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Abstract

DOI:10.1306/13201135M893366

Relative Permeability Measurements of Gas-water-hydrate Systems

Namit J. Jaiswal,1 Abhijit Y. Dandekar,2 Shirish L. Patil,3 Robert B. Hunter,4 Timothy S. Collett5

1Shell Exploration amp Production Company, Houston, Texas, U.S.A.
2University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska, U.S.A.
3University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska, U.S.A.
4Arctic Slope Regional Corporation Energy Services, Anchorage, Alaska, U.S.A.
5U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors would like to thank Anadarko Petroleum Corporation for providing core samples from Hot Ice 1 well. The support provided by the U.S. Department of Energy and BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. is also gratefully acknowledged (DE-FC-01NT41332). This article is prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor an agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, expressed or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. References herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise do not necessary constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of the authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of the authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of BP Exploration (Alaska), Inc.

ABSTRACT

A primary mechanism likely to control potential gas production from gas-hydrate-bearing porous media is the gas-water two-Previous HitphaseTop flow during dissociation. Gas-water relative-permeability functions within gas-hydrate systems are poorly understood, and direct measurements within gas-hydrate-bearing porous media are difficult. In this study, we developed a new method for measuring gas-water relative permeability for laboratory-synthesized gas hydrate within porous media. The new experimental design allows gas hydrate to form within a porous media and allows the measurement of effective permeability and relative permeability for different saturation values. The relative permeability to gas and water was determined by applying the Johnson-Bossler-Neumann method. Finally, effective permeability and relative permeability data of gas and water phases are reported for gas-hydrate-saturated consolidated Oklahoma 100-mesh sand and Alaska North Slope subsurface sediments.

The results show significant reduction in permeability at increased gas-hydrate saturations. The results also suggest that the relative permeability determined from the unsteady-state core floods is primarily affected by gas-hydrate saturations. Furthermore, effective as well as relative permeabilities vary by the nature of gas-hydrate distribution for the same bulk saturation in different porous media. We believe that the experimental data obtained from this work will provide input data to reservoir modeling, fluid flow modeling, and development of relative-permeability-estimation methods for hydrate production. However, considerable additional experimental and theoretical work remains to develop an analytical or generalized model to predict the relative permeability for gas-hydrate reservoir simulation.

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