T.P.

3309

A SIMPLIFIED METHOD FOR COMPUTING OIL RECOVERY

BY GAS OR WATER DRIVE

HENRY J. WELGE, THE CARTER OIL CO., TULSA, OKLA., MEMBER AIME'

ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION AND THEORETICAL

The approximate methods which are now in use for calcu-
BACKGROUND
lating oil displacement from reservoirs by gas-cycling or This paper treats a simplified method for computing oil
gravity-drainage at constant gas pressure, or by water flooding, recovery when the oil is displaced from the reservoir sand
make use of fundamental relationships derived by Leverett'
by a fluid which, within the limits of accuracy desired, can
and Buckley and Leverett: The mathematical equations needed
be assumed to be incompressible and immiscible with the oil.
are derived by applying Darcy's law to the flowing phases, and
by material balance considerations. In general, any treatment The method makes usp, of two basic relations originally devel-
of this type gives, for any particular exploitation time con- oped for the case of water displacing oil. However, the case
sidered, a plot of oil saturation against distance in the reser- of gas displacing oil saturated with gas at a constant (or
voir. The oil recovery must then be obtained by integrating in nearly constant) pressure may also be considered a displace-
some manner the area under the plot. ment by an immiscible fluid. This is possible for the reason
A useful analytical method has been derived for computing that the concentration of the gas in the oil never changes if
the average saturation, and hence the oil recovery. Use of this the pressure is fixed. Consequently, any additional free gas
method simplifies the calculations because it makes unneces- must remain undissolved in the oil, and so must act essentially
sary any numerical integrations, and even the saturation dis-
as an immiscible phase. For convenience, the case of gas
tribution plots are not needed. A further advantage of the
drive will be considered first.
method is that knowledge of the relative permeabilities is
required only for a limited and intermediate saturation range. Both of the two basic relations needed refer to a linear
In both the Buckley and Leverett method and the method reservoir, or one which may be somewhat idealized so that a
discussed here, a linear sand section is assumed, and in the constant cross-section is exposed to fluid flow. Further, the
case of gas drive the gas pressure is assumed sufficiently con- displacing phase is injected at one end, or face, of the reser-
stant both with respect to reservoir position and time so that voir, while the produced fluids are understood to emerge at
changes in gas density, solubility, or reservoir volume factor one point only, which is the opposite face of the reservoir.
are negligible. Thus, the exploitation contemplates oil displace- As indicated in Fig. 1, the reservoir may be inclined by some
ment as by an immiscible phase. Examples are given to illus- angle e.
trate how the new method can be used.
The first of the required equations may be derived by apply-
ing Darcy's law to both displacing and displaced phases, and
lReferences given at end of paper.
Manuscript received in the office of the Petroleum Branch Sept. 25, subtracting the two equations. The result for water drive has
1951. Paper presented at the Petroleum Branch Fall Meeting in Okla-
homa City. Okla .• Oct. 3-5. 1901. been given previousl)lll> as Equation (13) of the reference by

