On Modification of Relative Permeability in Compositional Simulation of Near-miscible Processes

A. Alzayer, Denis Voskov, H Tchelepi

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedings/Edited volumeConference contributionScientificpeer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Miscible gas injection is one of the most effective enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques. There are several challenges in accurately modeling this process that mostly occur in the near-miscible region. The adjustment of relative permeability for near-miscible processes is the main focus of this work. The dependence of relative permeability on phase identification can lead to significant complications while simulating near-miscible displacements. We present an analysis of how existing methods incorporate compositional dependence in relative permeability functions. The sensitivity of the different methods to the choice of reference points is presented with possible guidelines to limit the modification of the relative permeabilities to physically reasonable values. We distinguish between the objectives of reflecting near miscible behavior and ensuring smooth transitions across phase changes in the existing methods. We highlight an important link that combines the two objectives in a more general framework. We make use of Gibbs free energy as a compositional indicator to honor the generalized framework. The new approach was implemented in the Automatic Differentiation General Purpose Research Simulator (ADGPRS) and tested on a set of near-miscible gas injection problems. We show that including compositional dependencies in the relative permeability near the critical point impacts the simulation results with significant improvements in nonlinear convergence
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 15th European Conference on the Mathematics of Oil Recovery
Subtitle of host publicationAmsterdam, Netherlands
Pages1-17
Number of pages17
ISBN (Electronic)978-94-6282-193-4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2016
EventECMOR XV: 15th European Conference on the Mathematics of Oil Recovery - Amsterdam, Netherlands
Duration: 29 Aug 20161 Sept 2016
https://www.eage.org/event/?eventid=1416

Conference

ConferenceECMOR XV
Abbreviated titleECMOR XV
Country/TerritoryNetherlands
CityAmsterdam
Period29/08/161/09/16
Internet address

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