Three- Phase Unsteady-State Relative Permeability Measurements in Consolidated Cores Using Three Immisicible Liquids

Abstract

AbstractThis paper discusses results from a series of two- and three-phase coreflooding experiments on consolidated cores using three immiscible fluids and using an unsteady-state relative permeability setup. The three-phase extension of the Buckley-Leverett theory proposed by Grader and O’Meara (1988) and verified by Siddiqui et al. (1996) was used for calculating three-phase relative permeabilities from the dynamic displacement data. From the results of three-phase displacement experiment, three-phase saturation trajectories are mapped and then compared against results of DDI (decreasing of water phase and oil or heavy phase and increasing of gas or light phase during a dynamic injection stage) runs found in the literature. The DID (decreasing of water phase, increasing of oil or heavy phase and decreasing of gas or light phase) runs presented in the current work are unique which map a wide range of the interior region of the ternary diagram. However, bypassing was observed during the IDD (Increasing of water phase and decreasing of oil or heavy phase and gas or light phase) runs, possibly due to fluids reaching the residual saturations before the dynamic water injection. In the petroleum industry, empirical models are often used to extrapolate three-phase relative permeabilities from two sets of two-phase relative permeability data. The experimental three-phase relative permeability data from the DDI and DID runs are compared with the model data, and it is found out that in some cases these models cannot adequately provide satisfactory matches with the experimental data.