ABSTRACT

Multiphase flows through porous media are widely encountered in nature and
technology.   Our current civilized world will very likely continue to depend on petroleum products either as energy resource or as vital materials for consumer products in the near future.  As a result, there is need to develop a model capable of optimizing oil recovery rate.  In this research, we developed an enhanced multiphase flow model which captures fluid flow mechanisms in an oil reservoir.  The model was developed using the principle of conservation of mass, Darcy law, saturation and capillary pressure relations. The study provides numerical solutions, using implicit method, to ascertain the pressure distribution for a single phase, one-dimensional, slightly compressible fluid flow in a petroleum reservoir. MATLAB script is written to simulate the pressure distribution for the single phase flow scenario.  Also we provided analytical solution for the pressure gradient in a hypothetical water flooding experiment.  The Implicit Pressure Explicit Saturation (IMPES) solution approach was employed as a numerical technique to study two phase flow equations with application to quarter five spot water flooding scenario, which we also simulated with MATLAB. Our results revealed that pressure decline rapidly within the vicinity of the production well.  This is inline with what is obtainable in practical situation.  Also, our results showed that pressure increases linearly with depth.  Finally, observed that during waterflooding experiment, pressure reduces as it advances from the injection well to the production well.