This thesis is concerned with the inversion of lattice pore-network model parameters of carbonate rocks using only the capillary pressure, and then the use of the inverted parameters to predict the water-flooding relative permeabilities of the carbonate rocks. Background: There has been a tendency to claim that pore-network modelling using three-dimensional micro-computed tomography or 3D mathematically created images can predict imbibition relative permeabilities for wettabilities other than strongly water/oil-wetting. This is based on the flexibility for matching data, which is a weakness of pore-network modelling. The method proposed in this thesis is important because a large percentage of the porosity in carbonates is microporosity. Conclusions: We applied stochastic inversion of lattice pore-network model parameters using Hamiltonian Dynamics (Hamiltonian Monte Carlo) to three carbonate rock samples and we predicted water-flooding relative permeabilities with good accuracy by using as constraint only routinely obtained data, such as mercury intrusion capillary pressure (MICP) and oil/water capillary pressure. We found that there is a strong correlation between the amount of microporosity and the volume exponent parameter. This suggests that when microporosity is ignored, the volume exponent will tend to be systematically strongly underestimated. HMC found large variability in wettability that causes mid-sized pores to be invaded at the same level of pressure as larger pores. The coexistence of these events reduces the tendency for preferential flow through large pores, resulting in more uniform flow at the pore scale compared with the case in which flow is restricted only to large pores. Mid-sized pores have an important effect on the connectivity because they could have higher contact angles than larger pores. Therefore, they do not spontaneously imbibe and shield larger pores, improving water-flooding displacement. The wettability of micropores could better explain the gentle curvature of the imbibition water relative permeability compared with the generally assumed mixed-wet large wettability model. The importance of the maximum and minimum observed capillary pressure is directly connected to accounting for the full pore-size distribution. Thus, the common assumption that microporosity can be ignored is unsatisfactory. The ranges of advancing contact angles obtained from the HMC inversion were wider than the ranges of apparent advancing contact angles obtained with analytical determinations in previous studies, and in one case our results were contradictory to the analytical determination. It follows that variability in advancing and receding contact angles is not reflected in the apparent contact angle data outside porous media. Apparent contact angle data outside porous media cannot completely characterise the wettability in porenetwork models because the data does not capture the contact angle variability in porous media. The existence of wetting films depends on the maximum capillary pressure during drainage, and thus wettability alteration during ageing. Our results suggest that matching both connate water at the maximum drainage capillary pressure before ageing and matching residual oil at the minimum imbibition capillary pressure leads to better estimation of the advancing and receding variability in the contact angles.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:702383 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Juri, Juan Ernesto |
| Contributors | Sorbie, Ken ; van Dijke, Rink |
| Publisher | Heriot-Watt University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hdl.handle.net/10399/3120 |
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