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Recovery performance of partially fractured

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Article in Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering January 2008

DOI: 10.1016/j.petrol.2007.05.008

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Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 60 (2008) 39 50

www.elsevier.com/locate/petrol

Recovery performance of partially fractured reservoirs by

capillary imbibition
Fuad H. Qasem 1 , Ibrahim Sami Nashawi 1 , Ridha Gharbi , Muhammad I. Mir 1
Department of Petroleum Engineering, College of Engineering and Petroleum, Kuwait University, P.O. BOX 5969, Safat 13060, Kuwait
Received 29 March 2005; received in revised form 23 May 2007; accepted 24 May 2007

Abstract

Capillary imbibition is one of the major recovery mechanisms in naturally fractured reservoirs (NFR) where most of the oil is
stored in tight matrix blocks. Most of the imbibition studies of NFR assume uniform fractures distribution. In reality, most of NFR
are partially fractured with various degrees of fracture intensity. Studies of imbibition phenomena in partially naturally fractured
reservoirs (PNFR) are not yet fully investigated. Therefore, this study examines the effectiveness of capillary imbibition
phenomena for PNFR with varying degree of fracture intensity. Fracture intensity (FI) is defined as the ratio of the fractured portion
of the reservoir to the total reservoir bulk volume. Furthermore, the study also sheds lights on the effect of water injection rate on
the performance of PNFR.
In this investigation, a random distribution of fractures is assumed to simulate irregularity in the fracture network. A dual-
porosity/dual-permeability model is used to simulate the prevailing co-current and counter-current flow imbibition phenomena of
the wateroil displacement process. Results show that the fracture intensity (FI) significantly affects the reservoir performance.
Reservoirs with high-fracture intensity are dominated by counter-current capillary imbibition phenomena. Conversely, reservoirs
with low-fracture intensity are dominated by co-current capillary imbibition phenomena. For reservoirs with intermediate-fracture
intensity, both phenomena play a critical role and the recovery is adversely affected.
2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Partially naturally fractured reservoir; Fracture intensity; Capillary imbibition; Co-current imbibition; Counter-current imbibition; Water
injection rate

1. Introduction industry. Performance prediction of NFR depends upon

Characterization and forecasting of naturally frac-
tured reservoirs (NFR) are among the current most
challenging topics being investigated in the oil and gas
Corresponding author. Tel.: +965 4985217; fax: +965 4849558.
E-mail addresses: qasem@kuc01.kuniv.edu.kw (F.H. Qasem),
nashawi@kuc01.kuniv.edu.kw (I.S. Nashawi),
ridha@kuc01.kuniv.edu.kw (R. Gharbi),
irfanmir@kuc01.kuniv.edu.kw (M.I. Mir).
1
Fax: +965 4849558.
0920-4105/$ - see front matter 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.petrol.2007.05.008
the ability to simulate various inherent driving mechan-
isms of the reservoir such as water imbibition, gasoil
and wateroil gravity drainage, and molecular diffusion
and convection. The contrast in capillary pressure be-
tween the matrix and the fractures constitutes the
fundamental difference between recovery performance
of NFR and non-NFR (Aguilera, 1980; Van Golf-Racht,
1982; Saidi, 1987; Firoozabadi, 2000).
Displacement of oil by water occurs during primary
recovery in the presence of an active water aquifer or
during a secondary recovery phase, i.e., water flooding.
40 F.H. Qasem et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 60 (2008) 3950

Fig. 1. Schematic of the counter-current imbibition phenomenon in fractured reservoir.

