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Leverett Home / Resources / Fundamentals of Fluid Flow in Porous Media / Chapter 4: Immiscible Displacement / Buckley-Leverett Theory
Theory
Chapter 4 Fundamentals of
Fluid Flow in Porous
Media
Immiscible Displacement
Chapter 1:
Introduction
Buckley-Leverett Theory Chapter 2: The
Porous Medium
One of the simplest and most widely used methods of estimating the
advance of a uid displacement front in an immiscible displacement
Chapter 3:
process is the Buckley-Leverett method
Molecular
[1],[2]. The Buckley-Leverett theory [1942] estimates the rate at which an Diffusion
injected water bank moves through a porous medium. The approach uses
fractional ow theory and is based on the following assumptions: Chapter 4:
Immiscible
Flow is linear and horizontal Displacement
Water is injected into an oil reservoir
Oil and water are both incompressible Buckley-
Oil and water are immiscible Leverett
Gravity and capillary pressure effects are negligible
Theory
In many rocks there is a transition zone between the water and the Oil
zones. In the true water zone, the water saturation is essentially 100. In the Water
oil zone, there is usually present connate water, which is essentially Injection
immobile. Only water will be produced from a well completed in the true Oil
water zone, and only oil will be produced from the true oil zone. In the Recovery
transition zone both oil and water will be produced, and at each point the Calculations
fraction of the owrate that is water will depend on the oil and water
saturations at that point. Vertical
and
Frontal advance theory is an application of the law of conservation of mass.
Volumetric
Flow through a small volume element () with length ∆x and cross-sectional
area “A” can be expressed in terms of total ow rate qt as: Sweep
Efficiencies
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Publications
Figure 4‑1 is a plot of the relative permeability ratio, ko / kw, versus water
saturation. Because of the wide range of ko / kw values, the relative
permeability ratio is usually plotted on the log scale of semi-log paper. Like
many relative permeability ratio curves, the central or main portion of the
curve is quite linear. As a straight line on semi-log paper, the relative
permeability ratio may be expresses as a function of the water saturation
by:
The constants “a” and “b” may be determined from the graph, such as Figure
4‑1, or determined from simultaneous equations from known data of
saturation and relative permeability.
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Assume that the total ow rate is the same at all the medium cross section.
Neglect capillary and gravitational forces that may be acting. Let the oil be
displaced by water from left to right.
The rate the water enters to the medium element from left hand side (LHS)
is:
The rate of water leaving element from the right hand side (RHS) is:
This is equal to the change in element water content per unit time.
Let Sw is the water saturation of the element at time t. Then if oil is being
displaced from the element, at time ( t + Δt ) the water saturation will be (
Sw + ΔSw ). So water accumulation in the element per unit time is:
It is not possible to solve for the general distribution of water saturation Sw(
x,t ) in most realistic cases because of the nonlinearity of the problem. For
example, water fractional ow is usually a nonlinear function of water
saturation. It is therefore necessary to consider a simpli ed approach to
solving Eq. ((4‑13)).
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For a given rock, the fraction of ow for water ƒw is a function only of the
water saturation Sw, as indicated by Eq. (4‑13), assuming constant oil and
water viscosities. The water saturation however is a function of both time
and position, which may be express as ƒw = F( Sw ) and Sw = G( t,x ). Then:
Substituting eqs (4‑13) and 4‑15) into eq. (4‑16) gives the Buckley-Leverett
frontal advance equation:
saturation Sw. Because the porosity, area, and owrate are constant and
because for any value of Sw, the derivative is a constant, then
This means that the distance a plane of constant saturation, Sw, advances is
proportional to time and to the value of the derivative ( ) at that
saturation, or:
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Where,
QinjHome
is the cumulative
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In eld units:
Example 4-1
Assume a cubical reservoir under active water drive with oil production of
900bbl/day. The ow could be approximated as a linear ow. The cross
sectional area is the product of the width, 1320 ft, and the true formation
thickness, 20 ft, so that for a porosity of 0.25, eq. (4‑19) becomes:
If we let x=0 at the rst point of the transition zone, then the distances the
various constant water saturation planes will travel in, say, 60, 120, and 240
days are given by:
The value of the derivative may be obtained for any value of water
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not hold for the very high and for the quite low water saturation ranges (see
Figure 4‑1), some error is introduced below 30% and above 80% water
saturation. Since these are in the regions of the lower values of the
derivatives, the overall effect on the calculation is small.
This distance is plotted as shown in Figure 4‑6 along with the other
distances that have been calculated using eqs (4‑20) and (4‑21) for other
time values and other water saturations. These curves are characteristically
double-valued or triple valued. For example, Figure 4‑6 indicates that the
water saturation after 240 days at 400 ft is 20, 39, and 69%. The saturation
can be only one value at any place and time. What actually occurs is that
the intermediate values of the water saturation have the maximum velocity
(Figure 4‑5 and eq. (4‑17)), will initially tend to overtake the lower
saturations resulting in the formation of a saturation discontinuity or shock
front. Because of this discontinuity the mathematical approach of Buckley-
Leverett, which assumes that Sw is continuous and differentiable, will be
inappropriate to describe the situation at the front itself.
Figure 4-6: (a) Fluid Distribution at 60, 120, 240 days (b) Triple-Valued
Saturation Distribution (After Buckley and Leverett, 1942)
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So:
At breakthrough time:
Where,
L = Medium length
Therefore:
i.e. the slope of the fractional ow curve at conditions of the front is given
by eq. 4‑29).
To satisfy eq. (4‑29) the tangent to the fractional ow curve, from the point
Sw = Swc, where ƒw = 0, must have a point of tangency with co-ordinates Sw
= Swƒ; ƒw = ƒwƒ, and extrapolated tangent must intercept the line ƒw = 1 at
the point (Sw = Swbt ; ƒw = 1). See Figure 4‑8.
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The use of either of these equations ignores the effect of the capillary
pressure gradient, ∂Pc / ∂x.
This simple graphical technique of Welge has much wider application in the
eld of oil recovery calculations.
As eq. (4‑19) shows the velocity of every saturation front is constant, the
graph of saturation location vs. time is set of straight lines starting from the
origin. This graph is often plotted in dimensionless form. The equation can
be made dimensionless by de ning:
Where
xD = Normalized distance
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Figure 4‑12 represents the initial water and oil distributions in the reservoir
unit and also the saturation distributions after 240 days, provided the ood
front has not reached the produced face of the cubic reservoir. The area to
the right of the ood front in Figure 4‑12 is commonly called the oil bank
and the area to the left is sometimes called the ooded or drag zone. The
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area above the 240-day curve and below the 90% water saturation curve
represents oil that may yet be recovered, or dragged out of the high-water
saturation portion of the reservoir by owing large volumes of water
through it. The area above the 90% water saturation represents
unrecoverable oil since the critical oil saturation is 10%. This presentation
of the displacement mechanism has assumed that capillary force is
negligible.
Figure 4‑12 also indicates that a well in this reservoir will produce water-
free oil until the ood front approaches the well. Thereafter, in a relatively
short period, the water cut will rise sharply and be followed by a relatively
long period of production at high, and increasingly higher, water cuts. For
example, just behind the ood front at 240 days, the water saturation rises
from 20% to about 60%-that is, the water cut rises from zero to 66% (see
Figure 4‑5). When a producing formation consists of two or more rather
de nite strata, or stringers, of different permeabilities, the rates of advance
in the separate strata will be proportional to their permeabilities, and the
overall effect will be a combination of several separate displacements, such
as described for a single homogeneous stratum.
References
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