Subventions et des contributions :

Subvention ou bourse octroyée s'appliquant à plus d'un exercice financier (2017-2018 à 2018-2019).

One of the standard methods used to determine capillary pressure versus saturation curves in a sample ofx000D
petroleum reservoir rock is the centrifuge technique. In addition to capillary pressure, modern centrifugesx000D
allow determination of relative permeability using the transient period observed in capillary pressurex000D
experiments - by implementing an inverse data analysis technique, relative permeability curves can bex000D
determined using this production versus time data during this period. The main criticisms of determining bothx000D
types of curves simultaneously are related to the uniqueness of the curves that are obtained. Statoil has a veryx000D
large data base of capillary pressure/relative permeability curves obtained by simultaneous centrifugex000D
experiments but do not know how much confidence they can place in these data. If it can be shownx000D
conclusively that both relative permeability and capillary pressure can be found simultaneously in a singlex000D
experiment, the confidence in using the centrifuge to determine these properties would be greatly enhanced. Ofx000D
all the methods used to determine relative permeability, the centrifuge offers the best overall speed andx000D
precision. Making use of Statoil's extensive data base, and in cooperation with Statoil personnel, a collectionx000D
of data sets that include a wide range of petrophysical properties will be selected. A comprehensive study ofx000D
the performance of a numerical simulator to determine both capillary pressure and relative permeability curvesx000D
will be performed on these data. In this way the validity of the data will be verified. Furthermore, the datax000D
will be studied to determine a protocol for optimizing the quality of the data. The study will be conductedx000D
using commercial simulators, PORLAB© and Sendra©. The petroleum industry is a major source of wealth inx000D
Canada. Capillary pressure and relative permeability are fundamental properties essential to the prediction ofx000D
recoverable oil reserves - any research that can improve the quality of these data will have a major impact onx000D
the efficient and environmentally safe recovery of these reserves and will therefore bring major economicx000D
benefits to Canada.