Review on the Development of Oil and Gas Flow in Underground Porous Media

Through reviewing the flow theory’s birth and development history in underground porous media and contrasting the mechanics of underground fluids and mechanics of viscous fluids, this paper points out the main factors, which affect the development of the theory on oil and gas porous flow. The development law and development route of the mechanics of fluids in porous media are also summarized in this paper.

Gas Condensate Two Phase Flow Performance in Porous Media Considering Capillary Number and Non-Darcy Effects

Retrograde condensation frequently occurs during the development of gas condensate reservoirs. The loss of productivity is often observed due to the reduced relative permeability to gas as condensate accumulates near the well bore region. How to describe the condensate blockage effect exactly has been a continuous research topic. However, up to now, the present methods usually over-estimate or underestimate the productivity reduction due to an incorrect understanding of the mechanism of flow in porous medium, which inevitably results in an inaccurate prediction of production performance. It has been found in recent numerous theoretical and experimental studies that capillary number and non-Darcy flow have significant influence on relative permeability in regions near the well bore. The two effects impose opposite impacts on production performance, thus leading to gas condensate flow showing characteristics different from general understanding. It is significant for prediction of performance in gas condensate wells to understand the two effects exactly. The aim of the paper is to describe and analyze the flow dynamics in porous media accurately during the production of gas condensate reservoirs. Based on the description of three-zone flow mechanism, capillary number and non-Darcy effect are incorporated in the analysis of relative permeability, making it possible to describe the effect of condensate blockage. The effect of capillary number and inertial flow on gas and condensate relative permeability is analyzed in detail. Novel Inflow Performance Relation (IPR) models considering high velocity effects are formulated and the contrast analysis of different IPR models is conducted. The result shows that the proposed method can help predict the production performance and productivity more accurately than conventional methods.

Interactions between gas flow and reversible chemical reaction in porous media

Taking into consideration the gas compressibility and chemical reaction reversibility, a model was developed to study the interactions between gas flow and chemical reaction in porous media and resolved by the finite volume method on the basis of the gas-solid reaction aA(g)+bB(s)cC(g)+dD(s).The numerical analysis shows that the equilibrium constant is an important factor influencing the process of gas-solid reaction. The stoichiometric coefficients, molar masses of reactant gas, product gas and inert gas are the main factors influencing the density of gas mixture. The equilibrium constant influences the gas flow in porous media obviously when the stoichiometric coefficients satisfy a/c≠1.

CONJUGATE MODEL FOR HEAT AND MASS TRANSFER OF POROUS WALL IN THE HIGH TEMPERATURE GAS FLOW

Heat and mass transfer of a porous permeable wall in a high temperature gas dynamical flow is considered. Numerical simulation is conducted on the ground of the conjugate mathematical model which includes filtration and heat transfer equations in a porous body and boundary layer equations on its surface. Such an approach enables one to take into account complex interaction between heat and mass transfer in the gasdynamical flow and in the structure subjected to this flow. The main attention is given to the impact of the intraporous heat transfer intensity on the transpiration cooling efficiency.

Displacement of Oil in a Porous Medium on Diphasic Flow by Water Injection

The purpose of this article is to show the role and influence of fluid injection, porosity on two-phase flows in porous media for the purpose of improving and increasing recovery efficiency assisted by oil. An experimental study was carried out in porous media, it is a plexiglass cylinder filled with sands saturated with crude oil. Pressure drop and data processing for two-phase flow are measured and processed using a differential pressure sensor connected to an acquisition computer. It thus makes it possible to determine the pressure difference between the inlet and the outlet of the porous medium over time. In this experiment, the flow rates at the inlet and the outlet of the porous medium were measured as a function of time using a flow rate and a pump. To describe these flows we will use Darcy’s model.

Experimental study on characteristics of pore water conversion during methane hydrates formation in unsaturated sand

Understanding the pore water conversion characteristics during hydrate formation in porous media is important to study the accumulation mechanism of marine gas hydrate.In this study,low-field NMR was used to study the pore water conversion characteristics during methane hydrate formation in unsaturated sand samples.Results show that the signal intensity of T_(2) distribution isn’t affected by sediment type and pore pressure,but is affected by temperature.The increase in the pressure of hydrogen-containing gas can cause the increase in the signal intensity of T_(2) distribution.The heterogeneity of pore structure is aggravated due to the hydrate formation in porous media.The water conversion rate fluctuates during the hydrate formation.The sand size affects the water conversion ratio and rate by affecting the specific surface of sand in unsaturated porous media.For the fine sand sample,the large specific surface causes a large gas-water contact area resulting in a higher water conversion rate,but causes a large water-sand contact area resulting in a low water conversion ratio(C_(w)=96.2%).The clay can reduce the water conversion rate and ratio,especially montmorillonite(C_(w)=95.8%).The crystal layer of montmorillonite affects the pore water conversion characteristics by hindering the conversion of interlayer water.

DYNAMIC PRODUCTION PREDICTION AND PARAMETER IDENTIFICATION FOR GAS WELL WITH VERTICAL FRACTURE

In order to devoid the hard work and factitious error in selecting charts while analyzing and interpreting hydraulic fracturing fracture parameters, on the basis of the non-Darcy flow factor, this paper put out the non-Darcy flow mathematical model of real gas in the formation and fracture, established the production history automatic matching model to identify fracture parameters, and offered the numerical solutions of those models, which took the variation of fracture conductivity in production process. These results offered a precise and reliable method to understand formation, analyze and evaluate the fracturing treatment quality of gas well.

Experimental investigations on the fluid flow mechanism in porous media of enhanced oil recovery by alkli/surfactant/polymer flooding

The fluid flow mechanism in porous media of enhanced oil recovery by Alkli/ Surfactant/Polymer (ASP) flooding is investigated by measuring production performance, pressure distribution and saturation distribution through installing differential pressure transducers and saturation measuring probes in a physical model of vertical heterogeneous reservoir. The fluid flow variation in porous media is the main reason of enhanced oil recovery of ASP flooding. The pressure field and saturation field are nonlinearly coupled together and the interaction between them results in the fluid flow variation in the reservoir. In a vertical heterogeneous reservoir, the ASP agents initially flow in the high permeability layers because the resistance in the high permeability layer is increased under the physical and chemical action of adsorption, retention and emulsion. ASP flooding displaces out not only the residual oil in the high permeability layer, but also the remaining oil in the low and the middle permeability layers by increasing swept volume and displacing efficiency.

Modern methods of underground hydromechanics with applications to reservoir engineering

In the report the basic principles of new approach to the study of transport processes in porous medium are represented. The ＂percolation＂ approach has arisen as an attempt to overcome the traditional phenomenological approach in the underground hydromechanics, based on the assumption of continuity of saturated porous media, which does not allow to explain and to model a number of effects arising from the fluids flow in porous media. The results obtained are very interesting not only from the scientific point of view but as the scientific basis for a number of enhanced oil recovery technologies.