SPE-196758-MS

Wag Design: Miscibility Challenge, Tools and Techniques for Analysis,

Efficiency Assessment

Konstantin Fedorov, TNNC Ltd, Rosneft Company, Tyumen State University; Tatyana Pospelova, Alexander
Kobyashev, Pavel Guzhikov, and Anton Vasiliev, TNNC Ltd, Rosneft Company; Alexander Shevelev and Igor
Dmitriev, Tyumen State University

Copyright 2019, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Russian Petroleum Technology Conference held in Moscow, Russia, 22 – 24 October 2019.

This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents
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Abstract
WAG injection combines advantages of gas drive efficiency with mobility control and sweep enlargement
due to simultaneous water-gas flow. A complex preliminary investigation is the basis of successful
application of gases. Such investigation determines appropriate and available type of gas, attainability of
miscible flood, technology of gas injection.
This paper combines modern achievements in theory and practice of gas application for EOR with
new approaches for ternary phase and saturation diagram analysis, comparison of different gas injection
technologies on saturation triangle and mobility control during WAG process. The proposed investigation
workflow is presented on the example of real field in East Siberia.

Introduction
Application of gases for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) has a long history in many countries and companies.
In West Siberia injection of associated and lean gases began from 70th of the previous century as slugs and
Water-Alternating-Gas (WAG) flood technologies (Vashurkin A.I. and etc 1977, Piyakov G.I. and etc 1991,
Piyakov G.I. and etc 1992). Detail review of field experience of WAG application all over the world is
present in (Christensen J.R. and etc 2001). Different gases were applied for oil displacement: hydrocarbons
from gas cap, associated and wet gases, carbon dioxide, flu gases and nitrogen. Gas type is defined by
available sources of gas, reservoir pressure, temperature and targets of gas application.
The best results are demonstrated by miscible gas injection (Stalkup F.I. 1983) because interfacial tension
on gas-oil contact becomes zero. But successful application of miscible oil displacement by gas occurs only
under high reservoir pressure. Increase of reservoir pressure to the value of minimum miscible pressure
(MMP) is very complex and expensive problem. In practice MMP conditions are achieved by enrichment of
injected gas by wet intermediate components from separated part of associated gas or by application of CO2
(Wang G.C. 1980, Panda M. and etc 2011). Each direction has pros and cons. Associated gas is available
in many fields but high difference in gas and oil densities leads to fast gravity separation of injected gas
and drive water. Carbon dioxide density is closer to oil density but it viscosity difference with oil makes
2 SPE-196758-MS

displacement front unstable with loss of mobility control. Corrosion well equipment is the next problematic
characteristics of CO2 usage.
Application of flu gases and N2 does not provide miscibility with oil (Sinanan B. S. and etc 2012). The
reason of recovery additive is associated with decrease of residual oil saturation in relation to gas and sweep
improvement due to mobility control by WAG technology. Sometimes application of these gases is dictated
by difficulty of water injection to reservoirs with special clays or just low permeability.
Traditional technology of gas application is oil displacement by large gas slug with subsequent water
injection (Lake L.W. 1989). Mobility control of gas-oil front is the main problem of gas application for
oil displacement in this technology. Instability of displacement front causes fingering of gas into oil area,
numerical calculation and process prediction becomes impossible because gives wrong results (Barenblatt
G.I. and etc 1982). The renewal of mobility control associated with application of WAG technology.
Simultaneous flow of gas and water in porous media decreases both mobility of gas and water (Fedorov K.M.
and etc 2018). The main target of this technology is equivalent velocities of water and gas fronts, disturbance
of this conditions leads to early gas or water breakthrough. This condition is reached by "optimal" ratio
of gas/water injection rates. First condition of such equivalence was formulated by Stalkup (Stalkup F.I.
1983). Other conditions of "optimal" WAG technology were considered in (Valeev A. and etc 2017).
Technology of WAG application has two types of injection strategy. One is simultaneous injection of
gas and water trough injector, another is repeated injection of small water and gas slugs. After appropriate
volume of gas injection process continue with water flooding. Comparison of these two strategies was
undertaken in experiments (Al-Shuraiqi Y.S. and etc 2003, Janssen M.T.G. and etc 2018). The conclusion
was that application of slug volumes less than 0.1 Pore Volume (PV) gives the same result as simultaneous
injection.
Determination of optimal gas/water ratio is the most significant point for immiscible process where
mobility control is principle condition. The basis of this investigatio is application of three phase Relative
Permeability (3RP) concept. Experimental determination of 3RP has a long history (Deitrich J.K. 1981,
Fayers F.J. and etc 1984, Oak M.J. and etc 1990, Nordtveld J.E. and etc 1997, Zang P. 2013). Briefly state-of-
the-art in this area comes down to the following. Direct experimental determination of 3RP is very complex
procedure, a lot of empirical model of 3RP construction with the help of 2-phase Relative Permeability
(2RP) for water-oil and oil-gas systems under residual water saturation were proposed. Difference between
3RP for drainage and imbibition processes is impotent feature for WAG technology. At last the general idea
of 3RP transition to straight lines in miscibility process is adopted by many investigators but confirmation
of this idea is poor.
One of the productive ways of gas slug and WAG technology analysis is performance of the process
solutions in ternary saturation diagrams (Janssen M.T.G. and etc 2018, Juanes R. and etc 2007, Duchenne S.
and etc 2014). This diagram provides understanding of process evolution and principal features, appropriate
presentation form for different solutions comparison. Such technique will be used in the paper.

Ternary phase diagram and its role in the process understanding

A traditional investigation of gas application begins with component analysis of live oil and available gas.
Further analysis will be present on the example of one field located in Russian East Siberia operated by
Rosneft Company. Results of oil compositional analysis for this reservoir is presented in table 1.
SPE-196758-MS 3

Table 1—Initial composition of reservoir fluid.

Reservoir oil
Component
mol % mass%

H2 0.0297 0.00

He 0.0140 0.00

N2 0.7510 0.19

CO2 0.0206 0.01

H2S 0.0000 0.00

CH4 38.6858 5.59

C2H6 8.9385 2.42

C3H8 6.6465 2.64

i-C4H10 1.4964 0.78

n-C4H10 3.1451 1.65

i-C5H12 1.5432 1.00

n-C5H12 1.8782 1.22

C6 3.2553 2.75

C7 3.1295 2.86

C8 2.5011 2.52

C9 2.6001 2.95

C10 3.0918 4.04

C11 2.2117 3.18

C12 1.6758 2.60

C16 1.0774 2.13

C17 1.0223 2.16

C18 1.1956 2.73

C19 0.9760 2.39

C20 0.8369 2.18

C21 0.6636 1.81

C22 0.8066 2.34

C23 0.4149 1.24

C24 0.4758 1.48

C25 0.5823 1.90

C26 0.6499 2.23

C27 0.4848 1.73

C28 0.5894 2.20

C29 0.5599 2.19

C30 0.5505 2.27

C36+ 3.8120 26.18

The composition of the reservoir oil from the PVT report was used to create the model. Flash separation
fluid compositions were obtained as a result of gas chromatographic analysis of separation samples. These
4 SPE-196758-MS

compounds were then used for the mathematical recombination of the composition of the reservoir oil. The
composition of the separation oil was studied in detail up to C36+, and separation gas – up to C10+. The
experiment of vacuum distillation of oil at the true boiling point allowed to determine the properties of oil
fractions.
Calculation based on Equation Of State (EOS) with different number of principle components showed
that models with less than 7 components do not provide satisfactory convergence of the calculated and the
experimental values of the parameters. Calculation data given on fig.1 demonstrate phase diagrams for the
24, 7, 5, and 4 compositional component models.

Figure 1—Phase diagram based on EOS with different number of principle components.

According to the calculations, the values of the key parameters of models with 7 and more components
differed from the experimental values within the limits of permissible values. Grouping of the components
of the reservoir fluid composition was carried out on the basis of the proximity of the equilibrium parameters
of the components. The C7 - C36+ fractions were regrouped into three pseudo-fractions. As a result of the
rearrangement, the 7-component composition of reservoir oil was obtained including CO2 as an individual
component.
Flash separation, differential liberation extension, separation test and fluid viscosity in reservoir
conditions provide required information for EOS development. Setting of component properties in EOS
makes it possible to obtain the same reservoir characteristics as in experiments. These characteristics for 7
component model are presented in table 2. The results of EOS construction and configured parameters are
given in table 3. MMP can be calculated in the framework of the developed EOS for different injection gas
compositions in reservoir conditions; this calculation is usually verified with straight experiment in slim
tube.
SPE-196758-MS 5

Table 2—EOS 7 component model.

Component CO2 N2-C1 C2-nC4 iC5+nC5+C6 C7-C17 C18-C30 C31-C80

Mol % 0.021 39.679 20.297 6.636 20.693 8.673 4.001

Molecular Weight 44.0 16.3 41.1 82.7 152.7 337.5 724.7

Liquid Density kg/m3 - - - - 798.5 869.7 920.7

Critical Temperature °C 31.05 -84.69 91.95 215.45 476.45 675.80 994.35

Critical Pressure MPa 7.376 4.560 4.292 3.153 1.853 1.259 1.118

Acentric Factor 0.2250 0.0090 0.1460 0.2710 0.6530 1.0729 1.1899

Normal Tb °C -78.5 -162.7 -44.8 52.4 194.6 381.8 608.6

Critical Volume m3/mol 9.40E-05 9.87E-05 0.000203 0.000341 0.0007 0.00152 0.003666

Omega A 0.427 0.427 0.427 0.427 0.427 0.427 0.427

Omega B 0.087 0.087 0.087 0.087 0.087 0.087 0.087

Cpen m /mol
3 3.03E-06 6.33E-07 4.58E-06 1.47E-05 0.00012 0.000174 4.70E-05

Table 3—Configured parameters of reservoir fluid.

Parameters Units Property

Initial reservoir pressure (Pr) MPa 16.90

Initial reservoir temperature (Tr) °C 22

Saturation pressure (Ps) MPa 14.70

Reservoir oil density at Pr kg/m3 746.1

Reservoir oil density at Ps kg/m3 744.1

Reservoir oil viscosity at Pr mPa·s 1.60

Reservoir oil viscosity at Ps mPa·s 1.54

Compressibility factor in Pr – Ps
1/MPa 12.7E-4
interval

m3/m3 118.7
Gas factor
m3/t 141.9

Volume factor at Pr dimensionless 1.283

Volume factor at Ps dimensionless 1.287

Density of separated oil kg/m3 836.6

Dimensionless density of summarized

air=1 0.841
gas

PVT model of reservoir oil was created based on the results of experimental data conducted on reliable
samples. The composition of the reservoir fluid was controlled by mathematical recombination of standard
separation fluids based on the average gas composition of the samples. The density and molar mass of the
C6-C35 fractions were set according to the results of measurements at atmospheric-vacuum distillation at
true boiling points. The simulation was carried out with the code Calsep PVTsim NOVA2.1.
In order to understand what kind of miscibility may occur in the reservoir it is appropriate to use ternary
phase diagrams. This technique bases on combining of hydrocarbon constituent elements in three pseudo
components (Stalkup F.I. 1983, Lake L.W. 1989). Common division is C1 (CH4+N2), C2 (C2H6-C6H14+CO2),
C3 (C7+). Such division makes possible to present phase transfer and corresponding change during the
process in visual graphical form.
6 SPE-196758-MS

Transfer of reservoir oil components to the three pseudo component system were presented on fig.2.
This transformation was executed with PVTi software of Schlumberger Company. Initial oil composition
is marked by point Coo, green binodal curve separates single phase and two phase regions, tie node straight
lines define equilibrium composition of gaseous and liquid phases. Initial composition of associated gas
is defined by point Cga, enriched gas by components of second separation step by point Cge. Interfacial
tension on the surface of equilibrium gas and liquid (oil) compositions decreases from nodes with poor
concentration of intermediate component to nodes near critical point σ1 > σ2 > σ3 (σ=0 in critical point).
Pseudo component C2 further we shall call intermediate Hydro Carbon (HC) component.

Figure 2—Pseudo ternary diagram for analyzed fluid composition.

Consideration of three phase flow (oil-gas-water) neglecting gravity, compressibility and heterogeneity
is productive technique for qualitative gas and WAG flood process prediction (Lake L.W. 1989). It gives
understanding of shock structure of the solution and their propagation during the process. Theorems on
shocks permissibility are considered in (Entov V.M. and etc 1989). According these theorems the structure
of Riemann problem of multiple contact displacement of oil by gas solution structure includes three
regions with different phase equilibrium, fig.3. First case is call multiple contact miscible displacement
with vaporizing of intermediate component from oil to gas phases or vaporizing gas drive process or high
pressure gas drive, fig.3a. Designation of second case is condensing gas drive process or wet gas drive,
fig.3b. And last case is first contact miscibility with one displacement front – shock wave, fig.3c.

Figure 3—Available process "paths" of oil displacement by different gas compositions.

a) multi contact miscibility with evaporation of intermediate components, b) multi contact
miscibility with condensation of intermediate components, c) first contact miscibility.

Three corresponding schematic profiles of displacement process are presented on fig.4. Wave structure of
displacement solution includes two shocks with composition discontinuities. First shock is gas displacement
SPE-196758-MS 7

front. In vaporizing gas drive process intermediate HC components pass from oil to gaseous phase in
the second shock, fig.4a, during condensing gas drive process intermediate HC components pass from
injected gas to oil phase in the second shock, fig.4b. In miscible displacement process velocity of two
shocks coincide, fig.4c. Transfer of oil and gas compositions were defined on fig.3 and connected with
corresponding tie lines – nodes.

Figure 4—Wave structure of the main gas drives regimes. a) multi contact miscibility with evaporation of intermediate
components, b) multi contact miscibility with condensation of intermediate components, c) first contact miscibility. Brown
curves denote concentration of intermediate HC components in oil and oil saturation, red curves – HC components in gas.

Of cause first contact miscibility is the best case with complete displacement efficiency, vaporizing gas
drive process is the worst case because of oil properties deterioration due to transition of intermediate HC
components to gas phase. Process analysis on ternary phase diagram makes obvious how to enrich gas
to achieve miscibility without reservoir pressure increase. For analyzed field example the enriched gas
composition calculated in PVTi software is presented on fig.3c.
Slim tube test is de facto standard in oil industry and most common and recognized for determination of
MMP. Slim tube experimental procedure is expensive complex investigation that requires special equipment
and much time. As the first step of process assessment numerical slim tube analysis may be applied. In the
investigation PVTsim NOVA software of Calsep Company was used for numerical slim tube calculations.
Gas enrichment with intermediate HC component decreases MMP and composition with MMP at or
below reservoir pressure can be the appropriate candidate for miscible displacement process. The way
of gas enrichment in the field is utilization of associated gas with different steps of its separation. Such
investigations were conducted in the framework of numerical slim tube calculations and appropriated gas
enrichment procedure was proposed. The Minimum Miscibility Composition (MMC) of gas is presented in
table 4 and includes 80% and 20% of the gases of the second and the third separation steps. On the ternary
phase diagram this composition is marked by black point, fig.3c. MMC obtained by PVTsim NOVA is more
reliable than based on PVTi calculations because it is more specialized on such analysis. But the results of
two kinds software calculation are close in value.

Table 4—Enriched gas composition.

