1887

Abstract

Summary

As foam is injected into an oil reservoir, the region near an injector can become oil-free due to the relatively high capillary number. Foam created in this region encounters oil further out in the reservoir. The impact of oil on foam in porous media is usually investigated by co-injecting surfactant, gas and oil, or by injecting pre-generated foam into an oil-saturated core. However, the former experiment does not give information on the impact of oil on pre-generated foam, and from the latter experiment one cannot easily obtain data at different oil fractional flows, necessary to model the impact of oil on pre-generated foam.

Here the impact of crude oil on pre-generated foam is studied by co-injecting surfactant solution and gas into a relative narrow core (0.01 m diameter), and injecting oil into the porous medium some distance downstream from the inlet, through ports in the side of the porous medium. By injecting the three phases into the core we investigate the flow behaviour of foam with oil at fixed fractional flows of all three phases. The relatively narrow core allows rapid contact between the injected crude oil and pre-generated foam.

We observe a progressive decrease in the apparent viscosity of the foam after encountering oil. Foams with a higher gas fraction experience a more significant weakening by oil over the length of the core than foams with a lower gas fraction. By the end of the core, the apparent viscosities of foam with a higher gas fraction approach values observed with three-phase co-injection. Foam made with surfactant pre-equilibrated with the crude oil propagated for a shorter distance in presence of oil than foam made with surfactant that hasn't contacted oil before.

We present a novel, but relatively simple method to investigate the change of foam mobility as it encounters oil in a porous medium, at controlled fractional flows of all phases. We show that in our case the apparent viscosity of foam with oil can decrease by more than a factor of four over a distance of 0.15 m, indicating that foam and oil reach steady-state (as observed with three-phase co-injection) almost instantaneously compared to the length of a reservoir-simulation grid-block.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/papers/10.3997/2214-4609.201900146
2019-04-08
2024-03-29
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Aarra, M.G., Skauge, A.
    , 1994. A Foam Pilot in a North Sea Oil Reservoir: Preparation for a Production Well Treatment. Presented at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Society of Petroleum Engineers. https://doi.org/10.2118/28599-MS
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Falls, A.H., Musters, J.J.
    , Ratulowski, J., 1989. The Apparent Viscosity of Foams in Homogeneous Bead Packs. SPE Reserv. Eng. 4, 155–164. https://doi.org/10.2118/16048-PA
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Jones, S.A., Laskaris, G., Vincent-Bonnieu, S., Farajzadeh, R.
    , Rossen, W.R., 2016a. Effect of surfactant concentration on foam: From coreflood experiments to implicit-texture foam-model parameters. J. Ind. Eng. Chem. 37, 268–276. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jiec.2016.03.041
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Jones, S.A., van der Bent, V., Farajzadeh, R., Rossen, W.R.
    , Vincent-Bonnieu, S., 2016b. Surfactant screening for foam EOR: Correlation between bulk and core-flood experiments. Colloids Surf. Physicochem. Eng. Asp. 500, 166–176. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.colsurfa.2016.03.072
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Kapetas, L., Vincent-Bonnieu, S., Farajzadeh, R., Eftekhari, A.A., Mohd-Shafian, S.R., Bahrim, R.Z.K., Rossen, W.R.
    , 2015. Effect of Permeability on Foam-model parameters - An Integrated Approach from Coreflood Experiments through to Foam Diversion Calculations. Presented at the IOR 2015 - 18th European Symposium on Improved Oil Recovery. https://doi.org/10.3997/2214-4609.201412124
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Kristiansen, T.S., Holt, T.
    , 1992. Properties of Flowing Foam in Porous Media Containing Oil. Presented at the SPE/DOE Enhanced Oil Recovery Symposium, Society of Petroleum Engineers. https://doi.org/10.2118/24182-MS
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Øren, P.-E., Bakke, S.
    , 2003. Reconstruction of Berea sandstone and pore-scale modelling of wettability effects. J. Pet. Sci. Eng., Reservoir Wettability 39, 177–199. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0920-4105(03)00062-7
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Peksa, A.E., Wolf, K.-H.A.A.
    , Zitha, P.L.J., 2015. Bentheimer sandstone revisited for experimental purposes. Mar. Pet. Geol. 67, 701–719. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2015.06.001
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Pugh, R.J.
    , 1996. Foaming, foam films, antifoaming and defoaming. Adv. Colloid Interface Sci. 64, 67–142. https://doi.org/10.1016/0001-8686(95)00280-4
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Raza
    , S.H., 1970. Foam in Porous Media: Characteristics and Potential Applications. Soc. Pet. Eng. J. 10, 328–336. https://doi.org/10.2118/2421-PA
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Schramm, L.L., Novosad, J.J.
    , 1990. Micro-visualization of foam interactions with a crude oil. Colloids Surf. 46, 21–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/0166-6622(90)80046-7
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Schramm, L.L., Turta, A.T.
    , Novosad, J.J., 1993. Microvisual and Coreflood Studies of Foam Interactions With a Light Crude Oil. SPE Reserv. Eng. 8, 201–206. https://doi.org/10.2118/20197-PA
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Simjoo, M.
    , 2012. Immiscible foam for enhanced oil recovery (PhD Dissertation). Delft University of Technology.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Tang
    , 2019. The Effect of Oil on Foam for EOR (PhD Dissertation). Delft University of Technology.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Tang, J., Vincent-Bonnieu, S., Rossen, W.
    , 2018. Experimental Investigation of the Effect of Oil on Steady-State Foam Flow in Porous Media. SPE J. https://doi.org/10.2118/194015-PA
    [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/papers/10.3997/2214-4609.201900146
Loading
/content/papers/10.3997/2214-4609.201900146
Loading

Data & Media loading...

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error