AN EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION OF VISCOSITY GRADING

FOR CONTROLLING FINGERING IN MISCIBLE

DISPLACEMENTS
H.K. SARMA B.B. MAINI

this article begins on the next page

ic -P 7,73 ENHANCED OIL RECOVERY An experimental evaluation of viscosity grading for controlling fingering in miscible displacements HEMANTA K. SARMA and BRIJ B. MAINI Petroleum Recovery Institute ABSTRACT Displacement of oil by miscibleflooding processes is adversely affected by the hydrodynamic instability at the flood front whenever the viscosity ratio is unfavourable. Instabilities cause viscousfingers to grow and make the displacement process in- efficient and uneconomical. Therefore, it is necessary to devel- op ways of reducing or eliminating the detrimental effects of viscous
instabilities to make miscible flooding processes economically viable under adverse viscosity ratio conditions. Grading the viscosity of the displacing j7uids appears to be an effective technique for controlling viscous instabilities.
This paper presents an experimental evaluation of the effi- cacy of graded-viscosity solvent banks for improving the per- formance ofsolventflooding under very adverse viscosity ratios. A scaled physical model with transparent top surface was devel- opedfor visual examination of viscousfingers during solvent floods. Base case displacement experiments were
carried out to quantify the effects of viscosity ratio andflood velocity on the development of viscousfingers and the resulting displacement efficiency. The displacement experiments were then repeated with graded-viscosity solvent slugs to determine the effective- ness of such viscosity grading. Two different methods of design- ing graded-viscosity banks (the Claridge and the Cos- kuner-Bentsen methods) were examined.
Results show that the extent of viscousfingering present and the resulting displacement efficiency, in the base case displace- ments, varied significantly with viscosity
ratio andflood veloc- ity. The use of graded-viscosity banks always reduced, and often, totally eliminated the viscous fingering.
In this study, the viscous target oil was used as an additive for increasing the solvent viscosity. Forfield application of the graded-viscosity bank process, less expensive additives for increasing the viscosity of the solvent will be needed. Until such additives become available or the procedure can be improved upon, the use of graded-viscosity banks in miscible solventflood appears to be uneconomical Introduction Miscible flooding has received
considerable attention in recent years because of its inherent potential to achieve a higher recov- ery efficiency. A 1989 survey by Thomas et al.(') suggests that miscible flooding was the most popular method with operators in the United States during 1980-1981. However, because of the high material and operational costs the process has become less attractive at the current uncertain oil prices. Paper reviewed and accepted for publication by the Editorial 36
Although the miscible displacement process is not consider- ed an obvious choice for heavy oils, it may have some poten- tial in
thin heavy-oil reservoirs where thermal methods are not suitable because of excessive heat losses to the underlying and _ overlying strata. However, in the case of miscible floods, high viscosity ratios between the oil and solvent often result in vis- cous instabilities at the front, and lead to a lower recovery effi- ciency. Therefore, it is important to minimize the extent and effects of viscous instabilities.
Fingers in a miscible flood tend to generate a transition zone at the interface due to mass transfer. The transition zone, whose composition exhibits continuous gradation in
viscosity due to blending, arrests fingering of displacing fluid to an extent(3).
However, in the field it is unlikely that such zone will develop at the initial stages of the solvent injection, and as a conse- quence, severe viscous fingering may occur. In such situations, a graded-viscosity bank can be used to minimize viscous finger- ing. Lake(l) suggests that the concept of graded viscosity can become economic only when the mobility ratio is very high and/or the formation is very heterogeneous. Literature Review Literature on viscous instabilities in immiscible and miscible displacements is quite extensive. Homsy(4) has presented a com- prehensive state-of-the-art review of the important papers on this subject. However, the literature on the use of graded-vis- cosity bank is limited partly because its use has remained con- fined primarily in polymer floods. So far there have been only a few field-scale pilot projects using graded-viscosity banks(i-1).
The first experimental study of the concept of graded- viscosity bank is credited to Weinaug and Ling(l) in 1959 who performed Hele-Shaw type experiments using a quarter of five- spot type model. Later,
Slobod and Lestz('o) reported that graded-viscosity banks could be used to minimize viscous fingering, and suggested the use of a continuous blended zone rather than step-wise viscosity gradation to completely elimi- nate viscous fingering.
Perrine (11,12) proposed a stability theory to optimize the sol- vent recovery of oil by defining the limiting conditions required for a stable miscible displacement and estimated the minimum size of the solvent slug required. Later, Kyle and Perrine(13) conducted an experimental study to validate Perrine's theory and concluded that the
concentration-gradient criterion pro- posed in Perrine's theory was an order of magnitude higher than what was observed in experiments. Board of 'Fhe Iournal of Canadian Petroleum Technology. The
Journal
of
Canadian
Petroleum
Technology

