in which the saturation of
the wetting phase increases
Pc Saturation History - Hysteresis
- Capillary pressure depends on both direction of
Pd change and previous saturation history
Imbibition - At Sm, nonwetting phase cannot flow, resulting in
residual nonwetting phase saturation (imbibition)
Swi Sm
- At Swi, wetting phase cannot flow, resulting in
0 0.5 Sw 1.0 irreducible wetting phase saturation (drainage)
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Hysteresis Effect on Relative Permeability
100
Non-wetting phase
Wetting phase
80
Relative Permeability, %
krw
60 Imbibition krnw Drainage
krnw
40
20 Irreducible wetting Residual non-wetting
phase saturation phase saturation
0
0 20 40 60 80 100
Wetting Phase Saturation, %PV
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Hysteresis Effect on Relative Permeability
During drainage, the wetting phase ceases to flow at the irreducible
wetting phase saturation
This determines the maximum possible non-wetting phase
saturation
Common example: Petroleum accumulation
During imbibition, the non-wetting phase ceases to flow when its
saturation reaches the residual non-wetting phase saturation
This determines the minimum possible non-wetting phase
saturation displacement by the wetting phase
Common example: waterflooding water wet reservoir
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