A multimodal 3D imaging study of natural gas flow in tight sands

Proceedings - SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition

Volumn 3, Issue , 2011, Pages 1928-1960

  Silin, Dmitriy ^a   Kneafsey, Timothy J ^a   Ajo Franklin, Jonathan B ^a   Nico, Peter ^a  

^a LAWRENCE BERKELEY NATIONAL LABORATORY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

COMPUTERIZED TOMOGRAPHY; FLOW OF GASES; FLOW SIMULATION; FLOW VELOCITY; GAS CONDENSATES; GASES; NATURAL GAS WELL PRODUCTION; PORE STRUCTURE; PRESSURE GRADIENT; SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY; TIGHT GAS; WETTING;

MICRON-SCALE RESOLUTION; OPTIMAL CONTROL MODEL; PORE-SCALE SIMULATION; RELATIVE PERMEABILITY CURVES; SINGLE- AND TWO-PHASE FLOW; THERMODYNAMIC EQUILIBRIA; THRESHOLD SATURATIONS; X-RAY COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY;

TWO PHASE FLOW;

EID: 84856631139     PISSN: None     EISSN: None     Source Type: Conference Proceeding    
DOI: 10.2118/146611-ms     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (98)

1. "Annual Energy Outlook 2011," U.S. Energy Information Administration (April 2011).
2. Holditch, S. A.: "Tight Gas Sands," Journal of Petroleum Technology (June 2006) 86-94.
3. Warren, J. E. and Root, P. J.: "The behavior of naturally fractured reservoirs," SPEJ (1963) 245-255.
4. Barenblatt, G. I., Zheltov, I. P., and Kochina, I. N.: "Basic concepts in the theory of seepage of homogeneous liquids in fissured rocks," Applied Mathematics and Mechanics (1960) 24, No. 5, 1286-1303.
5. van Golf-Racht, T. D.: Fundamentals of Fractured Reservoir Engineering, Elsevier Scinetific Publishing Company, Amsterdam (1982).
6. Muskat, M.: Physical Principles of Oil Production, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY (1949).
7. Duhem, P.: "On the Liquefaction of a Mixture of Two Gases. Composition of the Liquid and the Vapor," The Journal of Physical Chemistry (1901) 5, No. 2, 91-112.
8. Katz, D. L. and Kurata, F.: "Retrograde Condensation," Industrial & Engineering Chemistry (1940) 32, No. 6, 817-827.
9. Fan, L., Harris, B. W., Jamaluddin, A., Kamath, J., Mott, R., Pope, G. A., Shandrygin, A., and Whitson, C. H.: "Understanding Gas-Condensate Reservoirs," Oilfield Review (2005) 14-27.
10. Magerramov, N. and Mirzadzhanzade, A.: "Filtration of gas-condensate mixtures in a porous medium," Journal of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics (1960) 24, No. 6, 1656-1664.
11. Panfilov, M. and Shilovich, N.: "Flow of fluids with substantially different mobilities through a porous medium in the presence of phase transitions: Boundary layer phenomena, spatial phase structures, and instability of the flow," Fluid Dynamics (2000) 35, 258-267, 10.1007/BF02831434.
12. Panfilova, I. and Panfilov, M.: "Near-Critical Gas Liquid Flow in Porous Media: Monovariant Model, Analytical Solutions and Convective Mass Exchange Effects," Transport in Porous Media (2004) 56, 61-85, 10.1023/B:TIPM.0000018391.55013.22. (Pubitemid 38554997)
13. Barenblatt, G. I.: "The Mathematical Model of the Flow of Gas-Condensate Mixtures in Fissurized Porous Rocks with an Application to the Development of Tight Sand Gas Deposits," Proceedings of the Second International Symposim on Dynamics of Fluids in Fractures Rocks, B. Faybishenko and P. A. Witherspoon (eds.), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (2004) 268.
14. Barenblatt, G. I., Basniev, K. S., and Kochina, I. N.: "On basic concepts of the theory of flow of gas-condensate mixtures in fissurized-porous rocks," Izvestiya (Bulletin), Azerbaidjanian Academy of Sciences, Earth Sciences (in Russian) (1988) No. 5, 3-17.
15. Silin, D. B., Jin, G., and Patzek, T. W.: "Robust deteremination of the pore-space morphology in sedimentary rocks," Journal of Petroleum Technology (May 2004) 69-70.