-1cP793

-o/-o-

ENHANCED OIL RECOVERY

An exp,erimental evaluation of viscosity

grading for controHing fingering lUll

miscible displacements
HEMANTA K. SARMA and BRIJ B. MAINI
Petroleum Recovery Institute
ABSTRACT
Displacement of oil by miscible flooding processes is adversely
afJe(,ted by the hydrodynamic instability at the flood from
whenever the viscosity ratio ;s unfavourable. Instabilities cause
~'iscous fingers to grow and make the displacement process in
efficient and uneconomical. Therefore, it is necessary to develop ways of reducing or eliminating the detrimental effects of
viSCD!IS instabilities to make miscible flooding processes
economically viable under adverse viscosifJ' ratio conditions.
Grading the ~Iiscosity of the displacing fluids appears fO be an
effective technique jor controlling viscous instabilities.
This paper presents an experimental evaluation of Ihe efficacy of graded-viscosity solvent banks for improving the performance oj solvent flooding under very adverse viscosity ratios.
A scaled physical model with transparent top surface was developed Jor visual examination of viscous fingers during solvent
floods. Base case displacement experiments were carried out to
quantify the effects oj \'iscosity ratio and flood velocity on the
development of viscous fingers and the resulting displacement
efficiency. The displacement experiments were then repeated
with graded-viscosity solvent slugs to determine the effectiveness 0/such viscosity grading. Two different melhods of designing graded-l-';scosity banks (the Claridge and the Coskuner-Bentsen methods) were examined.
Results show that the extem of viscousjingering present and
the resulting displacement efficiency, in the base case displacements, varied significantly with \'iscosity ratio andf/ood velocily. The use of graded-viscosity banks always reduced. and
often, totally eliminated the viscous fingering.
In this study, the viscous target oil was used as an additive
for increasing thesolvellt viscosity. For field application oj the
graded-viscosity bank process, less expensive additives for
increasing the viscostty of the solvent wilJ be needed. Until such
additives become available or the procedure can be improved
upon, the lise of graded-viscosity banks in miscible solvent flood
appears to be uneconomical.

Introduction
Miscible flooding has received considerable attention in recem
years because of its inherent pOlential to achieve a higher recovery efficiency. A 1989 survey by Thomas et at.'!) suggests that
miscible flooding was the most popular method with operators
in [he United States during 1980-1981, However, because of the
high material and operational costs the process has become less
attractive at the current uncerrain oil prices.

Although the miscible displacement process is not considered an obvious choice for heavy oils, it may have some potential in thin heavy-oil reservoirs where thermal methods are not
suitable because of excessive heat losses to the underlying and
overlying strata. However, in the case of miscible noods, high
viscosity ratios between the oil and soh'em orten re!.ult in viscous instabilities at the front, and lead to a lower recovery efficiency. Therefore, it is important to minimize the extent and
effects of viscous instabilities.
Fingers in a miscible flood tend to generate a transition zone
at the interface due to mass transfer. The transition zone, whose
composition exhibits continuous gradation in viscosity due to
blending, arrest'S" fingering of displacing fluid to an extent l ]).
However. in the field it is unlikely that such zone will devclop
at the initial stages of the solvent injection, and as a conscquence, severe viscous Fingering may occur. In such situ<ltions,
a graded-viscosity bank can be used to miOimize viscous fingering. Lake(J) suggests that the concept of graded viscosity can
become economic only when the mobility ratio i.;; Vcr)' high
and/or the formation is very heterogeneous.

Literature lReview
Literature on viscous instabilities in immiscible and miscible displacements is quite extensive. HomsyH) has prescnted a comprehensive state-of-the-art review of the important papers on
this subject. However, the literature on the lise of graded-viscosity bank is limited panly because its use has remained con
fined primarily in polymer floods. So far there have been only
a fel,.\' field-scale pilot projects using graded-viscosity bankst'i H).
The first experimental study of the concept of gradedviscosity bank is credited to Weinaug and Ling(9) in 1959 who
performed Hele-Shaw type experiments using a quarter of fivcspot type model. Later, Slobod and Les[z(lO) reported [hat
graded-viscosity banks could be used [0 minimize viscous
fingering, and suggested the use of a continuous blended zone
rather than step-wise viscosity gradation to completely eliminate viscous fingering.
Perrine(l),12) proposed a smbility theory [Q optimize the solvent recovery of oil by defining the limiting conditions requircd
for a stable miscible displacement and estimated the minimum
size of the solvent slug required. Later, Kyle and Perrine!1J1
conducted an experimental study to validate Perrine's Lheory
and concluded that the concentration-gradient crilerion proposed in Perrine's theory was an order of magnitude higher than
what was observed in experiments.

