Effect of temperature on three-phase relative permeability

Petroleum production often involves the simultaneous flow of three immiscible fluids through subterranean porous rock formations. Thermal methods for heavy oil recovery have gained wide acceptance in the petroleum industry. Three-phase relative permeability plays a central role in the analysis of the steam drive process for heavy oil recovery. Some experimental data are available for three-phase relative permeability at elevated temperatures. Unfortunately, no systematic study of the effect of temperature on three-phase relative permeabilities has been reported. This study was initiated to address these deficiencies and is believed to be the first extensive study undertaken to determine how viscous oil-brine-N;Results indicate that, under these flow conditions, no significant temperature effects on three-phase relative permeability were found for a heavy oil-brine-N;An apparatus was developed and subsequently modified for the measurement of three-phase steady-state heavy oil-brine-gas relative permeabilities under high pressure, high temperature nitrogen flooding conditions. Experiments were conducted over a temperature range to evaluate the effect of temperature on three-phase relative permeabilities. The experiments were conducted under steady-state conditions so that instability phenomena were eliminated. Consistent, monotonically changing saturation trajectories were followed to minimize hysteresis effects.