Sharif Digital Repository

Gas-oil relative permeability is essential for performance predictions of reservoirs with solutions for gas drive, gas cap expansion, or gas injection. The nature of flow in reservoir is determined by the interplay of relative permeability and viscous, gravity, and capillary forces. Displacement experiments of the gas-oil system are performed on long core scale models by varying the petrophysical properties and flow conditions. Experiments are conducted in situations where capillary, gravity, and viscous forces are comparable. The effect of destabilized front velocity on relative permeability and residual saturation is investigated. The results indicate that the relative permeability varies... 

In order to relate the wetting properties at the pore scale to the macroscale prevailing forces, a series of experiments was performed in vertical porous media under forced gas invasion at various wettability conditions with partially spreading oil. To describe the dynamics of oil recovery in a three-phase flow condition, the downward gas flood experiments were continued by water injection from the bottom. Experimental results obtained in situations where the magnitudes of viscous, capillary, and gravity forces are comparable. We study the transition from flow configurations where the interface is stable with respect to viscous instability to flow configurations where viscous fingering... 

In this paper, the effect of highly conductive copper oxide nanoparticles on the effective thermal conductivity (ETC) of rock samples was mathematically investigated. To solve the governing conservation equations for the ETC a commercial finite element package (COMSOL Multiphysics) was used. It should be stressed that the single-phase approach was employed to mathematically model the effect of nanofluid on the heat transfer improvement. The computational geometry of the rock samples was obtained by analyzing the microscopic images of the limestone rock samples. The results obtained from the mathematical modeling of the rock samples showed that the conductive heat transfer through porous... 

The amount of residual oil trapped in the matrix of a fractured reservoir after water drive, either natural water drive or water injection, depends on the wettability of the matrix rocks. Gas oil gravity drainage (GOGD) has been proposed as the tertiary oil recovery process for this type of oil reservoir. The current work focuses on experimental investigation of tertiary GOGD in fractured porous media under different types of matrix wettability. Results of a set of experiments performed in artificial porous media composed of sand packs and glass beads of different wettability have been used to check the GOGD rate and the ultimate oil recovery for previously waterflooded models. A novel... 

Typical non-hydrocarbon gases, which have been utilized in miscible and immiscible processes, are carbon dioxide and nitrogen. These gases are usually injected separately and have been rarely utilized together as a tertiary recovery process. In this article, the authors have experimentally focused on sequential carbon dioxide and nitrogen gas injection as a new enhanced oil recovery method. The periodic injections of carbon dioxide and nitrogen have been repeated for six injection pore volumes. Sensitivity analysis of injection pressure, injection volume, and injection rate has also been investigated in core flood experiments. The experimental results have revealed that a sequential miscible... 

Interacting capillary bundle model has been much attended for modeling of imbibition process, however, how the tube morphology controls the front displacement is not well discussed in the available literature, especially when corner flow of wetting phase is considered. Tubes with non-circular cross-sections were used for simulating imbibition process performed on drained bundle of tubes. Different combinations of the interacting tubes with equilateral triangular, square, and circular cross sections were used in the bundle model to explore the role of capillary morphology. The evolution of displacement front, as well as transient water saturation profiles along the model, were obtained for... 

In this work, the potential for the auto-ignition of Iranian heavy oil during in situ combustion (ISC) process conditions was studied. Kinetic studies were carried out using thermal analysis techniques. Effects of oxygen partial pressure, reservoir pressure, and clay on the auto-ignition condition were investigated. Based on the experimental results obtained, a kinetic equation was derived for each of the different oil samples in the presence of different sands. The effect of partial pressure of oxygen in the injected air showed that at atmospheric pressure, low temperature combustion (LTC) was initiated at 275°C. Also, enriching the injected air by oxygen lowers the initial LTC temperature... 

In recent years, polysilicon nanoparticles are used to enhance the oil recovery through the water injection process in oilfields. The contributing mechanisms are the reduction of interfacial tension and wettability alteration which lead to improving or decreasing the oil phase relative permeability and can be traced by change of relative permeability curves. However, profound understanding of the effect of dispersed nano-silica particles on the hysteretic behavior of relative permeability curves remains a controversy topic in the literature.The current study illustrates the influence of dispersed silica particles on hysteretic trend of two-phase curves of oil-water relative permeability.... 

It has been shown that one kind of poly silicon particles with sizes ranging from 10-500 nm, can be used in oilfields to enhance the oil recovery of water injection by 15-20%. The contributing mechanism might be reducing the interfacial tension which appears through improving relative permeability of the oil-phase. However, fundamental understanding of how hysteretic behavior of relative permeability curves affected by nanosilica particles remains a topic of debate in the literature. In this study, water as well as water dispersed nanosilica particles floods was performed on sandstone rock sample saturated by light crude oil supplied from one of Iranian oil reservoir, and the relative... 

It has been shown that one kind of poly silicon particles with sizes ranging from 10-500 nm, can be used in oilfields to enhance the oil recovery of water injection by 15-20%. The contributing mechanism might be reducing the interfacial tension which appears through improving relative permeability of the oil-phase. However, fundamental understanding of how hysteretic behavior of relative permeability curves affected by nanosilica particles remains a topic of debate in the literature. In this study, water as well as water dispersed nanosilica particles floods was performed on sandstone rock sample saturated by light crude oil supplied from one of Iranian oil reservoir, and the relative... 

