Visual investigation of residual gas saturation in porous media
by Mahnaz Hekmatzadeh; Mitra Dadvar; Mohammad Ali Emadi
International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology (IJOGCT), Vol. 10, No. 2, 2015

Abstract: Residual gas saturation (RGS) is a key property for estimating the amount of gas reserves in water drive gas reservoirs and can lead to possible decisions on enhanced gas recovery. Most of the previous studies correlate RGS with petrophysical parameters [initial water saturation (IWS), permeability and porosity] regarding experimental data in core scale that show inconsistent results. Therefore, determining effective parameters that affect RGS remains an outstanding challenge in core experiments. Since the fundamental behaviour of multi-phase flow in porous media is influenced by displacement mechanisms at pore scale, it is necessary to study pore-scale behaviour in gas-saturated micromodels to recognise the important parameters affecting RGS. Glass micromodels with different patterns are used in experiments to study the effect of heterogeneities, flow rate and imbibition displacement type (co-current or counter-current) on RGS. The experimental results indicate that RGS is increased by increasing network heterogeneity, decreasing pore and throat size, increasing aspect ratio and decreasing angularity. Counter-current imbibition causes higher RGS and lower recovery factor compared to co-current imbibition. According to the results, RGS is decreased by increasing imbibition rate in co-current imbibition. However, RGS is increased in counter-current imbibition at higher flow rates. Therefore, boundary condition and water encroachment rate should be considered properly for estimating RGS in core scale. [Received: February 10, 2013; Accepted: December 31, 2013]

Online publication date: Thu, 30-Jul-2015

The full text of this article is only available to individual subscribers or to users at subscribing institutions.

 
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.

Pay per view:
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.

Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology (IJOGCT):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:

Username:        Password:          Forgotten your password?

Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.

If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com