Component mol %

CO2 0.051

N2-C1 55.058

C2-C4 42.671

C5-C6 2.220
8 SPE-196758-MS

Component mol %

C7-C17 0.000

C18-C30 0.000

C3131-C80 0.000

Total 100.000

Dimensionless gas density 0.9781

Mole mass of gas, g/mol 28.3

MMP, MPa 17.4

Application of CO2 for gas enrichment has the same target. Slim tube test procedure is the same. But
theoretical analysis depends on the procedure of three pseudo component determination.

Ternary phase relative permeability

Numerical prediction of gas slug or WAG technology application includes application of relative
permeability concept. This is the most complex and unreliable part of numerical calculations. Petrophysical
investigations for example field included only experimental determination of water-oil and gas-oil under
water residual saturation relative permeability. These data are presented on fig.5. Several service companies
obtained relative permeability; we present the most representative perms. Contrary to the mentioned state
that residual oil saturation in respect to water exceeds the corresponding value to gas approximately twice
example field demonstrates an exception. Irreducible water saturation is Swr=0.2, residual gas saturation
is negligible Sgr=0, residual oil saturation respect to water displacement equals to Sorw=0.28 and to gas is
Sorg=0.28.

Figure 5—Two-phase relative permeability for example field.

As 3RP experimental data was not available application of 3RP models was considered. For visual
comparison of the results of Stone’s 1 and 2 3RP models application are shown on fig.6. According 3RP
concept relative permeability of strongly wetting and non-wetting phases depend only on corresponding
saturations. For intermediate wetting phase – oil in the example case, relative permeability depends on
both saturations and residual saturation is also different in respect to gas and water. That is why only oil
permeability is shown; water and gas perms are identical to 2RP representation.
SPE-196758-MS 9

Figure 6—Three phase relative permeability construction by a) Stone’s 1,

b) Stone’s 2 models, c) uncertainty region with high isoperm divergence.

Residual oil saturation is usually approximated by Fayer’s averaging formula (Fayers F.J. and etc 1984).
From the other hand every 3RP model has its own distribution that is the limit of permeability trend kor →
0. The results of calculations showed that "zero isoperm" sufficiently coincides with Fayer’s curve.
Comparison of oil isoperms for Stone’s models demonstrates that they are in good agreement for high
saturations and differ for low saturation intervals, fig.6. Comparison of drainage and imbibition relative
permeability gives approximately the same differences in low saturation intervals. The authors of (Zuo L.
and etc 2014) paper defines this saturation area and named it high uncertainty region. For the example
field this region was defined as the zone of 30% isoperm divergence (|kro1-kro2|/kro1>0.3, kroi is oil relative
permeability for Stone’s I model). The uncertainty region is colored by grew on the fig. 6c.
Another problem of 3RP concept applications is significant decrease of interfacial tension for
compositions near critical point. Formation of the region with lowered interfacial tension for multiple
contact miscibility in condensing gas drive process has to be provided with 3RP with low interfacial tension.
Common opinion based on experimental data for 2RP concept is trend of permeability curves to straight
lines from zero to unit in relation to saturation enlargement due to tension decrease (Asar H. and etc 1988,
Haniff M.S. and etc 1990). This concept is usually transferred on 3RP data. This is serious experimental
problem and application of 3RP models based on 2RP data provides a lot of questions.

Design of available gas consumption and WAG injection strategy

Two significant conditions define challenge of WAG technology application: from one hand miscible
gas composition and water-gas injection rates and from the other hand gas resources on the field. In the
abandoned regions with poor facilities and infrastructure utilization of associated gas is a problem and
organization of WAG process is one of the ways to solve this problem. But application of miscible oil
displacement by gas depends on wet gas availability.
Analysis of wet gas availability is defined by oil production dynamics and oil saturation with associated
gas. Prediction of oil recovery dynamics by waterflood technology for example field is presented on fig.
7. Maximum oil production is expected on the 20th year from the beginning of exploitation and decreases
from that data till 90 years of recovery.
10 SPE-196758-MS

Figure 7—Oil, associated gas recovery profile due to waterflood

technology and potential enriched gas production for example field.

