Experimental Determination of Relative Permeabilities for a Rich Gas Condensate System Using Live Fluid

摘要

Measurement of gas and condensate relative permeabilities is typically performed through steady state linear core flood experiments using model fluids. This study addresses experimental measurement of relative permeabilities for a rich gas condensate reservoir using a live, single-phase reservoir fluid. Using a live, single-phase reservoir fluid eliminates the difficulties in designing a relatively simple model fluid which replicates the complicated thermodynamic and transport properties of a near critical fluid. Two-phase flow tests were performed across a range of pressures and flow rates to simulate reservoir conditions from initial production through depletion. A single-phase multi-rate experiment was also performed to assess inertial, or non-Darcy, effects. Correlations were developed to represent both the gas and condensate relative permeabilities as a function of capillary number. A nearly 20-fold increase in gas relative permeability was observed from the low to high capillary number flow regime. Compositional simulations were performed to assess the impact of the experimental results for vertical and horizontal well geometries.