Measurements and Application of Partition Coefficients of Compounds Suitable for Tracing Gas Injected Into Oil Reservoirs

Tracing of injection gas in oil reservoirs is a technique used to improve the description of permeability distributions in situ. Results from dynamic laboratory experiments of gas tracers are reported. Gas tracers are delayed when flooding through a reservoir by the partitioning into the oil phase. A knowledge of this effect is important to optimize the interpretation of field tracer tests. The partition is quantified by the partition coefficient K. Two chemical tracers perfluoromethylcyclopentane (PMCP) and perfluoromethylcyclohexane (PMCH) and the radioactive 14C labelled ethane have been studied here. The two chemical compounds are new as reservoir tracers and no field results with these tracers are reported in the open literature. Our group has, however, recently applied these compound successfully as tracers in a North Sea reservoir