If the rock is water-wet, the displacement of oil by water
is known as imbibition. The imbibition phenomenon
involves a complex interaction between capillary, gravi-
ty and viscous forces. Imbibition due to capillary forces
is known as spontaneous capillary imbibition or natural
imbibition (Rose, 2001). Displacement of oil from
porous medium by an external force which gives rise
to a pressure gradient is known as forced imbibition.
Imbibition can occur in co-current and counter-current
flow modes. Figs. 1 and 2 illustrate the schematics of the
counter-current and co-current flow imbibition phenom-
ena, respectively.
In these connections, Brownscombe and Dyes (1952)
conducted core flooding experiments on cores from
Spraberry reservoirs of West Texas. They concluded that
if most of the oil is stored in the matrix and enough
volume of water is supplied to the fractures, then capil-
lary imbibition becomes the governing recovery mech-
anism. Capillary imbibition allows the recovery of
matrix oil which cannot be reached by the externally
applied pressure gradients of water flood. Since 1952,
various experimental, analytical and numerical simula-
tion studies have been reported in the literature regarding
imbibition phenomena in fractured porous media. Most
of the experimental studies were primarily concerned
with the imbibition aspect of the flow mechanism in the
matrix compared to the total flow problem in the frac-
turematrix system (Mattax and Kyte, 1962; Torsaeter,
1984; Babadagli and Ershaghi, 1992; Putra and
Schechter, 1999; Graue et al., 2000; Tang and

Fig. 2. Schematic of the co-current imbibition phenomenon in fractured reservoirs.

