Deriving the Oil-Water Seepage Pressure Distribution from Two-Phase Oil-Water Flow Stress Gradient

Abstract

The characteristics of oil-water two-phase flow in low-permeability reservoirs have been insufficiently studied. In the present article, we estimate the oil-water seepage parameters using a flow stress gradient model with a nonuniform radial distribution of the water saturation coefficient in a low-permeability reservoir. We apply the oil-water relative permeability curves and the Buckley-Leverett equation to determine the oil-water mobility ratio and the functional relationship between the two-phase flow stress gradient, the radial distribution, and the oil saturation. In this way, we construct an oil-water radial flow model based on the oil-water two-phase flow stress to derive the pressure distribution equation. Calculation results show that there is a linear relationship between the oil-water two-phase flow stress gradient and the oil saturation and a quadratic relationship between the oil-water two-phase mobility ratio and the oil saturation. The strata/ pressure distribution for low-permeability reservoirs is highly sensitive to the oil-water two-phase flow stress gradient, and the effect is more noticeable near the wellbore.