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Laboratory Determination of Fluid Saturations: by Dr-Eissa Shokir PE 363

This document discusses two common laboratory methods for determining fluid saturations in rock cores: retort distillation and solvent extraction. Retort distillation involves heating the core to high temperatures to directly measure and collect expelled oil and water volumes, but can damage core samples through cracking, coking, and destroying clays. Solvent extraction uses solvent to extract and collect water from the core without heating, but more slowly and does not directly measure oil volumes. Both methods use measured fluid volumes to calculate water, oil, and gas saturations based on the core's pore volume.

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José Timaná
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66 views

Laboratory Determination of Fluid Saturations: by Dr-Eissa Shokir PE 363

This document discusses two common laboratory methods for determining fluid saturations in rock cores: retort distillation and solvent extraction. Retort distillation involves heating the core to high temperatures to directly measure and collect expelled oil and water volumes, but can damage core samples through cracking, coking, and destroying clays. Solvent extraction uses solvent to extract and collect water from the core without heating, but more slowly and does not directly measure oil volumes. Both methods use measured fluid volumes to calculate water, oil, and gas saturations based on the core's pore volume.

Uploaded by

José Timaná
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Laboratory Determination of

Fluid Saturations

by
Dr- Eissa Shokir
PE 363
Conventional Core Analysis
• Two common methods will be discussed
– Retort Distillation
– Solvent Extraction
Retort Distillation Apparatus

Core
Heating sample
element
1000-1100 F

Cooling
water in
Cooling
water out Condenser

Graduated Cylinder
Retort Distillation Method
• Advantages
– Rapid (less than one hour)
– Direct measurement of both oil and water
volumes recovered
– Adequate accuracy
Retort Distillation Method
• Disadvantages
– High temperatures (1,000 - 1,100 F):
• destroys core sample
• water of crystallization in clays may vaporize – and
must be accounted for
• cracking and coking of oil
– cracking is breaking of long chain hydrocarbons into
smaller chain hydrocarbons, which may not be
recondensed
– coke is impure carbon residue formed from oil
Determining Water of Crystallization
• Water from pores is
recovered first
– If flattening of curve is not
apparent then estimating
water recovered from pore
space can be innaccurate

• Later, water of
crystallization is recovered
at higher temperatures
– This destroys the core sample
Effects of Coking and Cracking of Oil
• Coking and cracking
tend to cause only part Retort Distillation: Scaling Factor for Recovered Oil

of oil from pores to be


recovered
– We must scale up the
volume of recovered oil
to reflect the volume of
oil originally in the pores
• Scaling factor depends on
API gravity of oil
– Coke formation destroys
core sample
Retort Distillation Calculations
 Vw  measured Vp  Vb    from another source
Sw 
Vp

Vo  Fcorrection  Vo  measured

Vo
So 
Vp
Vw = Volume of water, cm3
Vo = Volume of oil, cm3
S g  1  S w  So Vp = Pore volume, cm3
Fcorrection = Volume correction factor,
dimensionless
Solvent Extraction Apparatus

Condenser

Graduate tube

Thimble and core

Solvent
Electric Heater
Modified from Amyx, Bass and Whiting, 1960
Solvent Extraction Method
• Advantages
– accurate determination of water saturation
– non-destructive to core samples
• determination of water saturation by solvent
extraction can be made part of the core sample
cleaning process for small incremental cost
Solvent Extraction Method
• Disadvantages
– slow (can take several days)
– oil volume not directly measured
• oil remains in solvent
Solvent Extraction Calculations
Vw
Sw 
Vp

Vo 
 W W   V
i dry w ρw
ρo

Vo Wi = Initial core weight, gm

So  Wdry = Core weight after leaching, gm


Vp Vw = Volume of water collected, cm3
Vo = Volume of oil, cm3
Vp = Pore volume, cm3
S g  1  S w  So w = Density of water, gm/cm3
o = Density of oil, gm/cm3
g = Density of gas is assumed negligible

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