Determination of Oil Saturation Distributions in Field Cores By Microwave Spectroscopy

Abstract

Two microwave absorption spectrometers have been developed for routine monitoring of So distributions during laboratory flooding experiments in field core material. Operating frequencies are 10.525 and 24.125 GHz. Based upon low-power, mass-produced microwave components, these instruments are inexpensive, safe, very compact and rugged and require no special expertise for operation. A core sample cell has been designed which permits So distributions to be determined in narrow rectangular and cylindrical cores. An indirect calibration technique has been developed using the injection of aqueous solutions of 2-propanol to compensate for the porosity variations and irregular Soi and Sorw distributions inherent to segmented field cores. Details of the instrumentation are presented with a theoretical description of instrumental response. The practical utility of this instrumentation for the a priori detection of core defects and quantitative determination of porosity distributions is demonstrated.

Temperature Effects on the Oil Relative Permeability during Tertiary Gas Oil Gravity Drainage (GOGD)

“…This technique requires the in situ saturation and pressure distribution measurements, which cannot be easily achieved . Many authors have addressed this problem and have used a variety of techniques to measure the saturation profiles, including measurements of electrical resistance, dielectric constant, absorption of neutrons, microwaves, gamma rays, and X-rays. − In addition to the difficulties of adopting and calibrating these apparatus, some of them even failed to give a unique relative permeability function 27 and also could not explain the inconsistency found in temperature effects on the relative permeability in GOGD process. − …”