 F.H. Qasem et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 60 (2008) 3950
Firoozabadi, 2001; Rangel-German and Kovscek, 2002;
Karimaie et al., 2006). Karimaie and Torsaeter (in press)
investigated the effects of injection rate, initial water
saturation and gravity on water injection in slightly
water-wet fractured porous media. On the other hand,
Yildiz et al. (2006) examined the effects of shape factor,
characteristic length, and boundary conditions on the
spontaneous imbibition phenomenon.
The analytical studies of the imbibition phenomena
were mainly concentrated on developing matrixfrac-
ture transfer functions, scaling formulations, and exten-
sions of BuckleyLeverett (Buckley and Leverett, 1942)
approach to imbibition in NFR (Aronofsky et al., 1958;
Mattax and Kyte, 1962; Barenblatt, 1964; Bokserman
et al., 1964; De Swaan, 1978; Kazemi et al., 1992; Cil et
al., 1998; Bourbiaux et al., 1999; Civan and Rasmussen,
2001; Rangel-German and Kovscek, 2002). Reis (2002)
presented analytical models for double- and triple-
porosity reservoirs for predicting the swept area of
water-flood and for oil production rate within a fixed
pattern behind the waterfront in NFR. On the other hand,
the numerical simulation studies have been very helpful
in understanding the imbibition mechanism in NFR both
at single-block scale and field scale. Three approaches
have been adopted in modeling the fracturematrix
system by most of the reported numerical studies. The
first approach, known as single-porosity modeling,
provides a good accuracy in simulating complex fracture
network but it requires very large number of grids, huge
computer storage space capacity, and long computer
running time (Aziz and Settari, 1979; Nakashima et al.,
2001). The second approach, called dual porosity mo-
deling, is widely used in simulating the flow mechanism
in NFR (Barenblatt, 1964; Du Prey and Codreana, 1975;
Kazemi et al., 1976; Bahbahani et al., 2006). The main
advantage of this approach is that it provides tools to
account for the delay of the pressure response from the
matrix. The delay is caused by the fluid resident in the
less permeable matrix blocks. Observed responses of
pressure transient tests and production history in
fractured reservoirs often show evidences of the matrix
support confirming the validity of the models. The third
approach, known as discrete-fracture network model-
ing, is a geometrical simplification of the single-
porosity approach (Long et al., 1985; Cacas et al.,
1990; Ouenes et al., 1995; Ouenes and Hartley, 2000). It
assumes that the spatial statistics associated with the
fracture network can be measured using various for-
mation evaluation techniques. This model requires
extensive computational resources and may not generate
a realistic number of fractures in all related scales. Scarce
number of publications are presented in the literature
41
using this approach to model two-phase flow in NFR
(Kim and Deo, 2000; Karimi-Fard and Firoozabadi,
2001).
Considering all the available numerical modeling
techniques for NFR, a limited number of actual field
studies related to the imbibition phenomena have been
reported in the literature. Kazemi et al. (1976) presented
a 3-D dual-porosity simulator capable of modeling
wateroil displacement phenomenon. They showed that
the imbibition process has a major positive role in the
recovery of fractured reservoirs. They also stated that in
the absence of the imbibition phenomenon, early water
breakthrough occurs due to channeling of water through
the highly conductive fractures. Menouar and Knapp
(1980) also reported similar results. They further added
that the lower the water injection rate is, the higher is the
recovery. Putra et al. (1999) presented experimental and
reservoir simulation studies to determine the optimum
water injection rates in the Spraberry Trend NFR. They
mentioned that as the water injection rate increases, the
contact time between the matrix and the fluid in the
fractures decreases, thereby reducing the effectiveness
of the capillary imbibition. Furthermore, increasing the
water injection rate beyond the critical injection rate
causes high water cut, which results in significantly
earlier water breakthrough time. These results confirm
those previously attained by Kazemi et al. (1976) and
Menouar and Knapp (1980).
All the presented field scale studies assume uniform
fractures distribution over the entire reservoir. However,
in reality the fractures are never uniformly distributed
(Van Golf-Racht, 1982). In this case, the fracture net-
work does not spread over the entire reservoir volume,
i.e., only parts of the reservoir are fractured. Such
reservoirs are known as Partially Naturally Fractured
Table 1
Simulation input data
Parameter
Number of grids in x-direction 70
Number of grids in y-direction 71
Grid size in x-direction, (ft) 5
Grid size in y-direction, (ft) 5
Pay zone thickness, h (ft) 10
Fracture spacing in x-direction, (ft) 2
Fracture spacing in y-direction, (ft) 2
Matrix permeability (uniform), km (md) 2
Fracture permeability (uniform), kf (md) 1000
Matrix porosity (intrinsic), m 0.2
Fracture porosity (bulk), f 0.02
Oil viscosity, o (cp) 1
Water viscosity, w (cp) 1
Fracture intensity, FI 0100%
42 F.H. Qasem et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 60 (2008) 3950
Reservoirs (PNFR). Very few studies on PNFR have
been reported in the literature. Von Pattay and Ganzer
(2001) presented a simulation model for PNFR based
upon perpendicular bisector grids (PEBI). They pro-
posed that with the help of PEBI grid technology,
different areas in the reservoir simulation model can be
treated selectively and assigned fractures, matrix, and
matrixfracture exchange parameters on a cell-by-cell
basis. Qasem et al. (2001) applied dual-porosity/dual-
permeability model to study the effect of tracer response
in PNFR. They reported that the absence of fractures in
