Effect of H_(2)S content on relative permeability and capillary pressure characteristics of acid gas/brine/rock systems:A review

Geological storage of acid gas has been identified as a promising approach to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide(CO_(2)),hydrogen sulfide(H_(2)S)and alleviate public concern resulting from the sour gas production.A good understanding of the relative permeability and capillary pressure characteristics is crucial to predict the process of acid gas injection and migration.The prediction of injection and redistribution of acid gas is important to determine storage capacity,formation pressure,plume extent,shape,and leakage potential.Herein,the existing experimental data and theoretical models were reviewed to gain a better understanding of the issue how the H_(2)S content affects gas density,gas viscosity,interfacial tension,wettability,relative permeability and capillary pressure characteristics of acid gas/brine/rock systems.The densities and viscosities of the acid gas with different H_(2)S mole fractions are both temperature-and pressure-dependent,which vary among the gas,liquid and supercritical phases.Water/acid gas interfacial tension decreases strongly with increasing H_(2)S content.For mica and clean quartz,water contact angle increases with increasing H_(2)S mole fraction.In particular,wettability reversal of mica to a H_(2)S-wet behavior occurs in the presence of dense H_(2)S.The capillary pressure increases with decreasing contact angle.At a given saturation,the relative permeability of a fluid is higher when the fluid is nonwetting.The capillary pressure decreases with decreasing interfacial tension at a given saturation.However,the existing datasets do not show a consistent link between capillary number and relative permeability.The capillary pressure decreases with increasing H_(2)S mole fraction.However,there is no consensus on the effect of the H_(2)S content on the relative permeability curves.This may be due to the limited availability of the relative permeability and capillary pressure data for acid gas/brine/rock systems;thus,more experimental measurements are required.

Test of the Relative Permeability Curve of a Gas and Oil Condensate System and its Effect on the Recovery of Oil and Gas

The relative permeability curve has been measured with simulation oil (refined oil) and gas (nitrogen or air) at room temperature and a lowpressure, both of which are very important parameters for depicting the flow of fluid through porous media in a hydrocarbon reservoir. This basic measurement is often applied in exploitation evaluation, but the underground conditions with high temperature and pressure, and the phase equilibrium of oil and gas, are not taken into consideration when the relative permeability curve is tested. There is an important theoretical and practical sense in testing the diphase relative permeability curve of the equilibrium of oil and gas under the conditions of high temperature and pressure. The test method for the relative permeability curve is proposed in this paper. The relative permeability of the equilibrium of oil and gas and the standard one are tested in two fluids, and the differences between these two methods are stated. The research results can be applied to the simulation and prediction of CVD in long cores and then the phenomenon can better explain that the recovery of condensate gas rich in condensate oil is higher than that of CVD test in PVT. Meanwhile, the research shows that the relative permeability curve of equilibrium oil and gas is sensitive to the rate of exploitation, and the viewpoint proves that an improved gas recovery rate can properly increase the recovery of condensate oil.

Pore-Throat Combination Types and Gas-Water Relative Permeability Responses of Tight Gas Sandstone Reservoirs in the Zizhou Area of East Ordos Basin, China

With the aim of better understanding the tight gas reservoirs in the Zizhou area of east Ordos Basin,a total of 222 samples were collected from 50 wells for a series of experiments.In this study,three pore-throat combination types in sandstones were revealed and confirmed to play a controlling role in the distribution of throat size and the characteristics of gas-water relative permeability.The type-I sandstones are dominated by intercrystalline micropores connected by cluster throats,of which the distribution curves of throat size are narrow and have a strong single peak(peak ratio>30%).The pores in the type-II sandstones dominantly consist of secondary dissolution pores and intercrystalline micropores,and throats mainly occur as slice-shaped throats along cleavages between rigid grain margins and cluster throats in clay cement.The distribution curves of throat size for the type-II sandstones show a bimodal distribution with a substantial low-value region between the peaks(peak ratio<15%).Primary intergranular pores and secondary intergranular pores are mainly found in type-III samples,which are connected by various throats.The throat size distribution curves of type-III sandstones show a nearly normal distribution with low kurtosis(peak ratio<10%),and the micro-scale throat radii(>0.5μm)constitute a large proportion.From type-I to type-III sandstones,the irreducible water saturation(Swo)decreased;furthermore,the slope of the curves of Krw/Krg in two-phase saturation zone decreased and the two-phase saturation zone increased,indicating that the gas relative flow ability increased.Variations of the permeability exist in sandstones with different porethroat combination types,which indicate the type-III sandstones are better reservoirs,followed by type-II sandstones and type-I sandstones.As an important factor affecting the reservoir quality,the pore-throat combination type in sandstones is the cumulative expression of lithology and diagenetic modifications with strong heterogeneity.

