The Influence of Interfacial Tension on Liquid Mobility in Gas Condensate Systems

Abstract

Coreflooding experiments have been performed using 1 metre long, sandstone cores and a synthetic, six component (C1, C2, C3, C5, C8 and C16) gas condensate fluid, with a dewpoint close to 4,500 psia. The efficiency of equilibrium gas injection for the mobilisation of liquid condensate has been examined under both high and low interfacial tension (IFT) conditions. The volume of liquid recovered and the composition of both phases have been monitored throughout each experiment and the results used to validate a compositional simulator. Under conditions of maximum liquid dropout and high IFT (σ ≈ .92 mN/m), an average of 6.5% volume of liquid condensate was mobilised in an equilibrium gas injection in a horizontal core, resulting in reduced recovery of the heavier components of the fluid. An improved recovery of 17.2% was obtained in the vertical injection. Under conditions of low IFT (σ ≈ .04 mN/m) however, 24.1% of the liquid was recovered during injection in a horizontal core and 51.6% of liquid was recovered with vertical injection, giving a much increased yield of the heavier ends. The recovery efficiency in a straight depletion on a horizontal core to abandonment pressure averaged 18.8%. This is much lower than for the low tension gas injection. These results are in agreement with other recent studies concerning the influence of IFT and the effects of gravity on gas condensate flow.

Experimental Investigation of Magnetorheological Behavior of Fe3O4@PVP@OA Ferrofluid for Potential Application in Gas Condensate Blockage Reduction

“…Based on the classified techniques, solvents and chemicals rely on decreasing the interfacial tension and the wettability of media as an efficient remedy to mitigate the condensate banking problem, respectively. , By contrast, the productivity improvement approaches mainly focus on generating flow paths and fractures with high permeability or increasing the contact area between the reservoir and the wellbore, paving the way for reducing pressure drop and enhancing the productivity of well . Nonetheless, the generated fractures in turn cause a major problem.…”

Parameter Optimization of Segmental Multicluster Fractured Horizontal Wells in Extremely Rich Gas Condensate Shale Reservoirs

“…Extremely high-condensate shale gas reservoirs, whose content of condensate can be as much as 600 g/m 3 , undergo more sophisticated phase behavior compared with ordinary shale gas reservoirs, where issues such as low porosity, low permeability, adsorption, and desorption are investigated. Liquid phase would first precipitate and then reversely gasify during continuous isothermal depressurization (Ali et al, 1993).…”

A New Method To Determine Wettability of Tight Sandstone: Water Imbibition Evaporation Rate Ratio Measurements

“…Normally, wettability refers to the adhesion tendency of one fluid toward a solid surface when two immiscible fluids coexist . It has been noted that, when the wettability of porous media changed from liquid-wet to gas-wet, gas recovery improved significantly. − Thus, the study of wettability is very important for tight gas reservoirs.…”