certain grid blocks could be modeled by assigning zero
fracture porosity to those grid blocks. In this case, the
permeability of those blocks will be equal to the matrix
permeability. Qasem et al. also defined Fracture
Intensity" (FI) term to describe the ratio of the fractured
grid blocks to the total number of grid blocks.
To our knowledge, no study has been reported in the
literature that discusses the importance of imbibition or
Fig. 3. Fracture permeability maps for different values of fracture intensity (black areas represent fractured blocks; white areas represent non-fractured
blocks).
any other driving mechanism in PNFR. Many important
questions such as what is the role of FI on the recovery
performance? How does the water injection rate affect
the recovery in PNFR? Under what conditions a PNFR
behaves more like a non-fractured reservoir? These
questions are still unanswered and need to be investi-
gated. Therefore, the objective of this study is to find
answers to a few of these crucial questions. More spe-
cifically, the main goal of this study is to investigate the
phenomenon of capillary imbibition and its effects on
the recovery performance of PNFR.
2. Numerical simulation model
An extensive study performed by Arango et al.
(2004) on cores from NFR showed that the fractures are
partially and sometimes completely affected by diage-
netic processes, i.e., secondary mineralization. This cau-
ses irregular distribution and connectivity of the active
 F.H. Qasem et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 60 (2008) 3950
Table 2
Matrix relative permeability after Kazemi et al. (1976)
Sw krw kro
0.25 0 0.95
0.30 0.015 0.68
0.40 0.06 0.40
0.50 0.095 0.24
0.60 0.14 0.10
0.70 0.20 0 0
fractures. The simulation cases conducted in this study
assumed a random distribution of fractures. A uniform
random number generator was used to produce random
points inside the two-dimensional grid (Press et al.,
1993). Several images, each with different FI, were
generated to cover a wide range of FI that varies from 0
to 100%. An FI value of zero indicates a non-fractured
medium, i.e., none of the grid blocks is fractured, while
an FI value of 1 represents a fully fractured medium, i.e.,
all the grid blocks are fractured. Table 1 summarizes the
simulation input data. Fig. 3 displays 2-D permeability
maps with four different FI values.
An advanced 2-D black oil simulator, IMEX, in
dual-porosity/dual-permeability mode, was used in this
investigation (CMG, 2002). The Gilman and Kazemi
(1983) formulation for the shape factor calculation was
selected. A detailed sensitivity analysis conducted in
this work on the grid size has shown that a 70 by 71
grids model in the xy directions yields good results.
Further grid mesh refinement did not significantly
enhance the accuracy of the results. For all simulation
runs, the x- and y-permeability values were assumed
equal in each grid-block. Fracturing rarely increases the
porosity significantly but it may dramatically increase
the permeability to several Darcies. The fracture
permeability was maintained constant at 1000 md and
the total porosity of each grid block was assumed
constant. The relationship between the total porosity
(t), fracture porosity (f), and matrix porosity (m) is
defined as (Qasem et al., 2001):
/t /f 1  /f /m :
The derivation of Eq. (1) is given in Appendix A.
Two-phase, oil and water, flow was performed in each
of the simulated models. An injection well was placed
horizontally along one side of the reservoir, while a
production well was placed horizontally along the
opposite side. Water is continuously injected across the
entire inlet end through the 70 grid blocks. Production,
constrained by constant outlet pressure, occurred
through the 70 grid blocks at the outlet end of the porous
43
medium. Tables 2 and 3 present the simulator input
matrix and fracture relative permeability data, respec-
Pc,ow tively. The data of Table 2 are acquired from Kazemi
4.0 et al. (1976), whereas the data of Table 3 are taken from
2.8 Romm (1966).
1.6 Since the 2-D areal model neglects gravity, only the
0.8
interaction of viscous and capillary forces is considered.
0.3
A convenient comparison of these two forces is through
their ratio. The ratio most commonly used is known as
capillary number defined as the ratio of the viscous force
to the capillary force (Lake, 1989). Putra et al. (1999)
defined capillary number for NFR as the ratio between
the viscous force parallel to the fracture direction and the
capillary force perpendicular to the fracture direction.
They called this number Fracture Capillary Number"
(Nfc).
9:05  105 qinj lw
Nfc r 2
Pc;max km
J Swi Am
/m
where Am is the surface area of matrices exposed to
fractures. They assumed that the viscous force only
occurs in the fractures while the capillary force only
occurs in the matrix. This definition of fracture capillary
number is implemented in this work.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Cases with low-water injection rate
The effect of the fracture intensity on the reservoir
performance is shown in Fig. 4, which illustrates the
saturation maps at breakthrough. The left column of
the figure illustrates the saturation distribution inside the
fracture, whereas the right column corresponds to the
matrix. These saturation maps are generated for the case
of fracture capillary number Nfc ranging from 10 10 to
10 9. The case corresponding to FI of 10% represents a
discontinuous fracture network, resulting in a matrix-
dominated flow. This case represents a co-current im-
1 bibition process typical of conventional, non-fractured
reservoirs. In this case, the counter-current imbibition
phenomenon does not play a significant role in the
recovery process.
Table 3
Fracture relative permeability after Romm (1966)
Sw krw kro Pc,ow
0.0 0.0 1.0 0.0
1.0 1.0 0.0 0.0
44 F.H. Qasem et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 60 (2008) 3950