Vol. 195, 1952 SPE 124-G PETROlEUM TRANSACTIONS, AI ME 91

T.P. 3309 A SIMPLIFIED METHOD FOR COMPUTING OIL RECOVERY BY GAS OR WATER DRIVE

Gas The value of df / dS, hereinafter denoted by j', for any given
injection --.... saturation, S, must be obtained by plotting f as calculated
from Equation (1) and taking slopes from the plot (see
Fig. 2).
____ Production Equation (4) gives the distance traveled by the various gas
of gas and oil saturations in any given time, L,t. The distance traveled, L,x,
is proportional to the j' function, the constant of proportional.
ity being vL,t. Thus, a plot of S against j', such as the one in
Fig. 2, gives also the gas saturation as a function of distance.
GAS DRIVF It is necessary only to multiply the j' scale by the value of vL,t
corresponding to the time at which the saturation distribution
is desired. Thus the curve describing saturation as a function
of position in a core or reservoir at any time during the
exploitation remains always similar except for horizontal
Production "stretching," or multiplying of all abscissae by a constant
~ out factor.
In a system which is being held at constant pressure the oil
recovery can be directly related to the change in volume of
free gas, i.e., to the average gas saturation. In general, in order
Water ..--'" to find the average gas saturation from any plot of S vs x, it
injection has in the past been necessary to integrate in some manner
the area under the plot. The operation of plotting and inte·
grating must be performed as often as recovery evaluations
WATER DRIVE are desired. It is well realized by anyone who has had to carry
through the entire process of evaluation that it is a tedious
FIG. 1
and time·consuming job.
In the event the velocity of the front of farthest gas pene·
tration and the gas saturation at break-through are desired,
Leverett 1 cited above. The result for the case of gas drive, the j' curve must be cut off as indicated in Fig. 2, in such a
derived in completely analogous manner, may be written: manner that the areas lying beneath and to the left of the
original and the amended curves are equal in accordance with
c K L, D. sin (J koil the suggestion made by Buckley and Leverett.' This construc-
f=--- --. (1) *
c +h /LG Vo C +h tion was recently shown to be mathematically valid by von
Neumann* and, somewhat later, by Brinkman.' It is equiva-
The term comprising the capillary pressure gradient has been lent to making equal in size the two areas shown shaded in
dropped from Equation (1). This procedure is usual practice Fig. 2.
in reservoir calculations, and justification will be given later
in this paper. Equation (1) may equally well be expressed in
*Private consultation. John von Neumann also orginated the more
terms of fOil which is 1- f to give: convenient method for determining the point at which the f' curve must
be cut off that is presented in the next paragraphs.
h kOil
fOil = - - + H - - (1a)
c+h c+h
The second basic relation required appears as Equation (1)
on page 109 of the reference by Buckley and Leverett' cited
above. It expresses a material balance over a thin section of
the reservoir. In terms of gas drive it may be written in the
form:
of oS
v-+-=O. (2)
ox ot r---~--~~---------4----------T-------.-~4f"

Since f by Equation (1) is a function of S only (through

kOIl and h), we may write for the first derivative in Equa-
tion (2), 0.4
of df oS
(3)
ox dS ox 5

in which the total derivative dfj dS is obtainable from Equa-

tion (1). After substituting (3) into (2), Equation (2) can
be rearranged and partially solved by standard methods to
give the relation:
oS
I.of-
ot df , o foil~
--=v-=vj (4)
oS oS
ox FIG. 2 - FLOWING GAS FRACTION IN TERMS OF GAS SATURATION,
*A complete table of nomenclature is given at the end of this paper. MILE SIX POOL, PERU.

92 PETROLEUM TRANSACTIONS, AI ME Vol. 195, 1952

 HENRY J. WElGE T.P. 3309

ORIGINAL (1933) length of the system considered increases, the distance corre-
GAS-OIL CONTACT sponding to the abscissa length from zero to I'max incrttases.
That is, a distance scale laid off along the I' axis must be
compressed more and more. When this is done, the saturation
gradient or slope of the 5 vs x curve proportionately decreases
as the system length encompassed in the distance from zero
to I'm.x increases. The capillary pressure depends solely on the
saturation,' so the capillary pressure gradient also will become
of smaller importance as longer systems are considered. Test
calculations have been made in which the capillary term was
retained in Equation (1) for the purpose of c('mparing its
magnitude with the size of the other terms. These calculations
showed that the term frequently could not be dropped if the
systems were only a few inches long, as in the case of cores
intended for core analysis; but that it became negligible in

I MILE ---------.1 systems having the dimensions of reservoirs.

