Core Flood Simulation and History Matching

Experimental data from most types of two-phase core floods can be numerically simulated and history matched to derive relative permeability curves that account for the influences of capillary pressure. The use of in-situ saturation monitoring has demonstrated that flooding of core plugs in the laboratory frequently results in the capillary entrapment of the displaced phase towards the outlet end of the core plug. This is an experimental artifact that does not prevail in the reservoir and can lead to pessimistic relative permeability curves.

Core flood experimental data, that includes saturation profiles recorded during the flood or a relevant capillary pressure table, can be input to the two-phase, black-oil simulation model called SENDRA. This produces corrected relative permeability curves that are often more optimistic than those that do not take capillary forces into account.

Richard Ashcroft has over ten years experience of performing core flood simulation and history matching (many hundreds of experiments) using SENDRA, both in his former position as SCAL Supervisor at Core Laboratories (UK) Ltd and at Core Specialist Services.