Nominated project: Determining relative permeability and capillary pressure from single coreflood

Premier's Award category: Innovation and Transformation - Productivity Improvement (Resources)

Natural gas production, CO₂ and hydrogen storage in aquifers and depleted gas fields depend on key properties of both the storage rock (its relative permeability) and the fluid (its capillary pressure).

Currently, relative permeability and capillary pressure are obtained from rock samples using different methods, which causes widely reported inconsistencies.

The goal of this project was to develop a new laboratory method for simultaneous determination of these properties from the same coreflood test. A feature of the project is using standard coreflood equipment, which is widely available in the industry .

The steady state transmission test (SSTT) method can be used in future projects including natural gas production, CO₂ and hydrogen storage in aquifers and depleted gas fields.

The main economic attraction for application of SSTT technology is using the same routine coreflood rig, widely used in laboratories of production and service companies.

The project outcome was achieved, with the method ready to use at an industrial scale. Wintershall (Germany) and Petronas (Malaysia) are already implementing this novel and pioneering approach, with improved accuracy of simulations, and is expected to optimise well productivity.

The project coordinator Pavel Bedrikovetsky is a Professor of The University of Adelaide, and a 2008/09 and 2016/17 Worldwide Distinguished Lecturer of SPE (Society of Petroleum Engineers). He is also a Worldwide Distinguished Member of SPE.

Pavel was ranked among the world's top 2% scientists by Stanford University in 2020 (https://research-repository.uwa.edu.au/en/impacts/listed-in-the-stanford-universitys-2020-list-of-the-top-2-scienti)

Keep up to date with Pavel and colleague's work on steady-state coreflood tests

Visit the website:  https://universityofadelaide.box.com/v/Bedrikovetsky

Read published articles about the project:

• Laboratory validation of steady-state-transient test to determine relative permeability and capillary pressure (PDF, 9.1 MB)
  Co-authored by N Hemmati^a, S Borazjani^a, S Yang^a, A Badalyan^a, L Genolet^b, A Behr^b, A Zeinijahromi^a, P Bedrikovetsky^a
  Published in Fuel 321 (2022)
• Simultaneous determination of gas-water relative permeability and capillary pressure from steady-state corefloods (PDF, 2.9 MB)
  Co-authored by S Borazjani^a, N Hemmati^a, A Behr^b, L Genolet^b, H Mahani^c, A Zeinijahromi^a, P Bedrikovetsky^a
  Published in Journal of Hydrology 598 (2021) 
• Determining water-oil relative permeability and capillary pressure from steady-state coreflood tests (PDF, 13.7 MB)
  Co-authored by S Borazjani^a, N Hemmati^a, A Behr^b, L Genolet^b, H Mahani^c, A Zeinijahromi^a, P Bedrikovetsky^a
  Published in Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 205 (2021)
• 3D effects in two-phase steady-state tests (PDF, 14.3 MB)
  Co-authored by S Yang^a, N Hemmati^a, T Russell^a, A Zeinijahromi^a, S Borazjani^a, A Behr^b, L Genolet^b, P Bedrikovetsky^a
  Published in Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 208 (2022)

^a University of Adelaide, ^b Wintershall Holding GmbH, Kassel, Germany, ^c Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran