Wettability and Relative Permeability
of Prudhoe Bay:
A Case Study in MixedĆWet Reservoirs
G.R. Jerauld, SPE, and J.J. Rathmell, SPE, Arco E&P Technology
Summary
This paper describes the variation in wettability and relative perme-
ability at Prudhoe Bay. We show that measurements are consistent
with recent theories of the relationship between water-saturation, pH,
wettability and relative permeability.1 In particular, the wettability of
the reservoir changes from water-wet low on structure near the water/
oil contact to mixed-wet behavior higher on structure. Increasing oil-
wetting character is correlated to decreasing water saturation.
Changes in wettability are also accompanied by changes in water-
flood recovery efficiency and are optimum at Amott indices ap-
proaching zero. Lithology also impacts recovery efficiency, with
more clay-rich rocks having higher residual oil saturations.
Introduction
Prudhoe Bay is a large and prolific mixed-wet reservoir. Because of
the economic importance of Prudhoe Bay and because of the variety
of oil-recovery mechanisms operative or possible in the reservoir,
the waterflood recovery behavior has been extensively studied.
Waterflooding has been studied to understand the amount of the res-
ervoir that should be waterflooded or gravity drained through gas-
cap expansion. Expansion and optimization of multicontact mis-
cible gas injection has also relied on a accurate understanding of
waterflood behavior. It has long been known that wettability is a pri-
mary determinant of waterflood recovery efficiency, but reports of
variation of wettability within a reservoir have been uncommon and
largely speculative. This paper provides a case study in which a vari-
ety of data have been measured to characterize wettability and its in-
fluence on waterflood behavior. The data demonstrate a variation in
wettability within a reservoir.
Wettability is defined as the tendency of one fluid of a fluid pair
to coat the surface of a solid spontaneously. Thus, water-wet rocks
have surfaces where the molecular forces between water and the
surface are greater than the molecular forces between oil and that
same surface. Most sandstones are thought to first contain water and
later oil migrates into the rock.2,3 Thus, oil must displace water
away from the rock surface to wet it. Because the force between the
oil/water interface and the solid surface depends on distance from
the surface in a complicated way, in some instances, surfaces be-
come oil-wet only after the capillary pressure becomes very large or
the water saturation becomes small. Because of the complicated
composition of crude oils, rock surfaces, and colloid interactions,
precise understanding of the variables controlling wettability has
not been achieved. However, an understanding of the general char-
acteristics of native-state wettability has emerged.
The wettability in many sandstone reservoirs is characterized as
mixed-wet as in Prudhoe Bay. The distinguishing feature of mixed-
wet systems is the existence of a large region of two-phase flow with
a finite but very small oil flow rate continuing down to low oil satu-
rations.2 This behavior is associated with the existence of thin films
of oil coating a connected portion of the pore walls of the rock.
Mixed-wet systems often spontaneously imbibe some water starting
from connate-water saturation and some oil from residual oil satura-
tion. Native-state wettability, as we have come to know it, has a
broader set of characteristics, features of which are displayed to va-
Copyright 1997 Society of Petroleum Engineers
Original SPE manuscript received for review 17 October 1994. Revised manuscript received
18 November 1996. Paper peer approved November 1996. Paper (SPE 28576) first pres-
ented at the 1994 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, New Orleans, 25–28
September.
58
rying degrees in Prudhoe Bay. Native-state samples have weak cap-
illary forces, with capillary pressure in imbibition and secondary
drainage being much less than that in primary drainage. This is an
indication of intermediate contact angles, (30°tqt150°) or mixed
patches of oil-wet (qu150°) and water-wet (qt30°) regions on a
scale less than a pore. Rocks are composed of different minerals that
are preferentially wet by oil or water; for example, kaolinite clay is
often oil-wet in Prudhoe rock. The wetting preference also depends
on the oil type, with asphaltene-rich oil displaying more oil-wet be-
havior (and the brine pH and salinity) and acidic solutions showing
more of a tendency for oil wetting.
We begin with contact-angle and adhesion data and move on to
more macroscopic and native-state data. Micromodel and cryo-
scanning-electron-microscope (cryo-SEM) work gives pore-level
insight into wettability. Amott data provide a more quantitative,
macroscopic, and traditional measure. Relative permeability and
capillary pressure behavior provides another measure and a tie to re-
covery efficiency. Water- and oil-based-core data extend limited rel-
ative permeability data and provide a tie to other field data, includ-
ing data from pressure cores and an observation well.
Contact Angles and Adhesion Tests
Like most crude-oil/brine systems, Prudhoe Bay crude oil shows
contact-angle hysteresis with water-advancing contact angles being
much larger than receding contact angles. Because Prudhoe Bay
sandstone is primarily quartz, quartz crystals or glass are used as a
substrate. An early measurement of contact angles for live crude and
live synthetic brine on quartz at near reservoir temperature (192°F)
showed a water-receding contact angle of 15"5° and a water-ad-
vancing contact angle of 60° or greater. Long-term experiments,
performed with dead crude oil on glass at 176°F and reservoir pH
and salinity show that, while a contact angle of roughly 60° is
achieved at aging times less than 5 days, contact angles increase to
120° at aging times greater than 20 days. Increasing the pH from the
reservoir value of 5 to pH 8 decreases the water-advancing value to
roughly 50°, even after 18 days. Similar but slightly more oil-wet
behavior occurs at room conditions. At pH+7, the water-receding
values are 13"3° and water-advancing values are 40"5°. At
pH+4, the water-receding values are 20° and water-advancing val-
ues are 87°. Contact angles for stock-tank oil and brine on both sid-
erite and pyrite at 190°F showed oil-wet behavior with contact
angles generally greater than 90°. Because siderite is a commonly
found cementing material, this also indicates the possibility of oil-
wet paths. Adhesion tests,4 while less quantitative, provide similar
information to contact angles and allow for greater data coverage
owing to their simplicity.
Adhesion tests performed by Buckley and Morrow4 have pro-
vided a wealth of information on the pH and salinity dependence of
oil/water wettability. Adhesion tests involve placing a drop of oil on
glass through brine and watching to see if the crude sticks, partially
sticks, or separates entirely from a glass surface. A summary of re-
sults of tests run on Prudhoe Bay crude is given in Fig. 1. Tests run
at room temperature as a function of pH and salinity indicate that an-
aerobic and aerobic samples have almost identical adhesion maps
with adhesion or oil-wet behavior at low pH and low salinity. Tests
run at higher temperatures show less adhesion than room tempera-
ture tests. Comparison of samples with different levels of asphal-
tenes indicate that more asphaltene-rich samples have more oil-wet
behavior. These results are not surprising. Several researchers have
observed that asphaltene precipitation or adsorption has led to oil-
SPE Reservoir Engineering, February 1997

anerobic
Fig. 1—Adhesion maps for Prudhoe crude oil showing sensitiv-
ity to oxygen, temperature, and asphaltene content. Reservoir
pH and salinity are roughly 5 and 0.3 M, respectively.
wet behavior.5-7 In fact, asphaltene precipitation has been a method
of choice for making cores mixed-wet.2 Insight into the dynamics
of fluid flow, along with the influence of pH and asphaltene content
were found from micromodel experiments.8
Micromodel Studies
Low-rate waterfloods were performed at room conditions in two-di-
mensional etched-glass micromodels8,9 to examine the pore-level
displacement mechanisms. Micromodels were cleaned and filled
with synthetic reservoir brine, driven to connate water, and then
aged in stock-tank oil at 160°F. Stock-tank oil was then displaced
with a mixture of reservoir crude and diesel, which has the same vis-
cosity ratio with brine at room conditions as live crude and brine has
at reservoir conditions. Displacements were run with brines of pH
4.77 (buffered with sodium acetate and acetic acid) and pH 8.2
(buffered with sodium bicarbonate); displacements were also run
with Soltrol 170 for comparison.
The crude oil/brine displacements with pH 8.2 had characteristics
similar to the Soltrol displacements. Bulk films of water enabled
chokeoff of oil into blobs, and zero contact angles allowed the clean
retraction of oil from pores where the geometry was not correct for
chokeoff. Displacements run at pH 4.8 had different characteristics.
Contact angles in the pore space appear to have a range of values
from strongly oil-wet to strongly water-wet, with many that appear
to be intermediate. Portions of the pore walls were wet by oil with
bulk oil films in some pores. In some pores water advanced in “neg-
ative Haines jumps,” with oil films surrounding a head meniscus of
water. In other portions of the pore space, intermediate contact
angles are more common, few oil films exist, and chokeoff is inhib-
ited. Regions with intermediate contact angles had higher displace-
ment efficiency with trapped oil resulting only from gross bypassing
of a few pores filled with oil. In a few small regions, water-wet
mechanisms like chokeoff also occurred. In pores with intermediate
contact angles, menisci did not move smoothly but appear to slip
and then stick for a period of time as though the pore walls were het-
erogeneously wet.
Aside from the impact of pH, asphaltene content also impacted
the experiments. Two different Prudhoe crude samples were used,
one with 6.0% asphaltenes and another with 2.4% asphaltenes. The
one with the lower level of asphaltenes did not display oil films and
strongly oil-wet behavior but only intermediate contact angles
instead. Displacement efficiency was very high for this oil, with
gross bypassing being the only mechanism responsible for trapping.
Although these displacements are run at ambient conditions rather
than reservoir conditions in micromodels with pore spaces that only
weakly resemble reservoir rocks, snapshots of displacement behav-
ior provided from cryo-SEM work indicate that many of the mecha-
nisms that occur in micromodels also occur in reservoir rock.
SPE Reservoir Engineering, February 1997
CryoĆSEM Studies
Cryo-SEM work was undertaken to investigate the pore-level dis-
tribution of fluids and to infer microscopic displacement mecha-
nisms and the distribution of wettability. Cryo-SEM entails ob-
servation of frozen fluid-filled samples of rock with a scanning
electron microscope.10 Frozen samples are broken in half under
vacuum to expose a fracture surface running through the center of
the samples. By observing backscatter electrons, it is possible to dis-
tinguish oil/water and rock. By observing the energy distribution of
emitted X-rays, it is possible to determine the elemental composi-