16. Silin, D. and Patzek, T.: "Pore space morphology analysis using maximal inscribed spheres," Physica A. Statistical Mechanics and its Applications (November 2006) 371, 336-360.
17. Silin, D., Tomutsa, L., Benson, S., and Patzek, T.: "Microtomography and Pore-Scale Modeling of Two-Phase Fluid Distribution," Transport in Porous Media (2010) 1-21, 10.1007/s11242-010-9636-2.
18. Tomutsa, L., Silin, D., and Radmilovic, V.: "Analysis of Chalk Petrophysical Properties By Means of Submicron-Scale Pore Imaging and Modeling," SPE Reservoir Evaluation and Engineering (June 2007) 10, No. 3, 285-293. (Pubitemid 47062380)
19. Shanley, K. W., Cluff, R. M., and Robinson, J. W.: "Factors controlling prolific gas production from low-permeability sandstone reservoirs: Implications for resource assessment, prospect development, and risk analysis," AAPG Bulletin (2004) 88, No. 8, 1083-1121. (Pubitemid 39080986)
20. Cluff, R. M. and Byrnes, A. P.: "Relative permeability in tight gas sandstone reservoirs - the "Permeability Jail" model," SPWLA 51st Annual Logging Symposium, June 19-23 (2010).
21. Herman, G. T.: Image Reconstruction from Projections: The Fundamentals of Computerized Tomography, Academic Press, New York (1980).
22. Shikhaliev, P. M.: "Beam hardening artefacts in computed tomography with photon counting, charge integrating and energy weighting detectors: a simulation study," (2005).
23. Spanne, P., Thovert, J. F., Jacquin, C. J., Lindquist, W. B., Jones, K. W., and Adler, P. M.: "Synchrotron Computed Microtomography of Porous Media: Topology and Transports," Phys. Rev. Lett. (October 1994) 73, No. 14, 2001-2004. (Pubitemid 24976021)
24. Auzerais, F. M., Dunsmuir, J., Ferreol, B. B., Martys, N., Olson, J., Ramakrishnan, T. S., Rothman, D. H., and Schwartz, L. M.: "Transport in sandstone: A study based on three dimensional microtomography," Geophysycal Research Letters (1996) 23, 705-708. (Pubitemid 26476229)
25. Coles, M. E., Hazlett, R. D., Muegge, E. L., Jones, K. W., Andrews, B., Dowd, Siddons, P., and Peskin, A.: "Developments in Synchrotron X-Ray Microtomography With Applications to Flow in Porous Media," SPE Reservoir Evaluation and Engineering (1998) 1, No. 4, 288-296.
26. Coles, M. E., Hazlett, R. D., Spanne, P., Muegge, E. L., and Furr, M. J.: "Characterization of Reservoir Core using Computed Microtomography," SPE Journal (1996) 1, No. 3, 295-302.
27. Coles, M. E., Hazlett, R. D., Spanne, P., Soil, W. E., Muegge, E. L., and Jones, K. W.: "Pore level imaging of fluid transport using synchrotron X-ray microtomography," Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering (1998) 19, 55-63.
28. Kinney, J. H. and Nichols, M. C.: "X-Ray Tomographic Microscopy (XTM) Using Synchrotron Radiation," Annual Review of Materials Science (1992) 22, No. 1, 121-152.
29. Dierick, M., Masschaele, B., and Van Hoorebeke, L.: "Octopus, a fast and user-friendly tomographic reconstruction package developed in LabView®," Measurement Science and Technology (2004) 15, 1366-370.
30. Kowalski, G.: "Suppression of Ring Artifacts in Fan-Beam Scanners," Journal of Computer Assisted Tomography (1977) 1, No. 2, 266.
31. Sezgin, M. and Sankur, B.: "Survey over image thresholding techniques and quantitative performance evaluation," J. Electron. Imaging (2004) 13, 146-165.
32. Iassonov, P., Gebrenegus, T., and Tuller, M.: "Segmentation of X-ray computed tomography images of porous materials: A crucial step for characterization and quantitative analysis of pore structures," Water Resour. Res. (September 2009) 45, No. 9, W09415-.
33. Kumar, M., Senden, T. J., Knackstedt, M. A., Latham, S., Pinczewski, W. V., Sok, R. M., Sheppard, A., and Turner, M. L.: "Imaging of core scale distribution of fluids and wettability," International Symposium of the Society of Core Analysts, Abu Dhabi, UAE. (2008).
34. Derjagin, B. V., Churaev, N. V., and Muller, V. M.: Surface Forces, Plenum Press, New York (1987).
