Applied Petroleum Reservoir Engineering, 3rd Edition

Chapter 8. Single-Phase Fluid Flow in Reservoirs

8.1 Introduction

In the previous four chapters, the material balance equations for each of the four reservoir types defined in Chapter 1 were developed. These material balance equations may be used to calculate the production of oil and/or gas as a function of reservoir pressure. The reservoir engineer, however, would like to know the production as a function of time. To learn this, it is necessary to develop a model containing time or some related property, such as flow rate.

This chapter contains a detailed discussion of Darcy’s law as it applies to hydrocarbon reservoirs. The discussion will consider four major influences on fluid flow, their effect on the reservoir fluid, and the manipulation ...