Connectivity of Phases before Gel Placement

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Analysis of the connectivity of the fluid phases produced results that were consistent with expectations and with previous work.17 Details can be found in Refs. 2 and 3. A summary of findings (in both Berea and porous polyethylene) include the following:

  1. Before gel placement, at least 97.9% of the injected phase (oil or water) was connected.
  2. Before gel placement, most residual non-wetting blobs were “singlets”—i.e., isolated within individual pores.
  3. Changes in blob connectivity qualitatively followed the trends expected from the saturation changes. The largest oil blob always grew when the oil saturation increased and shrank when the oil saturation decreased. Similarly, the largest water blob always grew when the water saturation increased and shrank when the water saturation decreased.