An Experimental Investigation of Optimum Capillary Number on Vertical Immiscible Gas Injection in Iranian Carbonate and Sandstone Rocks

Abstract

The authors' purpose was twofold: (a) to study optimum capillary number for acquiring maximum oil recovery in vertical gas-oil displacement using carbonate and sandstone cores, and (b) to investigate the influence of capillary end effect on optimum capillary number extracted from experimental data. Two sets of forced gravity drainage experiments were performed on carbonate and sandstone cores. The first set of experiments comprised seven vertical nitrogen injection tests using carbonate core, which had been saturated by kerosene in ambient laboratory condition. The second set consisted of six vertical nitrogen injection tests using sandstone core that had been saturated by live oil under reservoir temperature and pressure conditions. In each set of experiments, in constant bond number, one optimum capillary number (optimum flow rate) was recorded in which the maximum oil recovery was achieved. When capillary end effect was negligible, optimum capillary number was compatible with critical capillary number, which was calculated in critical gravity drainage velocity while in considerable end effect, optimum capillary number was higher than the calculated critical capillary number. In addition, the residual oil saturation in carbonate rock showed a declining trend when capillary number increased, whereas the minimum of residual oil saturation in sandstone core has been observed in optimum capillary number.

Keywords:

• capillary number
• end effect
• gas injection
• gravity drainage
• immiscible displacement