Calculation of associated gas production including effect of reservoir pressure decrease and
corresponding oil composition variation is the second step of this workflow. Application of material balance
defines the production of enriched gas from 1 to 3 separation steps. Proportion of separated gas of 2-3 steps
for miscible displacement process was determined earlier and provides the data for the final calculations
of available enriched gas.
It is obvious that amount of enriched gas for miscible oil displacement is not enough for the WAG
application on the whole field. Utilization of associated gas on the field involves division of the field into
three areas: sector of miscible WAG oil recovery, region of WAG with lean gas application and the rest part
of waterflood. This division is the object of detail job of geologists and reservoir engineers and not the goal
of this paper, but proportions between different areas is the objective of the investigation.
The amount of miscible gas is approximately one tenth of the produces gas. The first objective is
assessment of miscible gas production and sector choice for miscible WAG process. Next step is definition
of the region for WAG by lean gas application. Waterflood design proposes for the rest part of the field. The
proportion between three analyzed technologies is defined by gas availability that can be assessed from data
presented on fig.8. The proposed gas consumption in WAG process does not include required amount of
gas for electricity production and other purpose of field exploitation. According to this analysis the example
field was divided into three areas differing by planning technology: waterflood, lean and enriched WAG
application. Sector simulations were applied to selected regions in order to clarify the assessment of the
processes efficiency in each region and technology.
SPE-196758-MS 11

Figure 8—Experimental results of WAG process efficiency with different

injected water-lean gas ratio and oil viscosity (Drozdov A.N. and etc 2007).

Gas-water ratio in WAG process is also depends on the necessary of injection-production rates control. In
order to provide injection-production volume equability gas-water ratio in WAG (lean gas) was determines
as 1/3 with tapering in time and final transition to waterflood process.
Efficiency of WAG (lean gas) process depends on injected gas-water ratio. According to the numerous
experimental and simulation investigations maximum mobility control is achieved in the wide range of gas-
water ratio, see for instance data on fig.8 from (Drozdov A.N. and etc 2007).

Application of ternary saturation diagrams for displacement process

analysis
Calculation of gas drive or WAG process using multicomponent simulator is a common step of gas
application designing. The developed 7 component EOS and 3RP according Stone’s 1 model were used in
compositional simulation of the process.
Further 1D problem that neglects gravity and fingering processes is considered. Such simplification of the
processes gives greater generality of the results. All calculations were performed for the following problem.
Reservoir is presented by linear homogeneous layer divided into 50 numerical cells. Initial oil saturation is
equal to 1-Swr. Pressure, temperature, porosity and absolute permeability are representative to parameters
in example reservoir: Pi= 161 atm, Ti=22°C, Ø=0.11, ka=75 mD. Reservoir oil viscosity and volume factor
were adopted at values: 1.53 cP and 1.29. Viscosity of injected and reservoir water equaled to 1.05 и 1 cP.
WAG injection was simultaneous at 1/3 gas to water ratio at reservoir conditions. Water and gas injection
and production were controlled by reservoir pressure maintaining option.
In order to apply the investigation results to real field dimensionless varieties (recovery factor, injected
fluid to pore volume) were introduced. Dimensionless results of calculations are shown on fig.9. Obviously
lean gas drive gave the lowest result because of early gas breakthrough, water drive presented intermediate
efficiency, slug and WAG enriched gas drive demonstrated the best results with close dynamics of
displacement. All displacement drives gave the approach to potential efficiency after injection of two pore
volumes (PV). Note that WAG gives the possibility to minimize enriched gas injection (more than 3 times)
with the same efficiency as application of large scale wet gas slug.
12 SPE-196758-MS

Figure 9—Dimensionless results of 1D compositional simulation of displacement process by different reactants.