tion and validate observations (e.g., sulfur, carbon indicate crude
oil). Two kinds of samples were examined. The first kind is from
displacements done on very small cores that were quickly frozen in
liquid nitrogen. These small cores were roughly 0.3 in. in diameter
by 0.5 in. long and cut by use of crude oil as the cooling fluid from
the uninvaded center of a bland-mud oil-zone core taken from Prud-
hoe Bay. The second kind is from pressure cores taken for composi-
tional analysis11; these are frozen in core barrels at the wellsite with
dry ice and subsequently kept frozen. Samples of the frozen material
are subsequently cut with a saw and with liquid nitrogen as the cool-
ing fluid. The coring techniques used allowed complete flushing
with water-based drilling mud; therefore, the samples are taken in
a state approximating waterflood residual oil. We begin with the re-
sults from examination of the first kind of sample.
Companion plugs were analyzed in a variety of states, including
initial condition, after spontaneous imbibition, forced imbibition in
a centrifuge at low and higher rates, and secondary drainage. Dis-
placements were carried out in centrifuge at 150°F with dead crude
and synthetic formation brine with NH4Cl added to achieve a pH of
5.5. Observations from micrographs8 showing pore-level fluid dis-
tribution at different capillary pressure levels in imbibition and sec-
ondary capillary pressure curve include the following.
Micrograph Observations. Initial Water Saturation. Oil occupies
intergranular porosity and water is present only in micropores.
Spontaneous Brine Imbibition for 2 Weeks. Brine has sponta-
neously imbibed to the center of the sample. In contrast to Salathiel’s2
hypothesis, there are relatively flat quartz surfaces that remain water
wet. However, oil remains in contact with most of the intergranular
pore walls. Microporous chert grains are contacted by brine in some
cases and oil in others showing similar wetting behavior to quartz. Al-
though one cannot reliably deduce contact angles from 2D fracture
surfaces, the oil/water contact angles often appear to be near 90° or
perhaps the result of pinned interfaces between oil- and water-wet re-
gions, consistent with the micromodel experiments.
Centrifuged Under Water for 4 Hours at an Oil/Water Capillary
Pressure of 0.003 psi. At this small pressure difference, brine has
displaced much of the oil from weakly water-wet pore walls and in-
vades many of the pore bodies. Brine appears to be connected
through intergranular pores throughout the sample. Oil is left in oil-
wet pore bodies and oil-wet portions of mixed-wet pores.
Centrifuged Under Water at a Capillary Pressure of 1 psi. Water
invades all the intergranular pores and oil is left in the form of bulk
surface films and in micropores.
Centrifuged Under Water at 26 psi, Followed by Oil Imbibition
for 24 Hours. Oil has imbibed along strongly oil-wet surfaces and
occupies oil-wet portions of pores. Contact angles appear to be
roughly 90°. Kaolinite booklets are consistently wet by oil for a vari-
ety of mid- and upstructure samples.
Centrifuged Under Water for 4 Hours at 0.004 psi, Followed by
Centrifuging Under Oil for 4 Hours at 0.004 psi. Oil occupies
much of the intergranular porosity, with some water in the strongly
water-wet portions of mixed-wet pores. A slight increase in oil pres-
sure is enough to cause oil to invade much of the pore space, consis-
tent with contact angles near 90°.
Centrifuged Under Water for 4 Hours, Then Oil for 4 hours,
Each at 1 psi. Oil occupies most of the pore bodies, with some wa-
ter-wet portions of pores remaining covered by water, including
some chert and some quartz surfaces.
Centrifuged Under Water at 5 psi for 24 Hours, Then Oil for 24
Hours at 5 psi. No water is visible in intergranular porosity indicat-
59

Fig. 2—Amott wettability data for Prudhoe Bay. Diamonds+oil
base, room temperature; squares+bland, room temperature; cir-
cles+bland, reservoir temperature; solid symbols are upstruc-
ture; open symbols are downstructure; WWW+weakly water wet;
and WOW+weakly oil wet.
ing that there were paths for water to drain from system. Note that
we have not observed water trapped in blobs as one might have ex-
pected in an oil-wet sample, i.e. there is no evidence of trapped wa-
ter, sometimes mentioned as a characteristic of mixed-wet behavior.
In addition to these results, we determined that oil is trapped in
microporous chert by detecting the sulfur peak in the energy disper-
sive X-ray spectrum. The very few observations of siderite available
indicated it to be oil wet. Cleaned (ozone plasma) Prudhoe sand-
stone samples saturated with refined oil displayed strongly water-
wet behavior. Micrographs of samples centrifuged under water
showed residual oil blobs in intergranular porosity and some within
kaolinite booklets.8,12
These data pertain to a particular set of samples taken from the
same structural location in a downstructure well more than 100 ft
above the oil/water contact. As we will see later, the wettability ap-
pears to depend on the height above oil/water contact or on initial wa-
ter saturation. With this in mind and in the hope of getting an indepen-
dent type of sample flooded at reservoir temperature and pressure, we
analyzed pressure cores taken at various structural locations.
Pressure-core samples were available from a location very high
on structure with initial water saturations approaching 5%; a more
midstructure location, roughly 140 ft above the water/oil contact;
and a sample lower on structure, roughly 75 ft above the oil/water
contact. These samples show evidence of a wettability transition
within the field, with water-wet behavior in the downstructure well
and mixed-wet behavior upstructure.
The downstructure pressure core showed classic residual oil
blobs and no evidence of oil-wetting quartz, chert, or kaolinite. Bulk
water films could be seen surrounding the residual oil and are simi-
lar to the ozone-cleaned sample. The midstructure sample had little
oil in intergranular porosity, with some droplets of oil present on the
surfaces of chert and quart grains. Kaolinite had films of oil and
possibly oil globules. The upstructure sample showed similar fea-
tures to the midstructure sample, with no oil visible in intergranular
porosity and oil in kaolinite booklets. Interpretation of differences
from the midstructure is difficult because much of the oil is present
in micropores that are below the resolution of the microscope used.
Although Cryo-SEM results are insightful, Amott tests provide a
more macroscopic and quantitative measure of wettability.
Amott Wettability Tests
The Amott wettability test13 entails measuring (1) the amount of wa-
ter spontaneously imbibed from connate-water saturation, DSwsp , (2)
the amount of oil that can be subsequently displaced, DSwdisp , (3) the
amount of oil that is spontaneously imbibed from residual oil, DSosp ,
and (4) the amount of water that can be displaced by oil, DSodisp . The
60
Fig. 3—Amott wettability tests showing the dependence of wet-
tability on subsea depth. Data show a trend toward water-wet be-
havior near the heavy oil tar (HOT) mat and more oil-wet behavior
upstructure. Error bars do not show uncertainty; upper error bar
shows water Amott index, and lower error bar shows oil Amott
index.
Amott index of a phase is defined by the ratio the volume sponta-
neously imbibed to the sum of that imbibed and forced; i.e., Iw +
DSwsp /(DSwsp )DSwdisp ), Io +DSosp /(D Sosp )DSodisp ). These in-
dices are indicators of the amount of water- and oil-wet surfaces.
Many rocks imbibe neither phase and are said to be intermediate wet.
Because surfaces are water wet, oil wet, or intermediate wet, it is ap-
propriate to plot wettability data on a ternary diagram. Fig. 2 shows
that available wettability data for Prudhoe Bay have a wide degree of
variability. Much of the data are toward the center to upper portion of
the diagram, indicating mixed- to intermediate-wet behavior. Some
data show water-wet behavior and other more oil-wet behavior. The
factors identified as possible sources of uncertainty or variation in
wettability tests are (1) type of displacement, (2) type of mud used in
coring, (3) temperature, (4) initial water saturation level, and (5) time
between coring operation and test. These factors were investigated,
and only initial water saturation and/or height above oil/water contact
were found to be an important source of variability.8 Amott test re-
sults from bland and oil-based mud cores at reservoir temperature and
ambient temperature are shown in Fig. 3. All the data show intermedi-
ate- to mixed-wet behavior in the up- to midstructure regions tending
toward water-wet behavior near the water/oil contact.
Although, correlating Amott data with height above the oil/water
contact (a measure of capillary pressure level) is insightful, correlat-
ing wettability with initial water saturation is another viable meth-
od. Fig. 4 shows that there is a strong correlation between initial wa-
ter saturation and Amott wettability index, with more water-wet
Fig. 4—Top dependence of wettability index on initial water satu-
ration for Prudhoe Bay.
SPE Reservoir Engineering, February 1997
 k+223, f+0.257

Fig. 5—Typical hysteresis patterns for mixed-wet oil/water capil-

lary pressure; tests were run near reservoir temperature with
dead crude oil, a preserved sample, and the centrifuge method.

behavior at higher initial water saturations. The trends in these data

are essentially the same as those observed by Jadhunandan and Mor-
row1 in Berea sandstone and lend credence to the idea that the de-
pendence of wettability on initial water saturation is a common fea-
ture of many mixed-wet systems. Because each data point is a
different core plug and initial water saturations are not exactly those
in the reservoir (but are attained instead by centrifuge or displace-
ment experiments), the scatter in the Prudhoe data is considerably
larger than that found in their work. Some of the data may incur sig-
nificant mass-balance error, as indicated by the near-zero water sat-
urations, or be affected by other artifacts.8
Capillary Pressure and Relative Permeability Behavior
An alternative to Amott data is to measure imbibition and drainage
capillary pressure curves. Unfortunately, there are little of these data
available for Prudhoe Bay. Fig. 5 shows an example of the data that
are available. The behavior is as indicated in the Cryo-SEM discus-
sion earlier. Capillary pressures in imbibition and secondary drain-
age are small, indicating effective contact angles near 90°. There is
also hysteresis between imbibition and secondary drainage, indica-
tive of contact-angle hysteresis. This figure also shows the low re-
sidual oil saturations, significantly less than 20%, reached in centri-
fuge experiments. This level of remaining oil saturation is not
attained in usual displacement experiments. Remaining oil satura-
tions somewhat larger than 20% after 5 PV of throughput are typical
with continued production of small amounts of oil for much greater
pore volumes (PV’s) of throughput—the characteristic mixed-wet
behavior described by Salathiel.2
Fig. 6 shows relative permeability curves measured on preserved
reservoir samples taken from a range of structural locations ranging
from mid- to downstructure and having the associated wettabilities.
The initial water saturations plotted with the data are representative
of the structural location and the wettability of the samples. These
data have been high graded to include only what is believed to be
highest quality data measured for Prudhoe Bay. All the tests were
run on preserved bland-mud cores. All samples are sandstone and
at least 8 in. in length. All the measurements, except two that were
run on vertical whole cores and showed similar behavior, were taken
on composites of four or five horizontal core plugs. Composites are
used because they are believed to be least impacted by core-scale
heterogeneities, are more precise data because the PV and pressure
drop are both larger (and therefore saturation and relative perme-
ability are known more accurately), and are least impacted by capil-
lary and inlet end effects. Some data from unsteady-state tests at low
water saturations was omitted in the plot because these are believed
to be strongly impacted by core heterogeneities. All experiments
were run at reservoir temperature with reservoir crude and, except
for the two vertical whole-core samples, were run with live fluids.
Fig. 6—Laboratory relative permeability data for Prudhoe Bay;
bold lines+correlation for various initial water saturations
(Swi +0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.38, 0.43) and stars+water relative perme-
ability endpoints from upstructure core plugs.
The data include steady- and unsteady-state experiments that agree
to within the accuracy of the techniques used. Cross comparisons of
data on companion samples from three different laboratories show
results that are the same to within the typical sample-to-sample vari-
ation of 0.05 to 0.07 saturation unit (s.u.). There is also a set of four
water relative permeability endpoints (stars) that are of much lower
quality than the remainder of the database. These are displacements
run on plugs with dead fluids but are the only upstructure data avail-
able (Swi +0.1 for these samples).
Trends in relative permeability and wettability coincide. Samples
taken higher on structure that have low initial water saturations appear
to be more oil-wet and have more oil-wet relative permeability than
those taken low on structure with higher connate-water saturations.
They show the trends generally ascribed to the variation of relative
permeability with wettability.14 Water-wet behavior is associated
with lower water relative permeability and larger oil relative perme-
ability and, consequently, the ratio of water relative permeability to
oil relative permeability is smaller in more water-wet samples.
We have presented only the highest-quality experiments available
to eliminate difficulties with experimental technique because exper-
imental uncertainties in the larger available database swamp the
trends that can be found in the data. Because of the expense associated
with taking these data, there are very few samples to choose from and
discerning trends with wettability or initial water saturation apart
from other lithological variations (e.g., variations in clay and micro-
porous chert content) is difficult. To get a better statistical impression
of the impact of structural location and initial water saturation on wa-
terflood displacement efficiency, we have examined water-based-
core oil saturations and oil-based-core initial water saturations.
Sor and Swi From Routine Core Data
To understand the residual oil saturation data, it is necessary to begin
with an explanation of the initial water saturation distribution at Prud-
hoe Bay, which is given in detail elsewhere.15 Upstructure portions
of Prudhoe Bay have lower water saturations than conventional J-
function analysis would predict. This is thought to have occurred be-
cause the northeast end of the field was once higher and had a much
greater oil column thickness than it does today (greater than 1,000 ft
vs. the 400-ft oil-column found at discovery). More recently, this area
flattened relative to the west end of the field because of increased

SPE Reservoir Engineering, February 1997 61

Fig. 7—Effective residual oil endpoints (5 to 10 PV) from conven-
tional cores flushed with mud filtrate as a function of subsea
depth from oil zone. Values corrected for bleeding and shrink-
age. Data are from all zones and have been high graded to ex-
clude samples of less than 10 md and tar-zone cores. The solid
line is from regression of all the data.
Fig. 8—Effective residual oil endpoint from water-based core
from a well. Data points indicate Zones 1B (open triangles), 2A
(solid diamonds), 2B (open triangles), 2C (open diamonds), 3
(solid triangles), and 4A (crosses). Solid round symbols are re-
sidual oil saturations from corefloods, and line is from regres-
sion of all water-based-core data.

overburden.15 Oil spilled out of the east end of the reservoir and into
the west end with water encroaching underneath. Although this geo-
logic event occurred roughly 22 million years ago, calculations indi-
cate that the water saturation in regions more than 2 miles away from
the present-day oil/water contact have not risen substantially from the
ancient values.15 The implication of these observations is that not
only do water saturations vary a large amount within the field, they
cannot be predicted from standard J-function analysis. Oil-based-
core values are used to estimate initial water saturations.
Waterflood behavior can be evaluated with water-based-core data
to estimate residual oil saturation and oil-based-core initial water sat-
urations. In using these estimates, one assumes that the flushing of
cores with water-based-mud filtrate, which occurs during the coring
operation, simulates waterflooding. A surfacing correction must be
applied to measured oil saturations to estimate in-situ saturations be-
cause, the pressure within the core decreases as conventional core is
brought to the surface, causing decreased liquid saturations. Oil-
zone-core oil saturations must be adjusted to reservoir conditions by

(a)

(b)

Fig. 9—(a) Comparison of endpoints from laboratory corefloods (nontriangular data), pressure
cores (triangles), mean of water-based-core data (dashed line), and single-well tracer tests (bold
solid lines). Laboratory corefloods, steady- and unsteady-state endpoints, and water-based-core
data agree. (b) Comparison of log estimates of residual oil saturation from DS 13–98 observation
well with regression line through water-based-core data.

62 SPE Reservoir Engineering, February 1997

 (a)
(b)
Fig. 10—Water-based-core residual oil vs. subsea depth; (a) Zone
4 and (b) Zone 1, where different data points show data from four
wells in upstructure region with large residual oil saturations.
multiplying by a formation volume factor and a bleeding correction
factor of 1.1.16 The residual oil saturation obtained from this proce-
dure is an effective residual oil saturation that corresponds to 5 to 10
PV of throughput. This is the level often achieved in laboratory water-
floods but is on the order of 10 s.u. larger than the ultimate residual
oil saturation achieved in centrifuge experiments. The data presented
below have been high graded to exclude samples of less than 10 md
or 10 p.u. to avoid samples that have not been extensively flushed
with water. This also excludes nonpay from the database. Tar-zone
and gas-cap core has also been excluded.
Fig. 7 shows a plot of residual oil vs. subsea depth for all zones.
Thirty-nine cored wells from the main part of Prudhoe Bay were used
to generate this plot and those discussed later. The data in this plot dis-
play a fair degree of scatter but show a clear decrease in residual oil
saturation with depth. The standard deviation about the mean is
approximately 6 to 8% and deviation about the mean is approximate-
ly Gaussian. The origin of the deviation appears to be both exper-
imental uncertainty, which on the basis of other studies is expected to
be 2 to 5%, and variations in rock structure. Because the number of
data points is large, the confidence interval on the mean behavior is
much less than 1%. Therefore, the approximately 10% variation in the
mean residual oil saturation over the oil column is statistically signifi-
cant. This trend occurs in data from single wells and within particular
zones (see Fig. 8). The variation in residual oil within a well is compa-
rable with the well-to-well variation (at a given height above oil/water
contact and zone) and varies between zones.
Fig. 9 shows a more comprehensive comparison of the mean of the
water-based-core data with laboratory and other field data. The data
agree to within the variation in the water-based-core data. The final
saturations recorded in the corefloods are plotted and represent many
PV’s of throughput. Pressure-core results show that the formation
volume factor and bleeding corrections are reasonably accurate.
Single-well tracer tests are also in good agreement with both the labo-
ratory corefloods and the water-based-core data. The log estimates of
residual oil saturation from the DS 13-98 fiberglass-cased observa-
tion well are also indicated on this figure. These data are slightly high-
er than the average of water-based-core data and correspond to satura-
tions at a point shortly after the front has passed rather than the
average saturations after 5 PV of throughput. Note that the log data
are on a larger scale than core-plug data (because they are averages
over 4-ft intervals) but show variability very similar to that on the
core-plug scale of "5 s.u. In summary, water-based-core residual oil
corrected for bleeding and shrinkage is in good agreement with labo-
ratory corefloods and other field measures.
A portion of this dependence of residual oil on height can be ex-
plained by the dependence of residual oil saturation on connate-wa-
ter saturation, but this does not account for all the variation. Fig. 10
shows the average dependence of residual on subsea depth for
SPE Reservoir Engineering, February 1997
Fig. 11—Dependence of effective residual oil saturation (5 PV of
throughput) and displacement efficiency on initial oil saturation
calculated from water- and oil-based-core data correlated as a
function of subsea depth and crossplotted.
Zones 1 and 4. There are clear differences between the mean trends
and the trends within Zones 1 and 4. Data from Zone 1, the bottom
zone, show very large residuals high on structure, and data from
Zone 4, the top zone, show less dependence of residual oil on subsea
depth than other zones. Differences between Zones 1 and 4 may be
rationalized on the basis of initial water saturation. Similar analysis
for Zones 2, 3, and 4 demonstrates differences between these zones.
Zone 3 has a lower residual oil saturation than Zones 2 and 4, while
there is more variation in the residual oil in Zone 2 than 4. Fig. 11
shows a crossplot of residual oil saturation derived from water-
based cores and initial oil saturation derived from oil-based cores,
each correlated as a function of subsea depth. This figure shows that
Zone 1 and 4 data are virtually the same in the region of overlap of
their initial saturations. However, Zones 2 and 3 have lower residual
oil saturations and higher recovery efficiencies.
To develop a method of interrelating lithology and residual oil
saturation, we have used the log-based estimates of lithology used
for permeability estimation. Gamma ray and sonic logs are used to
estimate clay volume and clay-corrected porosity. On the basis of
these values and the zone in which the rocks occur, an initial esti-
mate of the lithology is given. These initial estimates are edited ac-
cording to some geologic sequencing concepts to arrive at a final es-
timate of lithology. We have arrived at four: very fine-grained
sandstone, fine-grained sandstone, medium- to coarse-grained
sandstone, and conglomerate. Sandstones are distinguished from
each other on the basis of the amount of clay estimated from gamma
ray logs; finer-grained samples have more clay, and conglomerates
have low porosity and clay volume. This lithology classification
was not available on all wells; therefore, the database is smaller for
this analysis, which did not include upstructure wells. Fig. 12 shows
the relationship between residual and initial oil saturations found by
crossplotting regressions of water- and oil-based-core analysis cor-
related as a function of subsea depth for each lithology. The results
show that, at a given initial oil saturation, very-fine-grained sand-
stones have higher residual oil saturations than do fine-grained
sandstones, which in turn have higher residual oil saturations than
coarse-grained sandstones. The difference in results between fine-
grained and very-fine-grained sandstones, however, is very small,
roughly 1 s.u. The difference between the fine-grained and medium-
to coarse-grained sandstones is somewhat larger, on the order of 4
s.u. The residual oil saturation for conglomerates is anywhere from
0 to 5 units lower than the residuals of medium-grained sandstone.
Results for Zones 1 and 4 compare well with results for sandstones
because these are primarily for sandstone. The results for Zones 2
and 3 are between medium-grained sandstone and conglomerates
because these are the primary lithologies in these zones, with more
conglomerates in Zone 3. Thus, lithology seems to influence the re-
sidual oil in a zone strongly. Analysis of oil/water centrifuge experi-
63

Fig. 12—Correlation of effective residual oil saturation (after 5 to
10 PV of throughput) to initial oil saturation, with both correlated
as a function of subsea depth and crossplotted. Lithologies are
classified by use sonic and gamma ray logs to estimate porosity
and clay volume, with lithology is estimated from the relative
amounts.
ments also shows a 7% larger residual oil in sandstones than in con-
glomerates. Given the Cryo-SEM results that show oil sticking to
kaolinite, it is reasonable to expect residual oil saturations to be
higher in more-clay-rich rocks.
Another approach to understanding the dependence of residual
oil saturation on wettability is to assume that the correlation of wet-
tability with initial water saturation is accurate for all lithologies and
to plot recovery efficiency vs. initial water saturation. Fig. 13 shows
that such a plot is similar to data for Berea sandstone,1 displaying
a maximum in recovery efficiency near an Amott index of zero.
Discussion
The pH at Prudhoe Bay is in the range of 5 to 6 owing to the high
CO2 content of the hydrocarbons, and the salinity is approximately
0.3 M. These factors place the reservoir at the transition between
stick and nonstick in the adhesion diagrams; therefore, the adhesion
experiments are not inconsistent with field observations. Moreover,
because theoretical arguments18,19 indicate that more oil-wet be-
havior should occur at higher capillary pressure levels, one might
argue that to see a transition within the reservoir one should see non-
stick behavior at reservoir pH, salinity, and temperature and that the
data are consistent. Because asphaltene content increases with
depth (asphaltenes being heavy molecules) and the most water-wet
behavior occurs at portions where asphaltene content is largest, it is
apparent that the asphaltene content of the oil is of second order
compared with water saturation. In addition, because the salinity of
brine is slightly higher in the upstructure area of the field, it also ap-
pears that salinity may also be of secondary importance. Water satu-
ration appears to be of overriding importance.
It is clear from these observations that, in restored-state relative
permeability work, pH, salinity, and initial water saturation must be
restored along with crude-oil composition to ensure representative
reservoir wettability. The observations involving initial water satu-
ration also indicate that driving cores to low initial water saturations
before measuring relative permeability is a poor practice in many
situations. To determine waterflood performance unambiguously,
uninvaded cores are recommended.20
The results also indicate that relative permeability correlations
should include dependencies on initial water saturation. To match
the data presented here adequately, it was necessary to include
Corey exponents and other parameters that depend on wettability
rather than simple endpoint or dimensionless saturation scaling. Ad-
equate representation of relative permeability also requires parame-
terization of the impact of clay content on relative permeability.
64
Fig. 13—Recovery efficiency predicted from water- and oil-
based cores and average dependence of wettability on initial
water saturation.
Conclusions
1. Wettability and relative permeability depend on initial water sat-
uration at Prudhoe Bay, with more water-wet conditions at high initial
water saturations trending toward mixed- to oil-wet behavior at low
water saturations. The dependence of wettability on initial water satu-
ration is consistent with observations of Morrow and co-workers.
2. Micromodel work and adhesion tests demonstrate that pH and
asphaltene content influence wettability. At the low pH in the reser-
voir, adhesion and micromodel tests show stick behavior, whereas
the data show nonstick or more water-wet behavior at higher pH.
The experiments show stick behavior and oil-film formation at situ-
ations near reservoir conditions.
3. Cryo-SEM work on pressure cores indicated that oil sticks
preferentially to kaolinite higher on structure and intermittently to
quartz and chert. Residual oil saturations were higher in clay-rich
water-based cores, which is consistent with this observation.
4. Both micromodel experiments and Cryo-SEM work indicate
that in mixed-wet systems, the pore walls have regions that have ef-
fectively intermediate contact angles along with oil- and water-wet
regions. These intermediate contact angles may be the result of
small-scale patches much smaller than the scale of a pore. The wet-
tability here differs from the mixed wettability proposed by Sala-
thiel because, in addition to the oil- and water-wet regions, there are
regions with intermediate contact angles and flat regions within
large initially oil-filled pores that are water-wet. Aspects of the wet-
tability are closer to Dalmatian wettability where there are oil- and
water-wet regions in the same pore.
Nomenclature
Ed + displacement efficiency
Io + oil-wettability index
Iw + water-wettability index
k+ permeability, L2, md
Sor + residual oil saturation
Swi + initial water saturation
q+ contact angle, degrees
f+ porosity
Acknowledgments
We thank Arco Alaska Inc. and the working-interest owners of
Prudhoe Bay for permission to publish this paper. We have dis-
cussed a wide variety of data in the paper, much of which we did not
measure. The results of this work would not be possible without the
dedicated and careful experimental work of numerous people with-
in several companies. More unique contributions to this work were
made by Sandeep Dhawan who did the micromodel experiments,
and Erwin Sutanto and Sudir Metha, who did the Cryo-SEM work.
The interpretations and conclusions presented in this paper are those
of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of all the
Prudhoe Bay working-interest owners.
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Si Metric Conversion Factors
ft 3.048* E*01 +m
°F (°F*32)/1.8 +°C
in. 2.54* E)00 +cm
md 9.869 233 E*04 +mm2
psi 6.894 757 E)00 +kPa
*Conversion factor is exact. SPERE
Gary R. Jerauld is a senior principal research engineer in the Fluid
Flow research group of Arco E&P Technology in Plano, Texas. His
research interests are in multiphase flow in porous media, includĆ
ing wettability, relative permeability, poreĆlevel modeling, nearĆ
miscible gasĆinjection processes, and scaleup. Jerauld holds BS
and PhD degrees in chemical engineering from Rensselaer PolyĆ
technical Inst. and the U. of Minnesota, respectively. Jake J. RathĆ
mell is a senior research adviser for Arco E&P Technology, where
he leads development and field application of lowĆinvasion corĆ
ing technology. His research interests are in CO2Ćmiscible, chemiĆ
calĆflooding, and fluidĆflow behavior. Rathmell holds a PhD deĆ
gree in physical chemistry from Tulane U.
Jerauld Rathmell
65