Availability of hydrocarbon gases at the field makes it attractive for gas-based enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods such as water alternating gas (WAG) injection. Optimization of EOR methods requires too many simulation runs, which are time consuming and expensive. Therefore, developing a proxy model, which emulates simulator outputs, is considered as an appropriate alternative technique. In this work, effects of composition changes of injection gas, WAG ratio, and slug size on produced oil and water were investigated. In addition, the optimum value of the previous parameters, including some constraints, are presented using response surface methodology. Experimental design is also applied... 

Creating hydraulically induced fractures in oil/gas reservoirs is one of the methods for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) that has been applied extensively in petroleum industry in recent years. Despite its popularity, the design process of Hydraulic Fracture treatment is mostly empirical based on the previous experiences gained in the oil-rich formation. The reason lies in the complexities involved in the Hydraulic Fracture process including interacting effects of fluid(s) flowand solid deformations, injection of non-Newtonian fluids in the porous media, leak-off of the injected fluid into the formation, complex geometry of the induced fracture in the intact or naturally fractured rock,... 

This paper investigates numerical simulation of one-dimensional homogeneous adiabatic gas-liquid two-phase flow in a rectangular microchannel with one boundary porous wall under the assumption of hydrophobic condition. Gas enters the microchannel with a uniform velocity and liquid is injected through the porous side wall. The present approach is to simulate water injection effects and developing mechanism of two-phase flow. The modeling and solution of the conservation equations provide pressure drop, vapor quality, void fraction and tow-phase mixture velocity for different water injection rates. The results show that velocity and pressure drop significantly perturbed when the water... 

This experimental study is aimed at evaluation of the performance of secondary WAG injection in carbonate cores at different pressures. To do so, a comprehensive series of high-pressure high-temperature (HPHT) core flooding tests are conducted. The fluid system includes reservoir dead and live crude oil, CO 2, and synthetic brine while the chosen porous media consists of a number of fractured carbonate core samples. Parameters such as oil recovery factor, water and oil production rates, and pressure drop along the core are recorded for both dead and live oil. According to results, at first increasing pressure improves the oil recovery, but this improvement after MMP is not as significant as... 

Asphaltene precipitation problems manifest themselves in different stages of oil reservoirs production. Experimental and modeling investigations are, therefore, employed as promising tools to assist in predictions of asphaltene precipitation problems and selection of proper production facilities. This study concerns experimental and modeling investigations of asphaltene precipitation during natural production and gas injection operations for a heavy Iranian crude oil at reservoir conditions. First, with design and performance of high pressure-high temperature experiments, asphaltene precipitation behavior is comprehensively investigated; the effects of pressure and temperature are fully... 

This paper investigates the efficiency and performance of several of the fiooding techniques popular in secondary and enhanced oil recovery. These processes include water fiooding, immiscible and miscible gas fiooding, and several forms of water-alternating-gas (WAG) injection. The study is carried out numerically on a typical one-dimensional domain using an advanced high-resolution central scheme. Some performance indices such as oil cut drop, breakthrough time, and sweep efficiency were employed to evaluate the appropriateness of each injection strategy  

This investigation is conducted on one of the southern Iranian oil fields, which experiences a fault on its gas cap. Therefore, no traditional gas injection and normal water injection for pressure maintenance is suggested. The target is set to inject special compatible and proper type of chemicals in each single well to avoid the pressure increase for the risk of oil and gas spill. Two different sources of aqueous phases, namely formation brine and sea water were used to find the effects of different brine composition on the main mechanisms of releasing the trapped oil, interfacial tension (IFT) and wettability alteration. The obtained results reveal that both the ionic liquid (IL) based... 

In this paper, a computational technique is presented for the isothermal and non-isothermal water injection into naturally fractured oil reservoirs. A remarkable number of naturally fractured reservoirs contain relatively heavy oils that could not be extracted economically; hence, the thermal recovery methods are extensively used for such reservoirs. In this study, the effectiveness of hot water injection over cold (isothermal) water injection in oil production is quantified. The influence of long and short fractures and their alignments on oil recovery are discussed. To this end, a 2D model for two-phase fluid flow and heat transfer is presented. The medium is assumed to be partially... 

In this paper, a computational technique is presented for the isothermal and non-isothermal water injection into naturally fractured oil reservoirs. A remarkable number of naturally fractured reservoirs contain relatively heavy oils that could not be extracted economically; hence, the thermal recovery methods are extensively used for such reservoirs. In this study, the effectiveness of hot water injection over cold (isothermal) water injection in oil production is quantified. The influence of long and short fractures and their alignments on oil recovery are discussed. To this end, a 2D model for two-phase fluid flow and heat transfer is presented. The medium is assumed to be partially... 

One of the methods that is used nowadays in enhanced oil recovery is surfactant flooding. The main mechanisms of surfactant flooding in reservoir consist of reduction of interfacial tension between water and oil and modification of rock wettability. In this study, the authors simulate the surfactant injection process in Darcy scale and in one-dimensional, multicomponent, multiphase state, and effects of physical phenomena such as adsorption, dispersion, convection, and exchange between fluids and solids are considered. Wettability alteration of reservoir rock due to presence of surfactant in injected fluid is detected in relative permeability and capillary pressure curves. First, the authors...