Besides WAG process gives the fastest approach to potential efficiency. Recovery factor regarding real
time is shown on fig.10. Recall that all calculation runs were performed at option of reservoir pressure
maintaining. That is why gas drive displacement was performed with high injection rates; injection of water
is characterized by low injection rates.

Figure 10—Recovery factor of different agent drive processes regarding time for reservoir model.

It is obvious that tapered WAG technology with gradual gas injection decrease allows saving amount of
injected gas. Simple transition to water injection after WAG implementation defines the limit of efficient gas
application. The results of such investigation are presented on fig.11. According these results application of
0.5 PV gas slug provides the maximum recovery factor. Choice of optimal WAG technology of cause bases
on economical calculations that are outside the margins of presented research.
SPE-196758-MS 13

Figure 11—Recovery factor profiles due to transition from WAG to waterflood injection at different time.

All predictions should include uncertainty analysis and risk assessment. The main contribution in the
process characteristics provides level of geological uncertainties. This is significant but traditional research.
But all investigations executed on reservoir model depend on uncertainties provided by RP concept
application. These uncertainties were considered on saturation triangle in the corresponding section. It
is self-consistent to analyze uncertainties of predicted WAG parameters on the same ternary diagram
(Duchenne S. and etc 2014, Zuo L. and etc 2014, Marchesin D. and etc 2001).
Data presented on fig. 9-11 can be transformed to appropriate type in order to fit them into saturation
triangle. Average reservoir saturations in different dimensionless time can adequately describe the process
efficiency. Solution "path" is represented as trajectory in time of averaged saturations in reservoir.
Solution paths of oil displacement problem in saturation triangle by water, by slug of lean and enriched
gas and WAG drives are shown on fig.12. Dots of solution paths present averaged oil saturation at the
same interval of dimensionless time in order to reflect dynamics of the process. As it showed on the
fig.11 the process of oil displacement slows down (fast oil recovery in the beginning of the displacement
process transfers to slow oil recovery). As solution paths for water and gas flooding has the obvious
trajectories (curves along straight lines of corresponding residual saturation) with minimum invasion to the
high uncertainty region. These paths are the solutions of classic fractional flow objectives with traditional
two phase permeability. WAG solution path is more complex and include trajectory part (time period)
lying inside the high uncertainty region. WAG risk minimization is tied to the reduction of the trajectory
segment inside high uncertainty region. As optimal gas water ratio encloses in large interval, uncertainty
minimization can be obtained by variation of this ratio. For presented calculation run this procedure is
applied.
14 SPE-196758-MS

Figure 12—Solution paths (averaged oil saturation during displacement process) of oil
displacement problem in saturation triangle. a) o water displacement, b) o displacement
with dry gas, c) o displacement with wet gas, c) o WAG with wet gas displacement.

Conclusion
The presented workflow is the framework of gas application planning and designing accepted in the
Rosneft Company. It involves all stages of process analysis beginning from PVT consideration and EOS
development; experimental or numerical slim tube investigation; determination of 2RP and 3RP curves;
numerical compositional simulation; prediction of gas production for WAG process in a field and ending
by uncertainty prediction and risk analysis.
But except conventional analysis techniques this workflow includes determination of optimal number
and content of pseudo components; application of ternary phase diagrams for displacement mechanism
establishment; utilization of saturation triangles for 3RP analysis and allotment of high uncertainty region;
construction of solution paths for different process comparison and reliability control calculation.
Such complex analysis gives the way for gas availability assessment on a field for WAG immiscible
and miscible flow options implementation. Estimation of gas availability gives the method for designing
reservoir development by simultaneous waterflood, lean and enriched WAG implementation in different
parts of reservoir.
For example, field located in East Siberia this workflow formulated the mode of oil recovery by
water flooding, immiscible and miscible WAG implementation. Miscibility process bases on gases of 2-3
separation steps. Thus, the first assessment of WAG process application forecast was executed.

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