System and method for correlating oil distribution during drainage and imbibition using machine learning

A measurement system for predicting a three-dimensional imbibition phase saturation profile for imbibition of a porous rock medium, the system comprising:

• a processor, for executing at least one of a special core analysis laboratory porous media fluid flow simulator and a machine learning algorithm;
• a memory, connected to the processor, for storing items of data of a target core plug on at least one of an oil-water contact angle, a relative permeability, and a capillary pressure;
• and
• a detection device.

A computer-implemented method for training a machine learning algorithm for predicting three-dimensional imbibition phase saturation profile for imbibition of a porous rock medium, the method comprising:

• deriving, using a processor, a derived one-dimensional drainage phase saturation profile from a measured three-dimensional drainage phase saturation profile;
• calculating, using the processor and a measured oil-water contact angle in the porous medium, a plurality of synthetic values for a relative permeability of the porous medium and a capillary pressure of the porous medium;
• feeding a measured three-dimensional drainage phase saturation profile, the derived one-dimensional drainage phase saturation profile, a measured one-dimensional imbibition phase saturation profile, the measured oil-water contact angle, the calculated synthetic values for the relative permeability, the calculated synthetic values for the capillary pressure, and a rock heterogeneity state into a porous media fluid flow simulator;
• simulating, using the porous media fluid flow simulator, a simulated three-dimensional drainage phase saturation profile and a simulated three-dimensional imbibition phase saturation profile;
• calculating, using the processor, a simulated one-dimensional drainage phase saturation profile from the simulated three-dimensional drainage phase saturation profile, and a simulated one-dimensional imbibition phase saturation profile from the simulated three-dimensional imbibition phase saturation profile;
• and
• training, using the simulated one-dimensional drainage phase saturation profile, the simulated three-dimensional drainage phase saturation profile, the simulated one-dimensional imbibition phase saturation profile, and the simulated three-dimensional imbibition phase saturation profile, a machine learning algorithm.