Fig. 4. Saturation maps at breakthrough, low-water injection rate case.

For the case of FI value of 40%, the water saturation
map shows increased number of water-filled fractures
resulting in slightly increased counter-current phenome-
non. However, the continuity of fracture network from the
injector to the producer is yet to allow a dominance of flow
through the fractures. Therefore, this process represents an
increase in counter-current forces with respect to the co-
current forces. In this case, more surface area of the matrix
is exposed to the flow, which enhances the counter-current
imbibition process. The branching of the fracture network
has increased areally leading to a better flood performance
than the previous case with FI of 10%.
 F.H. Qasem et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 60 (2008) 3950 45

For reservoirs having fracture intensity around 60%, a

continuous fracture channel is formed from the injector
to the producer. In this case, the fracture network
provides minimum number of continuous channels for
the water to pass through preferentially and break
through in short time. Consequently, a small reservoir
volume is swept and therefore a low recovery is achieved
at breakthrough. Under these conditions, a combination
of counter-current and co-current processes is involved.
In other words, the oil recovery is affected by both a
counter-current flow from the matrix to the fractures in
one hand, and a co-current flow in the matrix and a high
velocity flow in the fractures, on the other hand.
For highly fractured reservoirs (FI 90%), the large
number of continuous fractures has caused a uniform
Fig. 6. Wateroil-ratio history.
counter-current imbibition process resulting in delayed
breakthrough and better areal sweep efficiency. There-
fore, a combination of low-water injection rate and wider form a continuous fracture network from the injector to
distribution of continuous fractures is highly responsible the producer.
for better oil recovery by counter-current capillary im- Fig. 6 shows the effect of fracture intensity on the
bibition phenomenon. The low-water injection rate history of WOR. Two observations can be made for the
allows more residency time for the water to be in contact water breakthrough time and the rate of increase of WOR
with the matrix, resulting in more fluid exchange after breakthrough. First, except for FI around 60%, the
between the matrix and the fractures. increase of fracture intensity delays the breakthrough
To further capture the process, the histories of the time. As FI increases, more water volume is required to fill
oil recovery and the produced wateroil-ratio (WOR) as the fractures and contribute to increased counter-current
function of fracture intensity are displayed in Figs. 5 imbibition phenomenon. Therefore, for a fixed flow rate,
and 6, respectively. Fig. 5 shows that a gradual increase it will take more time for the injected water to appear in the
in recovery can be noticed with an increase in fracture producing well for higher values of fracture intensity. The
intensity except for the case of 60%. An increase in FI case of FI around 60% shows different behavior. The
corresponds to an increase in surface area (Am) exposed water in this case breaks through much earlier compared
to matrixfracture fluid transfer. The higher is the value to the other cases of low and high FI. The reason for
of Am, the more is the counter-current imbibition. The this was mentioned in the discussion of Fig. 5.
low recovery achieved in the case of FI around 60% is The second observation from Fig. 6 is that there is a
due to the existence of minimum number of fractures to sharp increase in WOR after breakthrough for all the cases

Fig. 5. Recovery performance at low-water injection rate. Fig. 7. Recovery performance as a function of fracture intensity.
46 F.H. Qasem et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 60 (2008) 3950

except for FI around 60%. This particular case (FI = 60%)
shows a gradual increase in WOR. The existence of mi-
nimum number of fractures to form a continuous path from
the injector to the producer has resulted in a large unswept
area of the reservoir away from the continuous fracture
network. As the time progresses after breakthrough,
capillary imbibition allows the injected water to access
the unswept area through the matrix blocks. This process is
slow due to the low matrix permeability resulting in
a gradual increase in WOR as illustrated in the figure.

Fig. 8. Saturation maps at breakthrough, high-water injection rate case.

 F.H. Qasem et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 60 (2008) 3950
Fig. 9. Recovery performance at high-water injection rate.
Fig. 7 displays the recovery as a function of fracture
intensity at different times. As shown in the figure, there
is a slight increase in the recovery as FI increases, except
for cases around 60%. Fracture intensities around this
value are detrimental to the oil recovery. This detrimen-
tal effect decreases as the pore volume injected
increases. For low-water injection rates, the gradual
increase of WOR after breakthrough is a good indication
that the reservoir is partially fractured with fracture
intensity around 60%.
3.2. Cases with high-water injection rate
The effect of the fracture intensity FI on reservoir
performance for high-water injection rates which
correspond to fracture capillary number greater than
10 7 (Nfc N 10 7), is illustrated in Fig. 8. This figure
displays the saturation maps at breakthrough. Saturation
Fig. 10. Wateroil-ratio history at high-water injection rate.
47
Fig. 11. Oil recovery as a function of fracture intensity for high-water
injection rate.
maps for FI values between 10% and 50% are not
included due to unreasonably high pressure build up
encountered in these cases. The high pressure buildup is
attributed to high-water injection rate in low-matrix
permeability blocks.
Comparing Fig. 8 to Fig. 4 which illustrated the
effects of low-water injection rates, reveals that for the
case of high-water injection rates, the matrix blocks
exhibit less water saturation regardless of the fracture
intensity. This behavior for high-water injection rates
indicates lower counter-current flow imbibition process
due to low residency time of the water in the fractures.
Figs. 9 and 10 illustrate the histories of the oil recovery
and the produced wateroil-ratio (WOR) as function of
fracture intensity, respectively. Fig. 9 shows an increase
in oil recovery with the increase in fracture intensity. For
high-water injection rate cases, the shapes of the oil
Fig. 12. Recovery at breakthrough as a function of fracture capillary
number.
48 F.H. Qasem et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 60 (2008) 3950

recovery curves are similar for all fracture intensities. both phenomena played a critical role and the reco-
However, this behavior is different than that of low- very was adversely affected.
water injection rate cases as it was illustrated in Fig. 5. 4. Reservoirs with low-water injection rate are charac-
The high-water injection rates exhibit less counter- terized by a dominance of counter-current capillary
current flow imbibition process, which leads to lower oil imbibition, delayed water breakthrough, better areal
recovery at the same pore volumes injected than that of sweep efficiency, and therefore better oil recovery.
the case with low-water injection rates. Furthermore, the 5. For low-water injection rate, WOR increases sharply
breakthrough time for high-water injection rates after breakthrough except at intermediate fracture inten-
increases with the fracture intensity as demonstrated in sity. The gradual increase of WOR after breakthrough is
Fig. 10. The timing of the breakthrough is less than that a good indication that the reservoir is partially fractured
of the cases with low-water injection rate (Fig. 6). with fracture intensity on the order of 60%.
Besides, there is no sharp increase in WOR in Fig. 10 as 6. Reservoirs with high-water injection rate are domi-
compared to Fig. 6. nated by co-current capillary imbibition phenomena,
Fig. 11 displays the oil recovery as a function of earlier water breakthrough, poor areal sweep effi-
fracture intensity at different times. As shown, there is ciency, and lower oil recovery.
an increase in the oil recovery as the fracture intensity 7. For high-water injection rates, WOR increases
increases. One major observation can be stated when gradually after water breakthrough for all values of
comparing this figure to that of low-water injection rates fracture intensity.
(Fig. 7). The difference in the fractional oil recovery at
various pore volumes injected is smaller in the cases of Although the reservoirs considered in this work were
low-water injection rate. The reason for this behavior is two-dimensional, the main purpose of this investiga-
that the injected fluid for low injection rates has more tion was to illustrate the interplay among viscous and
residency time when compared to high injection rates; capillary forces and their effect on the performance
therefore, the effect of counter-current flow imbibition behavior of immiscible displacement in partially natu-
process is more pronounced in these cases. rally fractured reservoirs. This study presents a foun-
Another way to interpret these results is through dation to include other important phenomena such as
Fig. 12. This figure displays oil recovery at breakthrough gravity drainage.
versus fracture capillary number (Nfc) for selected values
of fracture intensity. It can be deduced from the figure Nomenclature
that the oil recovery at breakthrough decreases with an Am surface area of matrix exposed to fracture, ft2
increase in fracture capillary number. The increase in FI fracture intensity
fracture capillary number is caused by an increase in h pay zone thickness, ft
viscous force or a decrease in capillary force. IOIP initial oil in place, STB
J J-function
4. Conclusions km matrix permeability, md
kro relative permeability to oil
The main purpose of this work was to illustrate the krw relative permeability to water
interplay among viscous and capillary forces and their Nfc fracture capillary number
effects on the performance behavior of immiscible NFR naturally fractured reservoir
displacements in partially naturally fractured reservoirs. Pc,max maximum capillary pressure, psi
Results from comprehensive numerical sensitivity anal- Pc,ow capillary pressure for oilwater, psi
ysis are presented. Based on observations withdrawn PEBI perpendicular bisector
from this study several conclusions can be made. PNFR partially naturally fractured reservoir
PV pore volume
1. Fracture intensity and injection rates significantly qinj injection rate, STB/Day
affect the oil recovery performance of PNFR. Sw water saturation
2. Reservoirs with high-fracture intensity are dominated Swc connate water saturation
by the counter-current capillary imbibition phenome- Swf water saturation in fractures
non, whereas reservoirs with low-fracture intensity are Swi irreducible water saturation
dominated by the co-current imbibition phenomenon. Swm water saturation in matrix
3. Oil recovery increases with fracture intensity except VB total system bulk volume, ft3
at intermediate values on the order of 60%, at which Vm matrix volume, ft3
 F.H. Qasem et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 60 (2008) 3950 49