35. de Gennes, P.-G.: "Wetting: statics and dynamics," Reviewes of Modern Physics (July 1985) 57, No. 3, 827-863.
36. Israelachvili, J. N.: Intermolecular and Surface Forces, 2 edition, Academic Press, New York, N. Y (1992).
37. Hirasaki, G. J.: "Wettability: Fundamentals and Surface Forces," SPE Formation Evaluation (June 1991) 6, 217-226.
38. Anderson, W. G.: "Wettability Literature Survey-Part 4: Effects of Wettability on Capillary Pressure," Journal of Petroleum Technology (October 1987) 39, No. 10, 1283-1300.
39. Hubbert, M. K.: "Darcy's law and the field equations of the flow of underground fluids,"Trans. AIME (1956) 207, No. 7, 222-239.
40. Hubbert, M. K.: "The theory of ground-water motion," Journal of Geology (1940) 48, 785-943.
41. Adler, P. M.: "Fractal porous media III: Transversal Stokes flow through random and Sierpinski carpets," Transport in Porous Media (April 1988) 3, No. 2, 185-198.
42. Schwartz, L. M., Martys, N., Bentz, D. P., Garboczi, E. J., and Torquato, S.: "Cross-property relations and permeability estimation in model porous media," Physical Review E (December 1993) 48, No. 6, 4584-4591.
43. Bernard, D., Nielsen, Ø., Salvo, L., and Cloetens, P.: "Permeability assessment by 3D interdendritic flow simulations on microtomography mappings of Al-Cu alloys," Materials Science and Engineering: A (February 2005) 392, No. 1-2, 112-120. (Pubitemid 40190744)
44. Manwart, C., Aaltosalmi, U., Koponen, A., Hilfer, R., and Timonen, J.: "Lattice-Boltzmann and finite-difference simulations for the three-dimensional porous media," Physical Review E (2002) 66, 016702 1-11.
45. Manwart, C. and Hilfer, R.: "Numetrical simulations of creeping fluid flow in reconstruction models of porous media," Physica A (2002) 314, 706-713.
46. Silin, D. B. . and Patzek, T. W.: "Predicting Relative-Permeability Curves Directly From Rock Images. SPE 124974," 2009 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, SPE, New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A. (2009).
47. Piller, M., Schena, G., Nolich, M., Favretto, S., Radaelli, F., and Rossi, E.: "Analysis of Hydraulic Permeability in Porous Media: From High Resolution X-ray Tomography to Direct Numerical Simulation," Transport in Porous Media (2009) 80, 57-78, 10.1007/s11242-009-9338-9.
48. Chorin, A. J.: "Numerical solution of the Navier-Stokes equations," Math. Comp. (1968) 22, 745-762.
49. Harlow, F. and Welsh, J.: "Numerical calculation of time dependent viscous incommpressible flow with free surface," Physics and Fluids (1965) 8, 2182-2189.
50. Fredrich, J. T., DiGiovanni, A. A., and Noble, D. R.: "Predicting macroscopic transport properties using microscopic image data," Journal of Geophysical Research (2006) 111, B03201.
51. Jin, G., Patzek, T., and Silin, D. B.: "Direct Prediction of the Absolute Permeability of Unconsolidated and Consolidated Reservoir Rock. SPE 90084," 2003 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, SPE, Houston, Texas, U.S.A. (2004).
52. Prodanovic, M., Lindquist, W. B., and Seright, R. S.: "3D image-based characterization of fluid displacement in a Berea core," Advances in Water Resources (2007) 30, 214-226. (Pubitemid 44817499)
53. White, Joshua A. Borja, R. I. and Fredrich, J. T.: "Calculating the effective permeability of sandstone with multiscale lattice Boltzmann/finite element simulations," Acta Geotechnica (2006) 1, 195-209.
54. Harting, J., Venturoli, M., and Coveney, P. V.: "Large-scale grid-enabled lattice Boltzmann simulations of complex fluid flow in porous media and under shear," Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A (2004) 362, 1703-1722. (Pubitemid 39047092)
55. Noble, D. R., Chen, S., Georgiadis, J. G., and Buckius, R. O.: "A consistent hydrodynamic boundary condition for the lattice Boltzmann method," Physics of Fluids (1995) 7, No. 1, 203-209.
