This report outlines progress in the second quarter of the third year of the DOE project ''High Resolution Prediction of Gas Injection Process Performance for Heterogeneous Reservoirs''. This report presents results of an investigation of the effects of variation in interfacial tension (IFT) on three-phase relative permeability. We report experimental results that demonstrate the effect of low IFT between two of three phases on the three-phase relative permeabilities. In order to create three-phase systems, in which IFT can be controlled systematically, we employed analog liquids composing of hexadecane, n-butanol, isopropanol, and water. Phase composition, phase density and viscosity, and IFT of three-phase system were measured and are reported here. We present three-phase relative permeabilities determined from recovery and pressure drop data using the Johnson-Bossler-Naumann (JBN) method. The phase saturations were obtained from recovery data by the Welge method. The experimental results indicate that the wetting phase relative permeability was not affected by IFT variation whereas the other two-phase relative permeabilities were clearly affected. As IFT decreases the ''oil'' and ''gas'' phases become more mobile at the same phase saturations.

This report outlines progress in the second quarter of the second year of the DOE project ''High Resolution Prediction of Gas Injection Process Performance for Heterogeneous Reservoirs''. A three-dimensional streamline simulator, developed at Stanford University, has been modified in order to use analytical one-dimensional dispersion-free solutions to multicomponent gas injection processes. The use of analytical one-dimensional solutions in combination with streamline simulation is demonstrated to speedup compositional simulations of miscible gas injection processes by orders of magnitude compared to a conventional finite difference simulator. Two-dimensional and three-dimensional examples are reported to demonstrate the potential of this technology. Finally, the assumptions of the approach and possible extensions to include the effects of gravity are discussed.

This report outlines progress in the second 3 months of the first year of the DOE project ''High Resolution Prediction of Gas Injection Process Performance for Heterogeneous Reservoirs.'' The development of an automatic technique for analytical solution of one-dimensional gas flow problems with volume change on mixing is described. The aim of this work is to develop a set of ultra-fast compositional simulation tools that can be used to make field-scale predictions of the performance of gas injection processes. To achieve the necessary accuracy, these tools must satisfy the fundamental physics and chemistry of the displacement from the pore to the reservoir scales. Thus this project focuses on four main research areas: (1) determination of the most appropriate methods of mapping multicomponent solutions to streamlines and streamtubes in 3D; (2) development of techniques for automatic generation of analytical solutions for one-dimensional flow along a streamline; (3) experimental investigations to improve the representation of physical mechanisms that govern displacement efficiency along a streamline; and (4) theoretical and experimental investigations to establish the limitations of the streamline/streamtube approach. In this report they briefly review the status of the research effort in each area. They then give a more in depth discussion of …