VPf fracture pore volume, ft3 Substituting Eq. (A-2) into Eq. (A-1) yields:
VPm matrix pore volume, ft3
VPt total system pore volume, ft3 VPf VPm :
/t A  3
WOR water oil ratio VB
For dual porosity system, the fracture porosity f is
Greek symbols defined as the ratio of the void space in the fractured
o oil viscosity, cp system Vpf with respect to the bulk reservoir rock
w water viscosity, cp volume VB:
t total porosity
f fracture porosity VPf
/f A  4
m matrix porosity VB

Subscripts whereas, the matrix porosity m is the ratio of void

B bulk space in a piece of unfractured matrix examined
c capillary independent of any fracture:
f fracture VPm :
/m A  5
fc fracture capillary VB  VPf
inj injected
m matrix Thus, the pore matrix volume VPm is determined from
o oil Eq. (A-5) as:
ow oilwater VPm VB  VPf /m A  6
P pore
ro relative oil Substituting Eq. (A-6) into Eq. (A-3) yields:
rw relative water  
t total VPf VB  VPf
/t /m A  7
w water VB VB
wc connate water Using Eq. (A-4), Eq. (A-7) can be written as:
wf water in fracture
wi irreducible water /t /f 1  /f /m A  8
wm water in matrix
Eq. (A-8) is none other than Eq. (1) in the main text.
Acknowledgement
References
The authors express their appreciation to Kuwait Aguilera, R., 1980. Naturally Fractured Reservoirs. Pennwell Corp.,
University Research Administration for financially sup- Tulsa, Ok., U.S.A.
porting this work through a university research grant Arango, S., Idrobo, E.A., Perez, H.H., 2004. A new methodology to
(EP01/02). estimate fracture intensity index for naturally fractured reservoirs.
SPE 86935. Int. Thermal Operations and Heavy Oil Symp, Western
Reg. Meet, Bakersfield, CA.
Appendix A Aronofsky, J.S., Masse, L., Natanson, S.G., 1958. A model for the
mechanism of oil recovery from the porous matrix due to water
The total system porosity t is defined as the ratio of invasion in fractured reservoirs. Trans., AIME 213, 1719.
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