Experimentally Measurements of Relative Permeability in Fractured Core

Abstract

Naturally Fractured Reservoirs consist of two systems of flow characterization including fracture and matrix systems. The inter-relationship of the fracture and matrix system controls the mechanisms of the oil recovery from naturally fractured reservoirs. Immiscible displacements such as oil and water flooding in naturally fractured reservoirs depend on this inter-flow of matrix-fractured system and fluid properties. Contemporary understanding of multiphase flow through fractures is limited. Numerous studies using synthetic fractures and various fluids lead to different relative permeability curves. In this work fractured core are used to investigate relative permeability of fracture-matrix system. Unsteady state oil-flooding experiments are performed using brine water and kerosene to determine relative permeability curves. This study revealed Relative permeability curves in fractured core can’t be consider as straight line and have curvature i.e. non zero capillary pressure in fracture-matrix system. The results also showed fracture orientation can affects oil and water relative permeability curves