Method for operating a hydrocarbon deposit by injection of a gas in foam form

A method for operating an underground formation to produce the hydrocarbons from the formation by drilling at least one well in the formation, injecting an aqueous solution comprising a gas in foam form and using a flow simulator based on a displacement model of the gas in foam form, the displacement model of the gas in foam form being a function of an optimal mobility reduction factor of the gas and of at least one interpolation function of the optimal mobility reduction factor, the at least one interpolation function of the optimal mobility reduction factor being a function of at least one parameter relating to at least one characteristic of the sample of the formation of relative permeabilities to the gas in non-foaming form and of relative permeabilities to the aqueous solution, the method comprising:

• A. determining the displacement model of the simulator according to steps of:
• i). defining values of the at least one parameter relative to at least one of the interpolation functions, injecting the gas in non-foaming form and injecting the gas in foaming form into the at least one sample according to values of the at least one parameter relative to the at least one interpolation function of the optimum mobility reduction factor of the gas, and measuring headloss with foam and headloss without foam for each of the values of the at least one parameter relative to the at least one interpolation function;
• ii). determining from the measurements of headloss relative to the at least one interpolation function an optimal value of the at least one parameter relative to the at least one of the interpolation function, the optimal value enabling maximizing a ratio between the headloss without foam and the headloss with foam measured for the at least one interpolation function;
• iii). defining optimal conditions corresponding to the optimal values determined for each of the at least one interpolation functions, injecting the gas in non-foaming form and the gas in foam form into the sample according to the optimal conditions, and measuring a headloss with foam and a headloss without form respectively performed for the optimal conditions;
• iv). determining the optimal mobility reduction factor from the measurements of headloss performed with the optimal value determined for the at least one interpolation function from the measurements of relative permeabilities to the gas in non-foaming form and from measurements of relative permeabilities of the aqueous solution;
• and
• v). calibrating the constants for the at least interpolation function from the optimal mobility reduction factor, the measurements of headloss relative to the at least one interpolation function, and from the measurements of relative permeabilities of the gas in non-foaming form and from the measurements of relative permeabilities to the aqueous solution;
• and
• B. determining an optimum operational scheme for the formation by using the displacement model and the flow simulator and extracting the hydrocarbons from the at least one well in the formation located with the operational scheme.