Investigating Relative Permeability Measurements using Unsteady-State Core Flooding Method
Walid Mohamed Mahmud1,Saber Elmabrouk2,Hisham Khaled Ben Mahmud3
Citation :Walid Mohamed Mahmud,Saber Elmabrouk,Hisham Khaled Ben Mahmud, Investigating Relative Permeability Measurements using Unsteady-State Core Flooding Method International Journal of Petroleum and Petrochemical Engineering 2017,3(4) : 54-64
The advances in coring and core analysis techniques provide the premise to measure required petrophysical properties and to acquire simultaneously other reservoir rock dependent parameters. The objective of coring and core analysis is to reduce uncertainty in reservoir evaluation by providing data representative of the reservoir conditions. Relative permeability data are essential to understanding multiphase flow in porous media and reservoir simulation that are usually obtained by steady-state flow or unsteady-state flow methods. In this study experiments were performed using unsteady-state method that considers the effect of fluid viscosity and average saturation at breakthrough. Three core plugs of different petrophysical properties were used to conduct core flooding tests where the variations in oil residual saturation and oil-water relative permeability were measured and compared with Johnson, BossIer and Naumanncorrelation, Pirson's correlation and Corey's model. Relative permeabilities and residual oil saturations obtained by Pirson's correlation were lower than those of Johnson, Bossler and Naumann correlation and Corey's model. It was observed that as core plug permeability increases, water breakthrough slightly increases.