Development of compositional three-phase relative permeability and hysteresis models and their application to EOR processes

Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques have the potential to improve hydrocarbon recovery and project economics substantially. Characterizing fluid displacement and the relevant multiphase flow properties are essential to modeling EOR processes to reliably forecast the performance and economics. The spatial-temporal distribution of fluids spans a broad spectrum of composition and saturation spaces. In addition, a fundamental understanding of characteristic parameters of interphase mass-transfer in various EOR applications is crucial to capture and model fluid displacement. Relative permeability is a critical characteristic petrophysical property for modeling fluid displacement in porous media. Also, hysteresis phenomena govern physics of fluid flow in many subsurface applications such as multicyclic EOR processes, geological CO2 sequestration, and natural gas storage. Capillary trapping is the essence of hysteresis to trap fluids. In this research, we developed a high-fidelity computational tool for integrating compositional three-phase relative permeability and hysteresis to assist in accurate modeling of multicycle and compositional EOR methods. This viable tool can be implemented into general-purpose reservoir simulators to model field-scale projects. It consists of an integrated compositionally-consistent three-phase relative permeability and three-phase hysteresis models. The developed three-phase relative permeability model is valid on entire saturation and composition spaces, is simple with one free parameter for each phase, and is versatile for all phases and wettability states. The general model is saturation-path dependent and adopts a linear saturation-weighted interpolation scheme for calculation of relative permeability parameters. For the compositional relative permeability modeling, we developed a general framework applicable to hydrocarbon and non-hydrocarbon phases. The developed framework provides a pragmatic approach for adding the direct impact of composition, pressure, and temperature and is independent of the conventional phase-labeling method. The proposed framework unifies thermodynamics, petrophysics, and geochemistry to enhanced relative permeability modeling. Relative permeability parameters are calculated based on a mapping scheme of current-state bulk and interphase Gibbs free energy onto corresponding initial-state values. We applied the developed framework to modeling lowsalinity waterflood and complex fluid displacement of near-critical fluids. The three-phase hysteresis model provides a general and straightforward approach for calculation of capillary trapping in multicyclic processes. The developed hysteresis model provides a set of cycle-dependent relative permeability curves and applies to any three-phase relative permeability model by incorporating the free-saturation concept. We implemented the developed toolbox into two in-house compositional reservoir simulators (i.e., IPARS and UT-DOECO2). Several synthetic field cases are discussed to validate the implemented models conceptually. Using the enhanced simulators, we demonstrated accurate modeling of multiphase fluid displacement and trapping in EOR processes such as water-alternate-gas injection scheme, low-tension gas flood (i.e., foam), and carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS).