Open AccessWETTABILITY ALTERATION OF POROUS MEDIA TO GAS-WETTING FOR IMPROVING PRODUCTIVITY AND INJECTIVITY IN GAS-LIQUID FLOWS
Author(s) -
Abbas Firoozabadi
Publication year - 2001
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/834362
Subject(s) - wetting , saturation (graph theory) , relative permeability , permeability (electromagnetism) , porous medium , gas phase , porosity , materials science , chemistry , composite material , organic chemistry , membrane , combinatorics , biochemistry , mathematics
The wettability of Berea and chalk samples for gas-oil and gas-water fluids were altered from strong liquid-wetting to intermediate gas-wetting. Two polymers, FC-722 and FC-759, were used to alter the wettability. FC-759 is soluble in water and some 20 times less expensive than FC-722. Gas and liquid relative permeabilities were measured before and after wettability alteration. The results demonstrate a significant increase in liquid-phase relative permeability. Gas-phase relative permeability for a fixed saturation may increase or decrease. However, because of the very high liquid mobility and reduced liquid saturation, the gas mobility also increases for a fixed pressure drop. A number of liquid injectivity tests were also carried out. The results reveal that the liquid-phase mobility can increase significantly when the wettability of rocks is altered from strong liquid-wetting to intermediate gas-wetting. All the results show clearly that the application of wettability alteration to intermediate gas-wetting may significantly increase deliverability in gas condensate reservoirs