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Influence of Bubble-point Pressure on the Gas Formation in an Oil Reservoir Under Water Injection

Received: 6 June 2021    Accepted: 24 June 2021    Published: 31 August 2021
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Abstract

To evaluate the oil recovering in a reservoir producing at the bubble-point pressure, we performed numerical simulations using a sandbox model and a black oil approach for the reservoir, and the tool-kit CFD software OpenFOAM. A new solver treats the three-phase dynamics of the oil-water-gas in the reservoir. The calculation includes four cases with different pressures of the injection and production wells to explore the free gas formation. Our results show that even keeping constant the pressure unbalance between the injection and production wells, we observe different dynamics. There is no gas formation and a typical production profile results if the bottom-hole pressure is just above the bubble-point in the injection and production wells. In case only the production well bottom-hole pressure is just below the bubble-point, we see no gas formation near the injection well and oscillatory gas formation around the production well. We see a triphasic flow along with the whole domain if both bottom-hole pressures are just below the bubble-point. However, if the bottom-hole pressure in both wells goes further below, the gas flow rate no more oscillates and the gas formation becomes continuous. We have also treated a special case to analyze the influence of gravity on the triphasic flow. Here we observed the gravity segregation to be not significant.

Published in American Journal of Chemical Engineering (Volume 9, Issue 4)
DOI 10.11648/j.ajche.20210904.14
Page(s) 101-111
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Reservoir Simulation, Three-phase Flow, Porous Media, Computational Fluid Dynamics

References
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Antonio Fernando Britto, Ivan Costa da Cunha Lima, Andre Telles da Cunha Lima. (2021). Influence of Bubble-point Pressure on the Gas Formation in an Oil Reservoir Under Water Injection. American Journal of Chemical Engineering, 9(4), 101-111. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajche.20210904.14

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    ACS Style

    Antonio Fernando Britto; Ivan Costa da Cunha Lima; Andre Telles da Cunha Lima. Influence of Bubble-point Pressure on the Gas Formation in an Oil Reservoir Under Water Injection. Am. J. Chem. Eng. 2021, 9(4), 101-111. doi: 10.11648/j.ajche.20210904.14

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    AMA Style

    Antonio Fernando Britto, Ivan Costa da Cunha Lima, Andre Telles da Cunha Lima. Influence of Bubble-point Pressure on the Gas Formation in an Oil Reservoir Under Water Injection. Am J Chem Eng. 2021;9(4):101-111. doi: 10.11648/j.ajche.20210904.14

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajche.20210904.14,
      author = {Antonio Fernando Britto and Ivan Costa da Cunha Lima and Andre Telles da Cunha Lima},
      title = {Influence of Bubble-point Pressure on the Gas Formation in an Oil Reservoir Under Water Injection},
      journal = {American Journal of Chemical Engineering},
      volume = {9},
      number = {4},
      pages = {101-111},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajche.20210904.14},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajche.20210904.14},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajche.20210904.14},
      abstract = {To evaluate the oil recovering in a reservoir producing at the bubble-point pressure, we performed numerical simulations using a sandbox model and a black oil approach for the reservoir, and the tool-kit CFD software OpenFOAM. A new solver treats the three-phase dynamics of the oil-water-gas in the reservoir. The calculation includes four cases with different pressures of the injection and production wells to explore the free gas formation. Our results show that even keeping constant the pressure unbalance between the injection and production wells, we observe different dynamics. There is no gas formation and a typical production profile results if the bottom-hole pressure is just above the bubble-point in the injection and production wells. In case only the production well bottom-hole pressure is just below the bubble-point, we see no gas formation near the injection well and oscillatory gas formation around the production well. We see a triphasic flow along with the whole domain if both bottom-hole pressures are just below the bubble-point. However, if the bottom-hole pressure in both wells goes further below, the gas flow rate no more oscillates and the gas formation becomes continuous. We have also treated a special case to analyze the influence of gravity on the triphasic flow. Here we observed the gravity segregation to be not significant.},
     year = {2021}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Influence of Bubble-point Pressure on the Gas Formation in an Oil Reservoir Under Water Injection
    AU  - Antonio Fernando Britto
    AU  - Ivan Costa da Cunha Lima
    AU  - Andre Telles da Cunha Lima
    Y1  - 2021/08/31
    PY  - 2021
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajche.20210904.14
    DO  - 10.11648/j.ajche.20210904.14
    T2  - American Journal of Chemical Engineering
    JF  - American Journal of Chemical Engineering
    JO  - American Journal of Chemical Engineering
    SP  - 101
    EP  - 111
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2330-8613
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajche.20210904.14
    AB  - To evaluate the oil recovering in a reservoir producing at the bubble-point pressure, we performed numerical simulations using a sandbox model and a black oil approach for the reservoir, and the tool-kit CFD software OpenFOAM. A new solver treats the three-phase dynamics of the oil-water-gas in the reservoir. The calculation includes four cases with different pressures of the injection and production wells to explore the free gas formation. Our results show that even keeping constant the pressure unbalance between the injection and production wells, we observe different dynamics. There is no gas formation and a typical production profile results if the bottom-hole pressure is just above the bubble-point in the injection and production wells. In case only the production well bottom-hole pressure is just below the bubble-point, we see no gas formation near the injection well and oscillatory gas formation around the production well. We see a triphasic flow along with the whole domain if both bottom-hole pressures are just below the bubble-point. However, if the bottom-hole pressure in both wells goes further below, the gas flow rate no more oscillates and the gas formation becomes continuous. We have also treated a special case to analyze the influence of gravity on the triphasic flow. Here we observed the gravity segregation to be not significant.
    VL  - 9
    IS  - 4
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Post-graduation Department, University Center SENAI-Cimatec, Salvador, Brazil

  • Post-graduation Department, University Center SENAI-Cimatec, Salvador, Brazil

  • Post-graduation Department, University Center SENAI-Cimatec, Salvador, Brazil

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