Liquid-Phase Dispersion During Injection into Vapor-Dominated Reservoirs

Abstract

The behavior of water injection plumes in vapor-dominated reservoirs is examined. Stressing the similarity to water infiltration in heterogeneous soils, we suggest that everpresent heterogeneities in individual fractures and fracture networks will cause a lateral broadening of descending injection plumes. The process of lateral spreading of liquid phase is viewed in analogy to transverse dispersion in miscible displacement. To account for the postulated ìphase dispersionî the conventional two-phase immiscible flow theory is extended by adding a Fickian-type dispersive term. The validity of the proposed phase dispersion model is explored by means of simulations with detailed resolution of small-scale heterogeneity. We also present an illustrative application to injection into a depleted vapor zone. It is concluded that phase dispersion effects will broaden descending injection plumes, with important consequences for pressure support and potential water breakthrough at neighboring production wells.