RELATIVE PERMEABILITIES TO STEAM AND WATER AT RESIDUAL OIL IN NATURAL CORES: CT SCAN SATURATIONS.

A technique has been developed for measuring the relative permeabilities to steam and water in natural cores at steam drive oil residual saturation under in situ conditions. Liquid saturations were measured by means of CT scans on the natural cores at each equilibrium data point. The technique for pressure drop measurement is essentially the same as that used in previously published work on liquid-liquid systems. The measurement of temperature at the inlet and outlet of the cores permits an estimate of the heat losses during flow. A novel method is proposed for calculating the steam permeability from pressure data and different inlet and outlet temperature. The relative permeabilities to steam were found to agree essentially with previously published results on gas flow in porous media. Relative permeabilities to water appeared to fall somewhat below the relative permeability curve measured by Leverett on coarse sands.