Neftyanaya Provintsiya
electronic peer-reviewed scholarly publication
Neftyanaya provintsiya No. 3(47), 2026

Method for express water saturation modeling using the Leverett J-function for reservoir simulation of multilayer oilfields

E.V. Kuzmina, S.A. Kadyaev, D.M. Gazizova
DOI: https://doi.org/10.25689/NP.2026.3.81-94

Abstract


This paper presents a method for express water saturation cube generation based on the Leverett J-function for reservoir simulation of multilayer and multipay oilfields. The proposed approach uses region-specific tables of capillary pressure obtained as a result of capillarimetric studies of core material and allows consideration of the heterogeneity of reservoir properties as well as variability of physical and chemical properties of fluids in various production zones. The main advantage of the proposed method is a high calculation speed – a full cycle including water saturation cube generation, evaluation of initial oil-in-place and mobile oil, takes about 15 s, which is more than 100 times faster than the standard model initialization. The comparison of the results with well log data and the initialized model confirmed the validity of the obtained distributions. The method enables multivariate calculations and quantitative uncertainty estimation in reserve assessment.

Key words:

Leverett J-function, water saturation, capillary pressure, reservoir simulation, oil reserve assessment, multilayer oilfield

References

1. Amyx J.W., Bass D.M., Whiting R.L. Petroleum Reservoir Engineering: Physical Properties. – Columbus : McGraw-Hill, 1960. – 610 p.

2. Tiab D., Donaldson E.C. Petrophysics: Theory and Practice of Measuring Reservoir Rock and Fluid Transport Properties. – 4rd ed. – Oxford : Gulf Professional Pub., 2015. – 918 p.

3. Ahmed T. Reservoir Engineering Handbook. – 5th ed. – Oxford : Gulf Professional Publishing, 2018. – 1524 p.

4. Dandekar A.Y. Petroleum Reservoir Rock and Fluid Properties. – Boca Raton : CRC Press, 2013. – 522 p.

5. Honarpour M., Koederitz L., Harvey A.H. Relative Permeability of Petroleum Reservoirs. — Boca Raton : CRC Press, 1986. – 152 p.

6. Leverett M.C. Capillary behaviour in porous solids // Transactions of the AIME. – 1941. – Vol. 142. – Pp. 152-169.

7. Lake L.W. Enhanced Oil Recovery. – Hoboken : Prentice Hall, 1989. – 550 p.

8. Dake L.P. Fundamentals of Reservoir Engineering. – Amsterdam : Elsevier, 1978. – 443 p.

9. Antipin Ya.O. Three-dimensional geological modeling of oil saturation of productive oil reservoir based on Leverett J-function // Oil and Gas Studies. – 2016. – No. 1. – pp. 7-10. (in Russian)

10. Gimaltdinova A.F., Kalmykov G.A., Topunova G.G. Estimation of saturation by Leverett’s method // Moscow University Geology Bulletin. – 2011. – No. 4. – pp. 72-75. (in Russian)

11. Brooks R.H., Corey A.T. Hydraulic properties of porous media // Hydrology Papers. – Fort Collins : Colorado State University, 1964. – № 3. – 27 p.

12. Capillary Pressure Correlation for Mixed-Wet Reservoirs / S.M. Skjaeveland [et al.] // SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering. – 2000. – Vol. 3, №. 1. – Pp. 60–67.

13. Cosentino L. Integrated Reservoir Studies. – Paris : Editions Technip, 2001. – 310 p.

Authors

E.V. Kuzmina, Technician, TatNIPIneft Institute – PJSC Tatneft; Almetyevsk State Technological University – Higher School of Petroleum
88 Telmana St., Almetyevsk, 423462, Russian Federation
E-mail: KuzminaEV@tatneft.tatar

S.A. Kadyaev, Chief Specialist, TatNIPIneft Institute – PJSC Tatneft; Almetyevsk State Technological University – Higher School of Petroleum
88 Telmana St., Almetyevsk, 423462, Russian Federation
E-mail: KadiaevSA@tatneft.ru

D.M. Gazizova, Category 1 Engineer, TatNIPIneft Institute – PJSC Tatneft
88 Telmana St., Almetyevsk, 423462, Russian Federation
E-mail: GazizovaDM@tatneft.ru

For citation:

E.V. Kuzmina, S.A. Kadyaev, D.M. Gazizova Metodika ekspress-postroyeniya vodonasyshchennosti po J-funktsii Leveretta dlya zadach gidrodinamiche-skogo modelirovaniya mnogoplastovykh mestorozhdeniy [Method for express water saturation modeling using the Leverett J-function for reservoir simulation of multilayer oilfields]. Neftyanaya Provintsiya, No. 3(47), 2026. pp. 81-94. DOI https://doi.org/10.25689/NP.2026.3.81-94. EDN YGUBMY (in Russian)

© Non-governmental organization Volga-Kama Regional Division of the Russian Academy of Natural Science, 2015-2026 All the materials of the journal are available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)