56. O'Connor, R. M. and Fredrich, J. T.: "Microscale flow modelling in geologic materials," Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Part A: Solid Earth and Geodesy (1999) 24, No. 7, 611-616. (Pubitemid 30024548)
57. d'Humières, D. and Ginzburg, I.: "Viscosity independent numerical errors for Lattice Boltzmann models: From recurrence equations to "magic" collision numbers," Computers & Mathematics with Applications (2009) 58, No. 5, 823-840.
58. He, X., Doolen, G. D., and Clark, T.: "Comparison of the Lattice Boltzmann Method and the Artificial Compressibility Method for Navier-Stokes Equations," Journal of Computational Physics (July 2002) 179, No. 2, 439-451.
59. Fatt, I.: "The network model of porous media. 1. Capillary pressure characteristics," Trans. AIME (1956) 207, No. 7, 144-159.
60. Fatt, I.: "The network model of porous media. 2. Dynamic properties of a single size tube network," Trans. AIME (1956) 207, No. 7, 160-163.
61. Fatt, I.: "The network model of porous media. 3. Dynamic propertries of networks with tube radius distribution," Trans. AIME (1956) 207, No. 7, 164-181.
62. Blunt, M. and King, P.: "Macroscopic parameters from simulations of pore scale flow," Physical Review A (1990) 42, No. 8, 4780-4787.
63. Blunt, M. J. and King, P.: "Relative permeabilities from two- and three-dimensional pore-scale metwork modeling," Transport in Porous Media (1991) 6, 407-133.
64. Bryant, S. and Blunt, M.: "Prediction of Relative Permeability in Simple Porous-Media," Physical Review A (1992) 46, 2004-2011.
65. Adler, P. M.: Porous Media, Geometry and Transports, Butterworth- Heinemann Series in Chemical Engineering Series, Butterworth-Heinemann, Boston (1992).
66. Entov, V. M.: "The micromechanics of flow in porous media," Fluid Dynamics (1992) 27, No. 6, 824-833.
67. Bryant, S. L., King, P. R., and Mellor, D. W.: "Network Model Evaluation of Permeability and Spatial Correlation in a Real Random Sphere Packing," Transport in Porous Media (1993) 11, 53-70.
68. Øren, P. E., Bakke, S., and Arntzen, O. J.: "Extending predictive capabilities to network models," SPE Journal (December 1998) 3, 324-336.
69. Al-Futaisi, A. and Patzek, T. W.: "Impact of Wettability on two-phase flow characteristics of sedimentary rock: Quasi-static model," Water Resources Research (2003) 39, No. 2, 1042-1055.
70. Bakke, S. and Øren, P. E.: "3-D pore-scale modelling of heterogeneous sandstone reservoir rocks and quantitative analysis of the architecture, geometry and spacial continuity of the pore network. SPE 35479," European 3-D Reservoir Modelling Conference, SPE, Stavanger, Norway (1996) 35-15.
71. Bakke, S. and Øren, P.-E.: "3-D Pore-Scale Modelling of Sandstones and Flow Simulations in the Pore Networks," SPE Journal (June 1997) 2, 136-149. (Pubitemid 127641413)
72. Blunt, M. J.: "Flow in porous media - pore-network models and multiphase flow," Current Opinion in Colloid & Interface science (2001) 6, No. 3, 197-207.
73. Xu, B., Kamath, J., Yortsos, Y. C., and Lee, S. H.: "Use of pore-network models to simulate laboratory corefloods in a heterogeneous carbonate sample," SPE Journal (September 1999) 4, No. 4, 179-185. (Pubitemid 129513426)
74. Knackstedt, M. A., Sheppard, A. P., and Sahimi, M.: "Pore network modelling of two-phase flow in porous rock: the effect of correlated heterogeneity," Advances in Water Resources (2001) 24, 257-277.
75. Lindquist, W. B.: "Network Flow Model Studies and 3D Pore Structure," Fluid Flow and Transport in Porous Media: Mathe-matical and Numerical Treatment, Z. Chen and R. E. Ewing (eds.), Contemporary Mathematics Series, American Mathematical Society (2002) 295.
76. Patzek, T. W.: "Verification of a complete pore network simulator of drainage and imbibition," SPE Journal (2001) 6, No. 2, 144-156.
77. Jia, L., Ross, C. M., and Kovscek, A. R.: "A Pore-Network-Modeling Approach To Predict Petrophysical Properties of Diatomaceous Reservoir Rock," SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering (2006) 10, No. 6, 597-608.
