Determination of In Situ Two-Phase Flow Properties Through Downhole Fluid Movement Monitoring

Abstract

Summary In this paper, we present a novel method for in situ estimation of two-phase transport properties of porous media using time-lapse resistivity, pressure, and flow rate data from permanent downhole pressure, electrode resistivity array (ERA), and production logging tools. The objective of this fluid movement monitoring (FMM) experiment is to develop a new downhole hardware assembly, new measurement procedures, and associated interpretation techniques for inferring oil recovery factor, relative permeabilities to oil and water, and other two-phase flow properties. An oil well in a carbonate reservoir in Saudi Arabia was dedicated to conduct a week long extensive openhole monitoring data acquisition, enabling us to carry out suitable a priori characterization. This approach is new to the oil industry and is the first field experiment for direct determination of two-phase flow properties through successful integration of the downhole resistivity array and pressure data. Together with pressure transient responses, the ERA measurements allowed characterization to a radial distance of tens of meters from the wellbore.