A similar line of reasoning may be applied to any later
stage in the gas drive after the instant of gas break-through.
In this case the saturation and capillary pressure gradients
FIG. 3 - MILE SIX POOL, PERU. will be smaller still than they were before, and hence of still
less consequence;

The cut-off construction applied to the I' curve is analyti-

cally equivalent to the use of an average f' value covering the
gas saturation range from zero to the cut-off gas saturation. DERIVATION OF PROPOSED METHOD
It will be noted further that the required average value of r OF CALCULATION
(see Fig. 2) is the slope of a line drawn through the origin Consider the nature of the f function at a point near the inlet
and tangent to the originally constructed f curve_ This is true to the linear sand body_ If the first section or slice, 6 x thick,
because of the requirement, developed in analytic geometry, of the sand body is very thin compared to the maximum dis-
that the slope of a secant intersecting a curve in two points tance penetrated by the injected gas front, it is evident that
is the average slope of the curve. Since the tangent intersects the slice has experienced a great many of its pore volumes
the f curve at the origin and at the point of tangency, it ful- of gas throughput. Accordingly, the flow of oil must have all
fills the above requirement.
The slope, then (with reference to the 5 axis), of the tan-
but ceased in the slice, which means that I =1 and I' = 0 at
x= O.
gent shown in Fig. 2 represents the maximum value of 1', or A further convenient relationship may be derived from Equa-
I'm.x. This maximum slope corresponds to the highest velocity tion (4) by applying it to the situation near the outlet face
with which any gas saturation moves, and therefore can be of the linear sand body, where x = L, the reservoir length_
used in conjunction with Equation (4) to obtain the time of Here
gas break-through at the producing wells.
The construction of a tangent line like that shown in Fig. 2 1 1 v/:::,.t
indicates the lower limit of saturation below which the plot -=---=--=Q"
of the f curve is not required; hence relative permeability I' 1'(5) L
information is also unnecessary below this saturation. In par- where Q, is the cumulative injection in pore volumes at the
ticular it should be noted that knowledge of the so-called time the saturation,S, reaches the outflow face.
equilibrium gas saturation, or lowest gas saturation at which With the aid of the considerations noted in the preceding
gas can flow, is not required in this method of evaluating per- paragraphs, the desired average gas saturation in the sand,
formance by gas drive. Relative permeabilities are difficult to Say, can be evaluated:
measure in the region of low gas saturation, and considerable
experimental time can be saved if they are not needed. It will 2
be shown later that relative permeabilities are likewise usu- J Sdx
1
ally not needed in the region of very high gas saturations. The S.v=---- (5)
regions in which the f function is not required are shown by x,
dashed lines in Fig. 2; they are inserted there only for the where the limits 1 and 2 refer to the inlet and outlet of the
purpose of illustrating the foregoing discussion. sand. Equation (4) shows that the distance, x, attained in the
The error resulting from dropping the term containing the sand by a given saturation is proportional to the I' function;
capillary pressure gradient in arriving at Equation (1) may consequently this function may be used instead of x in the
r
now be briefly discussed. As described above, the 5 vs curve numerator and denominator of Equation (5) for the purpose
in Fig. 2 will give the saturation distribution with respect to of averaging:
distance along a rock sample or a reservoir at any instant
during the progress of the exploitation. Consider the instant 2
at which gas is first produced; the abscissal position I'm" J 1
Sdl'
will then represent the outflow point of the rock system receiv- Sav=---- (6)
ing flow, or the field position of the producing wells. As the 1',
Vol. 195, 1952 PETROLEUM TRANSACTIONS, AIME 93
T.P. 3309 A SIMPLIFIED METHOD FOR COMPUTING OIL RECOVERY BY GAS OR WATER DRIVE

r
since denotes dl/dS, it is possible to integrate Equation (6)
by parts,
~v
2 2
So/'o - (' l'dS J' d/
- - .11 ' 1 12 - 1
Say = -------
j~
= S2---,-
j,
= S2---,-
j,
,..:
or SOY - S, = (fon), Q, (7) \.L
Equation (7) readily gives the difference between the average o
V ----..,
and terminal gas saturation, so that only one saturation, the ,....: ~
one near the outlet of the sand, need be evaluated for the pur-
pose of calculating oil recovery by gas cycling or gas cap
drive at constant gas pressure,
It should be particularly noted that the product (fOil)' Q,
always gives the saturation increment between the average gas
~
I
L'
.L t---~-·---f'1
>-PRODUCING ZONE

saturation and the terminal gas saturation obtaining near the

outflow face of the sand. Evaluation of this product for any
stage in the exploitation whatever readily permits calculation
of Say, which is the total fractional recovery of oil from the
LL_, _' _' ~J
reservoir.
FIG. 5 - IDEALIZED REPRESENTATION, MilE SIX POOl, PERU.

ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLE
To illustrate the use of the average gas saturation, recovery Fig. 3. The average dip is 17.5°, the average permeability was
calculations made for the Mile Six Pool in Peru' were selected, taken to be 300 md, and the average hydrocarbon occupied
because the results of the calculations can be compared di- porosity* was 0.1625. The viscosity of the reservoir oil and gas
rectly with the actual known behavior of this pool over most were estimated to be 1.32 and 0.0134 cp, respectively, and
of its producing life. A contour map of this field is shown in their densities were taken at 0.78 and 0.08 g/ cu cm, respec-
tively.
The relative permeability functions used are shown in Fig. 4.
It should be remembered that the relative permeabilities as
measured on laboratory core samples should be corrected for
the effects of stratification hefore being used in field calcula-
tions, This factor was considered in arriving at the curves given
in Fig. 4. An alternate procedure that can be used whenever
1.0
adequate core analysis information is available is to make
separate reservoir behavior calculations for each layer.
0.9
Since the calculation of reservoir behavior can be applied
only to flow in one direction, as illustrated in Fig. 1, some
0 .• geometric adjustment is needed to produce even an approxi-
mate answer in a problem of this type. Essentially the actual
0.7 irregularly shaped field is replaced by an assumed parallele-
piped in which the dimensions are chosen to give the closest
X
representation possible. The plan view of the idealized field is
.J
0.6
\ X shown in Fig. 5. The overall length of 2,110 ft shown is ob-
(5

'";; 0.5 \ X
tained from Fig. 3 and is the estimated average distance
(parallel to the formation) from the original gas-oil contact
'" ,\G to the oil-water contact. The length of 1,540 ft, also scaled
0.4
X from Fig. 3, represents the distance along the dip from the

0.3 \ original gas-oil contact to the average withdrawal point. The

latter point or level is taken midway between the producing
wells so that as many wells lie upstructure from it as down-
0.2 structure. The distance of 1,540 ft will be taken as the aver-
age length of the idealized linear reservoir.
0.' The average fluid velocity in the hydrocarbon-occupied pore
space v is obtained in the following manner. The average
cross-section exposed to flow may first be obtained by dividing
.•-----;;0.':-7-~0;:':.6;----;0:':.5----::0.';-.-~0.3;----;0t:.2;---;:i0.~'---1.0
0,'::.0----;;0.9;:----;0:':
the volume of original reservoir oil-in-place, 55 x 10' bbl or
S
309 x 10' cu ft, by 1,540 ft; the result is 201,000 sq ft. The
average withdrawal rate, in terms of reservoir volume, of oil
FIG. 4 - RELATIVE PERMEABILlTlES AS FUNCTIONS OF GAS SATURA- and free gas during the interval 1933-1946 was 23.5 x 10' cu ft
TION EXPRESSED AS A FRACTION OF HYDROCARBON-OCCUPIED PORE
SPACE. 'Total porosity multiplied by the factor, (1 - fraction of connate water).

94 PETROLEUM TRANSACTIONS, AIME Vol. 195, 1952

 HENRY J. WELGE T.P. 3309

per year. Division of this withdrawal rate by the average cross- 0_6 r-----------------------,
"ectional area yields a pore velocity v of 116.8 ft per year
(1.13 x 10-< cm/sec)_
In Table I are shown the calculations carried out in accord-
ance with the relations developed above. It will be observed 0.4
that the terminal gas saturation is treated as the independent

---~
variable in constructing the table. Next the function h is
evaluated for each saturation chosen, and entered in column s
(2). This function is then used in calculating the values
0_2
appearing in columns (3) and (5), the sum of which gives
the value for fOil which appears in column (6)_ The quantity
jUi I is plotted against S as in Fig. 6, which is a copy of Fig. 2
from which the portion of the construction has been deleted
that is not needed in the usual reservoir evaluation. The slope 00~------~0~.2~----~0~.4~--f----~0.~6-------r0~.8.-------~I.O
of the f (or fOil) curve in Fig. 6 (with reference to the Saxis)
is measured with a straight edge for each value of S taken
-
originally, and entered in column (7).
FIG. 6 - flOWING GAS FRACTION IN TERMS OF GAS SATURATION,
It will be observed in Table I that the oil recoveries are in MilE SIX POOl, PERU.
reasonable agreement with the field data. The differences ob-
served are in part due to the fact that the exploitation veloci-
ties were somewhat lower than the average assumed in the
calculations for the first eight years of the gas injection pro-
gram, and somewhat higher for the next four years. The cal- the calculation time for the above example was about a man-
culated gas/oil ratios differ more widely from the field data. day; this time is contrasted with an estimated man-week if
It has been observed, in general, that the flowing gas/oil the conventional integration technique is used.
ratio i, a more sensitive function of the assumed conditions, It is unnecessary to plot a curve showing the saturatioll
sllch as gas velocity, permeability, or geometical complexities, distribution with distance in the reservoir (such as the f' vs S
than is the oil recovery. It may be of interest to mention that curve), since the average gas saturation suffices to determine

Table I - Typical Calculations of Gas Cap Drive Performance

(I) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (0) (Il) (12) (13)
Fraction of Oil in,
Place Recovered Flowing GOR
(Cumulative) (cu ft/bbl)

f
Gas
Saturation
Ne3r
h=
k Oi 1 CI~
I
), t=
1,540 ft
5 av -5, Actual
fOil
x 88.6
h Hkoli Actual
Outlet ka k Oi I (foid, = 116.8 ft/yr = fOi I QI 5av = Field x 5.61 Field
52 (Fig. 4) c+h (Fig. 4) c+h (3)+(5) Qi XQi = (6) --7-- (7) (J) + (9) Data +400 Data
------.--

0.30 0.715 0.00725 0.197 0.497 0.504

0.35 0.364 0.0037 0.140 0.354 0.358
0.395* 0.210 0.00214 0.102 0.2585 0.261 1.875 7.05 0.139 0.534 0.535 1,800 800
0.40 0.200 0.00204 0.097 0.243 0.245 1.81 7.1 0.135 0.535 0.543 1,930 700
0.45 0.118 0.00120 0.0667 0.169 0.170 1.25 10.6 0.136 0.586 0.614 2,820 2,300
0.50 0.0715 0.00073 0.045 0.1l4 0.1l5 0.94 14.1 0.122 0.622 0.675 4.220 2,100
Dimensionless ratios required:
P.oll
c=--=98
p.G
K6Dgsin (J
H= = 248.5"'*
p.aVo
Reservoir oil volume factor = 1.25
Super compressibility hctor for reservoir gas (Z factor) =0.74
Volume Surface Gas Per Volume Stock Tank Oil 850 psi (60°F + 460) I
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - = - - - x 1.25 x x- = 88.6
Volume Reservoir Gas Per Volume Reservoir Oil 14.7 psi (l14°F + 460) 0.74
"Oil "bank" or shock front, occurs at this saturation (see Fig. 2). For all earlier stages in the gas injection program, 52 = 0, and oil
recovery =' 5 a v = Qi. The values shown for f and fOi I (column (6) above) for saturations less than the "bank" saturation of 0.395 are
not required after the position of the bank is determined, and they should not be used further.
"*c.g.s. units will be found convenient for expressing the non-dimensional number H. The c.g.s_ unit lOr permeability is sq em; darcies
x .987 x 10- 8 =
permeability expressed in cu cm. Vo = V 7r = 1.13 X 10-< em/sec x 0.1625 =
0.184 x 10-< em/sec.
, - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - -

Vol. 195, 1952 PETROlEUM TRANSACTIONS, AIME 95

T.P. 3309 A SIMPLIFIED METHOD FOR COMPUTING OIL RECOVERY BY GAS OR WATER DRIVE

Q1
the latter must be calculated by a process which uses the
O.80'!---"!i!-o_--'2:;:.o_---;':3o'----!!=4o'----::;5o~~60~_..:;70~_'1.0"----'.r_0_..:.;100;::--'-1"0 formation volume factors in a precisely inverse manner to that
described above.
07 A calculation made as outlined above for the case including
a period of primary production with pressure decline will be
0.6
subject to some error, for the reason that the distribution of
(\lpper Q i Scale)
gas in the reservoir arising from dissolved gas drive will not
05
be identical with the distribution caused by gas injection at
constant pressure. The accuracy to be expected from this type
of calculation has, however, been tested for the case just dis-
cussed. The test consisted of a comparison between results
obtained by the method described in this paper and by a much
more comprehensive treatment in which most of the simpli-
fying assumptions with regard to reservoir linearity. constancy
01
of pressure, etc., were removed. The latter exhaustive compu-
tation gave a result for oil recovery after 30 years' gas cycling
of 31.5 per cent; the former simple treatment, 29.8 per cent.
The reasonably good agreement between these two figures
suggests that the accuracy obtainable by the approximate
method will be satisfactory for engineering purposes, particu-
FIG. 7 - RESULTS OF A GAS DRIVE EXPERIMENT ON A CORE OF larly if gas throughputs in excess of about one pore volume
BARTLESVILLE SANDSTONE. are considered.
The work described in this paper represents part of a con-
tinuing program relating to mathematical and physical aids
for carrying out pool studies and the associated reservoir
engineering. The method of calculation described above has
been used by a number of reservoir engineers in a semi-routine
the recovery, while the terminal saturation near the outflow manner and has given results upon which economic evaluatio:.s
face (the independent variable first assumed in column I) have been based.
fixes f, and hence the flowing gas/oil ratio at any desired time
during the exploitation. It will also be noted that the maximum
value of S for which relative permeabilities are needed is the
value (column I) corresponding to the greatest exploitation
time (column 8) in which one is interested. CALCULATION OF RELATIVE PERMEABILITY
It is realized that the geometric and other approximations
RATIO FROM LABORATORY GAS DRIVE DATA
required in the illustrative example used are more severe than The above relations are also useful when it is desired to
they would be in many other cases. Frequently the field geom- make a calculation of relative permeability ratio from labora-
etry and the disposition of the wells are more amenable to tory displacement data. The information required consists of
simulation by a linear reservoir. (I) cumulative gas injection volumes at average core pressure
and (2) the corresponding average gas saturations in the core.
If the core is initially completely liquid-saturated, the average
gas saturation at any time will be equal to the cumulative

SUGGESTED TREATMENT FOR THE CASE

INVOLVING AN INITIAL PERIOD OF
DECLINING PRESSURE Table II
Frequently a field has been exploited by dissolved gas drive P-o'l 0.82
for a time before a gas injection and pressure maintenance c = - - = - - = 45.6
program is begun. In this event the calculations are made as P-x, 0.018
before, except that at the end of the computations the time (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)
scale must be aligned in relation to calendar time. This is foit ==
done as follows: In general, the stock tank oil that has been d Sav S"v-S, S,
---
recovered by primary depletion up to the start of the gas dQ, kG 1- fOil
injection program will be known; this oil recovery should he
._-=---
S'II" Q, (Fig. 6) fOil Q, (1)-(4) k,," 45.6 fOil
expressed as a fraction of the original oil in place and sub-
tracted from unity. The so obtained fraction representing the 0.225 0.251 0.1l27 0.028 0.197 0.1723
residual oil, if multiplied by the ratio of the later to the 0.30 0.90 0.0525 0.047 0.253 0.396
initial formation volume factors, gives the residual oil satu- 0.35 2.02 0.038 0.077 0.273 0.555
ration at the start of gas injection. The complement of this 0.40 3.63 0.025 0.091 0.309 0.855
number gives the average gas saturation at the start of injec- 0.45 7.2 0.01l2 0.081 0.369 1.933
tion_ The time at which this particular saturation is reached, 0.475 9.8 0.00778 0.076 0.399 2.79
computed by the method shown in Table I, is then identified 0.50 13.8 0.0048 0.066 0.434 4.54
with the date of the start of gas injection. 0.525 22 0.00214 0.047 0.478 10.22
0.55 55 0.000333 0.018 0.532 65.9
The average gas saturation at later times will not, in this
0.56 107 0 0.56 00
case, be equal to the fractional oil recovery as before. Instead, -------_.' - .-~--.----- _... _ - - - - - -
96 PETROLEUM TRANSACTIONS, AIME Vol. 195, 1952
 HENRY J. WElGE T.P. 3309

100~------------------------------------------~
liquid discharged, expressed in pore volumes. For purpose
of illustration, a typical set of such data is shown plotted in
Fig. 6. The data were obtained by displacing n·decane from a
core of Bartlesville sandstone by nitrogen gas, using a pres·
sure drop sufficiently high so that the end effect, or abnormal
capillary retention of liquid near the downstream core face,
was restricted to negligible importance in comparison with .J
i5
the total amount of liquid in the core.
A typical calculation of liquid-gas relative permeability ratio "-I- 10.0
from the data in Fig. 7 and using the relations developed pre-
viously, is given in Table II. Here columns (1) and (2) rep-
""
resent the starting experimental data plotted in Fig. 7. The
loss of oil with reference to total input (or outflow) will be
equal to IOil and is given by the slope of the curve in Fig. 7;
it is entered in column (3). The k,,/ko;] ratio obtained is
shown plotted in Fig. 8.
1.0
If independent information on one or the other relative
permeability, kG or k0110 is available, the other may obviously
be obtained from the ratio. For example, it has been previ-
ously shown 5 that kOll may be estimated by computation from
the nature of the capillary pressure vs saturation curve'" ob-
tained on a porous material. The separate relative permeabili-
ties may thus be measured, if desired, through the use of two
relatively inexpensive and routine laboratory procedures: (1) 0.10 L.----..J.
a simple gas-oil displacement experiment, and (2) a capillary I0:------------.-:l3i:-0-----------f::------------::!.7'="'0
pressure experiment.'
s

FIG. 8 - RELATIVE PERMEABILITY RATIO FOR A BARTLESVILLE SAND-

STONE CORE.

APPLICATION TO WATER FLOODING

OR WATER DRIVE
In the case of water flooding or water drive, there is present
The method described in this paper can be applied equally in the reservoir an initial saturation of the driving fluid (the
well to the evaluation of oil recovery by linear water flooding connate water). The presence of this saturation alters the
or water drive. In fact, as mentioned previously, it is of his- construction in Fig. 2 in two ways. First, it is more convenient
torical interest that the two basic relations employed by the now to consider the entire pore space as receiving the fluid
author were first derived by Buckley and Leverett,,2 in con- flow, rather than only the hydrocarbon occupied space as
nection with water-oil displacement. In general, all of the basic before. Second, because of the initial saturation (connate
principles derived by them are equally applicable to the cases water) of the driving liquid, the considerations described in
of displacement of oil by gas or by water. connection with the tangent construction in Fig. 2 now require
In the case of water flooding, however, it is frequently found that the tangent be drawn from a point on the f curve lying
that the last term in Equation (1), containing the contribution at the height of the original water saturation, rather than from
of gravity, is of negligible importance unless the angle of dip the origin. In general, this point will also lie on the saturation
is comparatively large or the flow velocity relatively small, or axis, since the connate water is usually immobile. The height
both. This is true because the viscosity of water as the driving of the point of tangency to the I curve now gives the water
fluid replaces the smaller gas viscosity in the denominator of saturation at the outflow face just after the time of water
the non-dimensional coefficient H. The change in the value of break-through, and the slope of the tangent can be used to
6D, the density difference between water and oil, further oper- give the flowing water/oil ratio just after break-through. After
ates to reduce the importance of the gravitation term. break-through, the calculations are based primarily on the
If the gravity term is found to be negligible, there will I curve above the point of tangency, and are made in the same
theoretically be no advantage resulting from injecting all of manner as those illustrated in Tables I or II.
the water at the base of the structure. In this event the calcu-
lations may be taken to suggest that the flooding may as well
be more quickly completed by employing a pattern of injec-
tion wells such as the 5-spot, for example. One possible way
of calculating oil recovery in such a flooding program is to
base the computations on a unit area served by one injection
and one producing well. The distance between these two wells
may be taken as L, the sand length, and the average breadth
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
of the sand' Eection is taken such that its product with L is The author wishes to thank the management of The Carter
equal to the area of the unit considered. In other words, the Oil Co. for permission to publish this paper. Charles D. Rus-
actual pattern unit is considered replaced by a linear sand sell, D. R. Shreve, K. H. Andreson, L. W. Welch and W. A.
section of equal length and of the same average breadth. Bain have assisted with suggestions and calculations.
Vol. 195, 1952 PETROLEUM TRANSACTIONS, AIME 97
T.P. 3309 A SIMPLIFIED METHOD FOR COMPUTING OIL RECOVERY BY GAS OR WATER DRIVE

NOMENCLATURE v" Velocity of gas approach to sand face = velocity

of gas and oil stream after leaving outlet sand face
c Viscosity of reservoir oil -+- viscosity of reservoir
v v"/7r
gas x Di"tance from inlet face of system
Gas density
IJ Average angle of stratum dip
Oil density
1"" Gas viscosity
Oil density less gas density, or water density less
1"0" Oil viscosity
oil density
f Fraction of gas in flowing stream
fat 1 Fnction of oil in flowing stream REFERENCES
g Gravitational constant
1. Leverett, M. C.: "Capillary Behavior III Porous Solid<;,"'
h k""/k" Trans. AIME, (1941) 142, 152.
K ,6.D g sin IJ (dimensionless)
2. Buckley, S. E., and Leverett, M. c.: "Mechanism of Fluid
H = l"aVo Displacement in Sands," Trans. AIME, (1942) 146, 107.
Relative permeability to gas with connate water in 3. Brinkman, H. c.: "Calculations on the Flow of Heterogene·
place ous Mixtures Through Porous Media." App. Sri. Res.,
Relative permeability to oil with connate water in Netherlands, (1949) Al (No. 5·6), 333.
place 4. Muskat, M.: Physical Principles of Oil Production, (1949)
K Total permeability to oil with connate water in 496.
place 5. Rapoport, L. A., and Leas, W. J.: "Relative Permeability to
Total length of idealized sand section or reservoir Liquid in Liquid - Gas Systems," Trans. AIME, (1951)
Cumulative gas injection in pore volumes 192,83.
Fractional hydrocarbon occupied porosity 6. Welge, H. J.: "Displacement of Oil from Porous Media by
s = Gas saturation, fraction of hydrocarbon occupied Water or Gas," Trans. AIME, (1949) 179, 133.
space 7. Rose, W. D., and Bruce, W. A.: "Evaluation of Capillary
Average gas saturation in reservoir Character in Petroleum Reservoir Rock." Trans. AIME.
= Time (1949) 186, 127. * * *

98 PETROLEUM TRANSACTIONS, AIME Vol. 195, 1952