Paper re"'iewed and acceplcd for publicalion hy the Editorial Board of The Journal of Canadian )'ctrolculD Technology.
36

The Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology

In 1963, Koval(l4) proposed the "K-factor method" for predicting the performance of unstable immiscible displacements
in heterogeneous media by combining the effects of a number
of factors, such as: viscosity ratio, channelling and longitudinal dispersion_ The K-faclor is essentially the product of two
other factors: the heterogeneity factor (H) and effective viscosity ratio (E)A heterogeneous system as defined by Koval is the "one in
whrch the recovery at one pore volume solvent injected in a
matched viscosity flood is less than 991lJo" _ According to Koval,
the heterogeneity factor is a function of dispersion, channelling and the length of the system_ Empirically. he observed that
the shorter the length of the core, the higher is the heterogeneity factor_In a recent study, Menzie(l5) a bserved that the Hfactor was higher for rocks with higher dispersivity_
When the transition or mixing zone develops at the interface, the viscosity of the oil changes significantly, and in most
cases, the viscosity decreases. Thus, in effect, the oil is displaced
by a mixture of the solvent and oil with a viscosity intermediate
between that of the pure solvent and pure oiL Koval's effective
viscosity ratio takes this into account when calculating the viscosity ratio between the displaced oil and the displacing oilsolvent mixture_ For systems with minimum effects of dispersion and channelling, the empirrcal relationship between E and
V is given by:
E

(0_78

Yo -I-

0.22 V ) ...... _. __ ._ .. _. __ ._. __ ._._._._ .. _.. _._ .... _.. _.... (I)

The solvent mixture compositions of 781170 oil and 221lJo solvent

were chosen arbitrarily as such compositions gave the best fit
of experimental data_
Using Koval's K-factor method repeatedly for each viscosity zone, Claridge('6) proposed a method for designing gradedviscosity banks to minimize viscous fingering in linear systems
and suggested a criterion for the minimum size of a continuously
graded bank:

~ ~~P"

= (1 - IIMD-44) --.--------.,----.------------------.------------ (2)

For a very large M, the size of the continuously graded bank

is nearly equal [0 one pore volume_
According to Claridge, if 0, I, 2, ... were the successive slugs
of the displacing fluid with descending viscosities away from
the oil, the size of a panicular slug can be estimated by using
the following equation:
V

[Mo Mo_' - I]

= _ _ _--'------"------'''----_''----_ _ _ . _________ . ________ . __ . ____ (3)

s1ug

TABLE 1. Typical scaling parameters for Tellus320

oil
Paramelers
L, (m)
L, (m)
h (m)

Prolotype

Model

150.0
60.0
3.0
1406.3
3.0
0.1
1.63E6
5.14E-8

0.50
0.20
0.Q1
1406.3
159.0
3.6
1.96E7
6.17E9

(",I",)

k ("m')
v (m/day)
K, (m'/s)
K, (m'/s)

Objectives
The objectives of this paper were to study how viscous instabili[ies affected cumulative oil recoveries in miscible displacements
of viscous oils, and to detennine the efficacy of viscosity graded
slugs in suppressing the detrimental effects of viscous instabilities_ To meet these objectives, the following tasks were
undertaken_
1_ Derive a set of scaling criteria and use these criteria to design
a scaled physical model to carry out flow-visualization studies
of the displacement process_
2_ Conduct displacement experiments using three different
methods: (a) pure solvent flood. (b) Claridge method and
(c) Coskuner-Bentsen method_
3_ Compare and evaluate experimental findings from the three
methods.

. -'

Scaling Criteria
In order to make this study more relevant to field situations,
scaled laboratory experiments were designed with following
scaling criteria. These criteria were derived on the basis of the
dimensional and inspectional analyses_
Geometric Similarity

L,
[ - L - - ] Model =

[~]

ProLOlype ---.--.,--.-------- .. ----.----

~]

/,-

(6)

>~ '- ":

Viscous Ratio

Model

Ii~

[~]

Pr010L}'pe -----------------------.------

(7)

lis

[ Mn l\:l n_1 ___ M2, lvl l Mo] 2

Coskuner and Bentsen(17) proposed a stability theory for

miscible displacement processes. Using Chuoke's unpublished
work reported by Gardner and Ypma(lB) to account for the
boundary conditions at side walls of the porous medium, they
demonstrated that this theory could be used to predict the initial
length and the upper and lower bounds of the transition region
between the solvent and oiL

Ratio of Viscous to Gravity Forces

r. .

Lx
[

II

110

k g h lip

Lxvpo
]
-------':........:...::_
_.. _._ .. _.. _ (8)
[
k g h o!lt.p
Prololype

] Model

'.
I- ~ :

Longitudinal Dispersion Effects

Upper bound:
.4k [~d"
JlZ

K,

.~g]

h2 L2
_...::.k_.::d~c_~d~c,----_ _ ----:-:----"":-:-___________ . __ . ______ (4)
p. rp 7r1 KI
hl + L~

Lower bound:

.k
.;.z

L,

K,
V

Model

L"

ProlOlypc ------------------------

(9)

Transverse Dispersion Effects

[~~_d~g]
k

de

,
+ L2,

hl L2

de

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ... _.. _..... (5)

h2

Although Coskuner and Bentsen validated their theory by using

data from the literature, they did not report any experimental
validation of their own_
January 1993, Volume 32, No_ 1

K, L,
[

Ll

K, L,
]

Model

Ll

] ProtOlype ----------------------

(10)

For the sake of ilIus[ration, a set of typical scaling parameters

for Tellus-320 oil are presented in Table 1.
37

r -._-_,