A Multimodal 3D Imaging Study of Natural Gas Flow in Tight Sands.pdf

SPE 146611
A Multimodal 3D Imaging Study of Natural Gas Flow in Tight Sands
Dmitriy Silin, SPE, Timothy J. Kneafsey, Jonathan B. Ajo-Franklin, and Peter Nico, Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory
Copyright 2011, Society of Petroleum Engineers
This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition held in Denver, Colorado, USA, 30 October–2 November 2011.
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Abstract
Pore scale phenomena, especially in multi-phase flow, have a strong impact on the mechanisms and efficiency of gas recovery.
We studied the impact of the pore space geometry on single- and two-phase flow properties of tight-sands. X-puted
tomography (CT) and scanning-electron microscopy (SEM), along with other imaging tools provide insights into pore struc-
ture at multiple scales. Segmented micron-scale resolution CT 3D images were used as input data for simulations based
on the Maximal Inscribes Spheres (MIS) method. Finite-difference flow simulations of creeping flow on MIS-evaluated
equilibrium fluid distribution predict of the relative permeability curves as functions of saturation. A pore-scale model of
two-phase gas flow accounts for condensate dropout based on thermodynamic equilibrium. The pore-scale analysis results
a