Experimental measurement and numerical modeling of multiphase flow in Middle Bakken

Abstract

Relative permeability is an extremely useful measure of complex multiphase fluid flow in a porous media, and much effort has been devoted by researchers to determine the factors that control relative permeability. Nevertheless, detailed experimental data especially for unconventional cores is scant in literature, which motivated this research. Specifically, this dissertation addresses and presents the relative permeability end points measured in two Middle Bakken formation cores for three different processes: oil-displacing-water, water-displacing-oil, and gas-displacing-oil using a steady-state method. The Middle Bakken petrophysical properties measured by Weatherford Labs and by the author are also presented. Finally, two conceptual models were proposed to explain the measured end-point relative permeability, and a 2-D lattice Boltzmann simulator was developed to obtain relative permeability curves of a two-dimensional pore geometry generated using Voronoi grid. The contributions of this work include measurements of relative permeability in a tight shale, interpretation of experimental results using pore-scale features of the cores, and lattice Boltzmann simulation.