PERMEABILITY TO RESIDUAL WATER SATURATION IN OIL SATURATED PLUGS

ABSTRACT A series of laboratory experiments have been conducted to determine the permeability of brine close to irreducible water saturations with varying rock types, capillary pressures, saturations and permeabilities. X-ray tomography (CT) was used in one experiment as a quality assurance measure, visualizing the distribution of the flow of S wi phase in the sample. Water-saturated plugs attached to a water-wet ceramic membrane were drained by oil to S wi . Oil was then substituted by water at the inlet keeping both the water-and the oilsaturations in the plug constant. This was done in order to allow for water to flow through the plug and the membrane. A subsurface analogue to this laboratory experiment is a hydrocarbon-filled reservoir that is leaking water through a cap rock or a fault -keeping the hydrocarbons in place. The CT scan images showed that, although the overall flow rate was very low, the injected water moved quickly through the S wi -phase. Only a small fraction of the S wi volume contributed to this flow. The CT experiment also revealed some experimental artefacts such as spontaneous imbibition and gravity effects, which warrants further investigation. The result of the experiments verified that water could flow through different core plugs with varying S wi -phase permeability without forcing the oil through the membrane or changing the water saturation. The residual water permeability was dependent on the water saturation (S wi ) and the core plug permeability. Lowering the absolute permeability does not give a similar reduction in water permeability at S wi . The water permeability at S wi ranged from 0.02 µD to 1 µD. The absolute permeability for the different plugs ranged from approximately

CONUP: A code that calculates tag gas concentrations for reactor components

The CONUP code calculates the current tag isotopic concentrations for the Tag Gas Analysis Code, SMTAG. The combined codes, CONUP and SMTAG, represent the Tag Gas System. CONUP produces tag concentrations that are decayed and transmuted over specific reactor core cycles. The calculated concentrations are used, together with measured concentrations, as input for the SMTAG code, which identifies the failed reactor components that have released tag gas. The CONUP code has two modes for calculating isotopic concentrations: absolute and incremental. In the absolute mode, the CONUP code calculates concentrations from the beginning of the reactor startup through the current cycle. In the incremental mode, the CONUP code processes concentrations from the last reactor component cycle for each component. The incremental mode saves significant processing time because the concentrations are updated only for the current cycle. A description of the underlying physical model and method of solution are presented. A description of the code and a user`s guide are also given, along with example input and corresponding concentration output

TV Sports Programs—Who is Willing to Pay to Watch?

This article investigates the factors that influence the willingness of TV viewers to pay for watching sports programs. An empirical survey of Norwegian TV viewers revealed that individual winter sports, such as biathlon and cross-country skiing, headed the popularity list, with soccer coming third. However, it also showed that soccer fans were significantly more motivated to pay than were fans of other sports. These results provide some explanations to soccer's revenue dominance in European sports rights markets.