Effect of Fractional Flow Hysteresis on Recovery of Tertiary Oil

Abstract

This paper deals with the oil/water bank propagation in a tertiary oil recovery process. Oil/water bank propagation was studied in a series of laboratory micellar floods and simultaneous oil/water flow tests using a microwave scanning apparatus for measuring in-situ dynamic oil saturation. It was observed that a high oil saturation region, or hump, developed at the leading edge of the oil/water bank and grew linearly with distance. A lower steady-state oil saturation region was observed behind the hump. As the hump was produced from the core, high initial oil fractions were observed, as often seen in laboratory micellar floods. This is the result of the observed hysteresis in fractional flow behavior. A graphical method of predicting the occurrence of a hump, its rate of growth, and saturations within an oil/water bank was developed using the observed hysteresis in fractional flow. Using this prediction procedure, it was concluded that in a tertiary oil recovery process, oil breakthrough time or rate of advance of the oil/water bank, oil saturation at the leading edge, and initial produced oil fractions are only functions of the oil-saturation-increasing fractional flow curve and are not necessarily indications of oil recovery efficiency.