Simulation of Flow Behavior of Gas Condensate at Low Interfacial Tension

A vertical, long-core experiment of natural depletion of a gas condensate that was conducted by Elf Aquitaine is simulated by an equation-of-state (EOS) compositional simulator, UTCOMP. The Peng-Robinson (PR) EOS is used for phase-behavior calculation. Because of low interfactial tension (IFT) in the measurement, more attention is paid to the influence of IFT on gas/oil flow behavior. Two different types of model are used to compute the relative permeability. Model I is a Corey-type model combined with the capillary number concept. Model II is a modified form of the model proposed by Coats.The simulation results indicate that the effect of low IFT on relative permeability can be reasonably described by the two models selected, although the producing gas-oil ratio (GOR) obtained using Model I deviates somewhat from the experimental values in later depletion stages. The condensed liquid can be a mobile phase at very low liquid saturation, since the IFT is so low that the capillary force can be neglected. The liquid flows through the porous medium under the control of gra vity in this case.