THE SPE IMAGE LIBRARY

SPE 16959

Material Balance Calculations for Solution-Gas-Drive Reservoirs With Gravity Segregation 16959 Ambastha, A.K., and Aziz, K., Stanford U. SPE Members Copyright 1987, Society of Petroleum Engineers This paper was prepared for presentation at the 62nd Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition of the Society of Petroleum Engineers held in Dallas, TX September 27-30, 1987. This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE Program Committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper, as presented, have not been reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material, as presented, does not necessarily reflect any position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its officers, or members. Papers presented at SPE meetings are subject to publication review by Editorial Committees of the Society of Petroleum Engineers. Permission to copy is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words. Illustrations may not be copied. The abstract should contain conspicuous acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper is presented. Write Publications Manager, SPE, P.O. Box 833836, Richardson, TX 75083-3836. Telex, 730989 SPEDAL. ABSTRACT In this work, a reservoir simulator is used to study the phenomena of gas percolation and gravity segregation, and their effects on reservoir performances. The sensitivity study of reservoir performance to block and time-step sizes shows that for typical solution-gas-drive reservoirs, large en-or's in average reservoir pressure may result from improper control of time-step in the simulator. The comparison of simulation results with the Tarner's method shows that the latter predicts faster reservoir pressure and oil saturation decline, and thus, underpredicts the reservoir producing

THE SPE IMAGE LIBRARY life and recovery.

SPE 16959

We propose a new material balance method for predicting the performance of thick, homogeneous, depletion-drive reservoirs. This method accounts for the vertical pressure and saturation gradients, and the secondary gas cap. The thickness of the secondary gas cap can be estimated with good accuracy using an idealized saturation profile. An iterative procedure relates average reservoir pre well pressure. The pressure and saturation at the well are then use to calculate the producing gas-oil ratio. The idealized saturation profile is also used to develop pseudo-functions to simplify the simu-lation of solution-gas-drive reservoir with gravity segregation. INTRODUCTION While it is usually possible to do a detailed (and expensive!) three-dimensional, multiblock reservoir simulation study to make predictions for solution-gas-drive reservoirs, it is often instructive to first do some simple material balance calculations Lo make "ball-park" projections. This is especially important because simulation of solution-gas-drive reservoirs involving gas percolation and gravity segregation is a numerically difficult problem that can gobble up large amounts of computer time. The evolution of solution gas and its rapid movement to the top of the reservoir is both the source of numerical difficulties and the justification for assuming that gas movement is essentially instantaneous in performance prediction cal-culations using material balance.The performance prediction of a hydrocarbon reservoir under different drive mechanisms is of interest to any practicing reservoir engineer. A number of studies of solution-gasdrive reservoirs under different conditions have been published. Different conditions that arise during the exploitation of such reservoirs are: 1. Internal gas drive mechanism. Volumetric, undersaturated reservoirs produce by reservoir fluid expansion. The production is attributed to liquid expansion and to rock compressibility, as the reservoir pressure drops down to the bubble point pressure. As the reservoir pressure declines further, oil phase contracts because of the release of solution gas, and the production is due to gas expansion. As gas saturation reaches the critical value, free gas begins to flow, resulting in high gas-oil ratios and low oil recoveries. 2. External gas drive mechanism. In many instances, reservoir pressure in solution-gas-drive reservoirs is maintained by gas injection, and oil is displaced by

THE SPE IMAGE LIBRARY injected gas. mechanism. 3. This is referred to as external gas drive

SPE 16959

Gravity segregation (or gravity drainage). For high relief reservoirs with good along-dip permeability, favorable conditions exist for gravity segregation of injected gas or gas released from solution. Gravity segregation is an important factor in attaining high oil recovery from solution-gas-drive reservoirs. Oil recoveries of the order of 60 to 80% can be obtained with effective gravity segregation. Reservoirs with significant gravity segregation also show low producing gas-oil ratios in structurally lower wells. Craft and Hawkins describe these drive mechanisms in more detail.

Tarner and Muskat proposed methods to predict the performance of depletion (solution-gas)-drive reservoirs under internal gas drive mechanism, using rock and fluid properties. The assumptions of both methods include negligible gravity segregation forces. Thus, these authors considered only thin, horizontal reservoirs. Both methods use the material balance principle (static) and a producing gas-oil ratio equation (dynamic) to predict reservoir performance at pressures, where gas saturation exceeds the critical value. A more detailed description of both methods appears in Craft and Hawkins The points to note about these prediction techniques are: 1. Time is not a factor in these methods because neither water influx nor gravity segregation are considered. Time history must be inferred from the reserves and well production rates.

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