Foamy Oil Flow in Porous Media

Joseph, Daniel D.; Kamp, A.; Bai, R.

doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-0037-3_6

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 10 publications

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“…However, in the case of heavy oils, bubbles remain dispersed within the oil, leading to a system that resembles "chocolate mousse" and typically referred to as a "foamy oil phenomenon", even though if a more appropriate term should be "bubbly oil", as the gas volume fraction is typically found to be between 5 and 40%. This phenomenon appears during higher production rates than expected by reservoir modelling [30,[47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61].…”

Section: Petroleum Based Foams and Foamy Oilsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-Aqueous and Crude Oil Foams

Blázquez

Emond

Schneider

et al. 2013

Oil Gas Sci. Technol. – Rev. IFP Energies nouvelles

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D o s s i e rRe´sume´-Mousses non aqueuses et mousses pe´trolie`res -Les mousses produites a`partir de syste`mes non aqueux sont moins fre´quentes que les mousses a`base d'eau, mais elles jouent un roˆle important dans de nombreuses applications et proce´de´s industriels. La faible tension de surface des liquides a`base d'hydrocarbures limite l'adsorption des agents de surface classiques et par conse´quent diffe´rents compose´s et me´thodes doivent eˆtre conside´re´s afin de ge´ne´rer et de stabiliser les mousses a`base d'huile. De meˆme, le cassage des mousses non aqueuses inde´sirables ne´cessite des conside´rations spe´cifiques a`ces syste`mes. Les mousses de pe´trole pre´sentent un inte´reˆt particulier de par leur complexite´en raison de la grande varie´te´des compose´s et des gaz qui peuvent les constituer. Nous pre´sentons dans cet article un aperc¸u des principaux me´canismes reconnus comme importants pour la stabilite´des mousses non aqueuses avec une conside´ration toute particulie`re pour les mousses de pe´trole brut.Abstract -Non-Aqueous and Crude Oil Foams -Foams produced from non-aqueous media are less common than water-based foams but they play an important role in many industries and engineering processes. The low surface tension of hydrocarbon fluids limits the adsorption of common surface activity substances and different compounds and methods must be considered to generate and stabilize oil-based foam. Likewise, the destruction of unwanted non-aqueous based foam requires specific considerations not found with aqueous systems. Of particular interest are petroleum-based foams, which are highly complex due to the wide variety of compounds and gases that can be found. We provide an overview of the major mechanisms known to be important for non-aqueous foam stability with a spotlight on crude-oil foams.

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Section: Petroleum Based Foams and Foamy Oilsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-Aqueous and Crude Oil Foams

Blázquez

Emond

Schneider

et al. 2013

Oil Gas Sci. Technol. – Rev. IFP Energies nouvelles

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Modeling foamy oil flow in porous media

Joseph

Kamp

Bai

2002

International Journal of Multiphase Flow

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Certain heavy oils which foam under severe depressurization give rise to increased recovery factor and an increased rate of production under solution gas drive. These oils not only stabilize foam, but also stabilize dispersion of gas bubbles at lower volume ratios. The way this phenomenon is related to the chemistry of the oil and its viscosity is presently not understood. We present here a mathematical model of reservoir flow of foamy oil which depends only on the velocity through Darcy's law, the pressure and the dispersed gas fraction. The theory governs only in situations in which the bubbles do not coalesce to produce the percolation of free gas. In this theory the bubbles move with the oil as they evolve. The main empirical content of the theory enters through the derivation of solubility isotherms which can be obtained from PVT data; modeling of nucleation, coalescence, bubble drag laws and transfer functions are avoided. The local pressure difference and dispersed gas fraction are in equilibrium on the solubility isotherm. In a pressure drawdown the time taken for the system to return to equilibrium is described by a rate law characterized by an empirical relaxation time (rate constant). The resulting systems of equations can be reduced to a coupled pair of nonlinear PDE's for the dispersed gas fraction and pressure difference, which can further be reduced in the equilibrium case to a second order evolution equation for the pressure difference. This system of equations can also be derived from usual theory of two-phase flow in a porous media based on relative permeability under the assumption that the bubbles and oil move in lock step. We propose a reformulation of the conventional theory in which the concept relative permeability of the porous media is replaced with the more familiar concept of an effective phase viscosity. The equations of our relaxation theory are solved numerically, and the mixture viscosity function and relaxation time are selected to match the sandpack experiments of Maini and Sarma [1994].

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Experimental Analysis of the Effects of Varying Temperature and Viscosities on Foamy Oil Production

Medina

Medina²,

Zhang

2021

Day 2 Tue, June 29, 2021

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The phenomenon of higher than expected production rates and recovery factors in heavy oil reservoirs captured the term "foamy oil," by researchers. This is mainly due to the bubble filled chocolate mousse appearance found at wellheads where this phenomenon occurs. Foamy oil flow is barely understood up to this day. Understanding why this unusual occurrence exists can aid in the transfer of principles to low recovery heavy oil reservoirs globally. This study focused mainly on how varying the viscosity and temperature via pressure depletion lab tests affected the performance of foamy oil production. Six different lab-scaled experiments were conducted, four with varying temperatures and two with varying viscosities. All experiments were conducted using lab-scaled sand pack pressure depletion tests with the same initial gas oil ratio (GOR). The first series of experiments with varying temperatures showed that the oil recovery was inversely proportional to elevated temperatures, however there was a directly proportional relationship between gas recovery and elevation in temperature. A unique observation was also made, during late-stage production, foamy oil recovery reappeared with temperatures in the 45-55°C range. With respect to the viscosities, a non-linear relationship existed, however there was an optimal region in which the live-oil viscosity and foamy oil production seem to be harmonious.

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Foamy Oil Flow in Porous Media

Cited by 3 publications

References 10 publications

Non-Aqueous and Crude Oil Foams

Non-Aqueous and Crude Oil Foams

Modeling foamy oil flow in porous media

Experimental Analysis of the Effects of Varying Temperature and Viscosities on Foamy Oil Production

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