Numerical simulation-based correction of relative permeability hysteresis in water-invaded underground gas storage during multi-cycle injection and production

By conducting relative permeability experiments of multi-cycle gas-water displacement and imbibition on natural cores,we discuss relative permeability hysteresis effect in underground gas storage during multi-cycle injection and production.A correction method for relative permeability hysteresis in numerical simulation of water-invaded gas storage has been worked out using the Carlson and Killough models.A geologic model of water-invaded sandstone gas storage with medium-low permeability is built to investigate the impacts of relative permeability hysteresis on fluid distribution and production performance during multi-cycle injection and production of the gas storage.The study shows that relative permeability hysteresis effect occurs during high-speed injection and production in gas storage converted from water-invaded gas reservoir,and leads to increase of gas-water transition zone width and thickness,shrinkage of the area of high-efficiency gas storage,and decrease of the peak value variation of pore volume containing gas,and then reduces the storage capacity,working gas volume,and high-efficiency operation span of the gas storage.Numerical simulations exhibit large prediction errors of performance indexes if this hysteresis effect is not considered.Killough and Carlson methods can be used to correct the relative permeability hysteresis effect in water-invaded underground gas storage to improve the prediction accuracy.The Killough method has better adaptability to the example model.

“Extreme utilization” theory and practice in gas storages with complex geological conditions

Based on more than 20-year operation of gas storages with complex geological conditions and a series of research findings, the pressure-bearing dynamics mechanism of geological body is revealed. With the discovery of gas-water flowing law of multi-cycle relative permeability hysteresis and differential utilization in zones, the extreme utilization theory targeting at the maximum amount of stored gas, maximum injection-production capacity and maximum efficiency in space utilization is proposed to support the three-in-one evaluation method of the maximum pressure-bearing capacity of geological body, maximum well production capacity and maximum peak shaving capacity of storage space. This study realizes the full potential of gas storage(storage capacity) at maximum pressure, maximum formation-wellbore coordinate production, optimum well spacing density match with finite-time unsteady flow, and peaking shaving capacity at minimum pressure, achieving perfect balance between security and capacity. Operation in gas storages, such as Hutubi in Xinjiang, Xiangguosi in Xinan, and Shuang6 in Liaohe, proves that extreme utilization theory has promoted high quality development of gas storages in China.

Evaluation of gas condensate reservoir behavior using velocity dependent relative permeability during the numerical well test analysis

Gas condensate is one of the most different fluids in reservoir simulation due to retrograde condensation in case of pressure reduction.In this kind of fluids,two phenomena named negative inertia and positive coupling,become significant in the high velocity zone around the wellbore.In this study,a modified black oil simulator is developed that take into account the velocity dependent relative permeability.Against the industrial simulator that assumes linear variation of transmissibilities by pressure,modified black oil nonlinear equations are solved directly without linearization.The developed code is validated by ECLIPSE simulator.The behavior of two real gas condensate fluids,a lean and a rich one,are compared with each other.For each fluid,simulations of PVT experiments are carried out to calculate black oil property applying Coats approach for gas condensate fluids.For both fluids,the proposed models for gas condensate velocity dependent relative permeability show different influence of velocity on relative permeability in the same conditions.Moreover,it is observed that higher flow rate of gas production leads to more condensate production during constant rate well testing.

Experimental study on nanoparticles-assisted low-salinity water for enhanced oil recovery in asphaltenic oil reservoirs

The purpose of this research is to look into the augmentation of silica nanoparticles(NPs)with low salinity(LowSal)brine for EOR.A series of analyses,including oil/water interfacial tension(IFT)and rock wettability tests were undertaken to determine an optimal dispersion to flood into a porous carbonate core with a defined pore size distribution.At 60℃and 14.5 psi,the maximum drop(i.e.,roughly 12.5 mN/m)in oil/water IFT by 0.3 wt%brine occurred,but when 0.08 wt%silica was added to the brine,the IFT reduced to 14.51 mN/m at 60℃and 14.5 psi.The wettability analysis revealed a significant reduction in contact angle,from 142°to 72°and 59°,using 0.04 and 0.08 wt%silica in LowSal brine,but the extent reduced by brine alone was insufficient.The results of rock pore size characterization were discussed in terms of the accomplishment of operating EOR in the porous medium in the presence of NPs.The addition of 0.08 wt%silica to the injected brine resulted in an additional oil recovery of 16.3%OOIP as well as a significant shift in the endpoints/cross-points of the oil/water relative permeability curves.The findings of this research might help improve oil recovery from asphaltenic oil reservoirs or,more environmentally friendly,remediate petroleum crude-oil polluted soil.