78. Lindquist, W. B. and Venkatarangan, A.: "Investigating 3D Geometry of Porous Media from High Resolution Images," Phys. Chem. Earth (A) (1999) 25, No. 7, 593-599. (Pubitemid 30024545)
79. Schena, G. and Favretto, S.: "Pore space network characterization with sub-voxel definition," Transport in Porous Media (2007) 70, 181-190, 10.1007/s11242-006-9094-z. (Pubitemid 47528057)
80. Hilfer, R. and Doster, F.: "Percolation as a Basic Concept for Macroscopic Capillarity," Transport in Porous Media (2010) 82, No. 3, 507-519.
81. Quong, R.: "Permeability of Fort Union formation sand stone samples: project Rio Blanco," Lawrence Livermore Laboratory (1973).
82. Ward, J. S. and Morrow, N. R.: "Capillary pressure and gas relative permeabilities of low-permeability sandston," SPE Formation Evaluation (September 1987) 2, 345-356.
83. Chowdlah, P.: "Influence of Water-Desaturation Technique and Stress on Laboratory Measurement of Hydraulic Properties of Tight Sandstones," SPE Formation Evaluation (1988) 3, No. 4, 679-685.
84. Motealleh, S. and Bryant, S. L.: "Quantitative Mechanism for Permeability Reduction by Small Water Saturation in Tight-Gas Sandstones," SPE Journal (2009) 14, No. 2, 252-258.
85. Dawe, R. A. and Grattoni, C. A.: "Fluid flow behaviour of gas-condensate and near-miscible fluids at the pore scale," Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering (2007) 55, No. 3-4, 228-236. (Pubitemid 46112005)
86. Noh, M. and Firoozabadi, A.: "Wettability Alteration in Gas-Condensate Reservoirs to Mitigate Well Deliverability Loss by Water Blocking," SPE Reservoir Evaluation and Engineering (August 2008) 11, No. 4, 676-685.
87. McCain, W. D. and Alexander, R. A.: "Sampling Gas-Condensate Wells," SPE Reservoir Engineering (1992) 7, No. 3, 358-362.
88. Abadpour, A. and Panfilov, M.: "Asymptotic Decomposed Model of Two-Phase Compositional Flow in Porous Media: Analytical Front Tracking Method for Riemann Problem," Transport in Porous Media (2010) 82, 547-565, 10.1007/s11242-009-9428-8.
89. Castelijns, J. H. P. and Hagoort, J.: "Recovery of Retrograde Condensate from Naturally Fractured Gas-Condensate Reservoirs," SPE Journal (1984) 24, 707-717. (Pubitemid 15477178)
90. Ertekin, T. and Ayala, L.: "Numerical Analysis of Retrograde Gas Behavior in Fissured Systems: The Single-block Model," Petroleum Science and Technology (2008) 26, No. 10, 1141-1160.
91. Alvarado, G., Le Blanc, J. L., and Farshad, F.: "A New and Improved Material Balance Equation For Retrograde Gas Condensate Reservoirs - Part I. SPE paper 24355," SPE Rocky Mountain Regional Meeting, 18-21 May 1992, Casper, Wyoming (1992).
92. Landau, L. D. and Lifshitz, E. M.: Course of Theoretical Physics. Fluid Mechanics, Series in advanced physics Series, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass. (1959) 6.
93. Bennion, D. B., Thomas, F. B., and Schulmeister, B.: "Retrograde Condensate Dropout Phenomena in Rich Gas Reservoirs-Impact on Recoverable Reserves, Permeability, Diagnosis, and Stimulation Techniques," Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology (2001) 40, No. 12, 5-8. (Pubitemid 34176291)
94. Schamp, H. W., Mason, E. A., Richardson, A. C. B., and Altman, A.: "Compressibility and Intermolecular Forces in Gases: Methane," Physics of Fluids (1958) 1, No. 4, 329-337.
95. van Everdingen, A. F.: "The skin effect and its influence on the productive capacity of a well," Trans. AIME (1953) 198, 171-176.
96. Hurst, W.: "Establishment of the skin effect and its impediment to fluid flow into a well bore," Petroleum Engineering (1953) 25, B6-B16.
97. Pontryagin, L. S., Boltyanskii, V. G., Gamkrelidze, R. V., and Mischenko, E. F.: The Mathematical Theory of Optimal Processes, Interscience Publishers (1962).
98. Munroe, M. E.: Modern multidimensional calculus, Addison-Wesley (1963).