We present a set of steady-state foam-flood experimental data for four sandstones with different permeabilities, ranging between 6 and 1900 mD, and with similar porosity. We derive permeability-dependent foam parameters with two modelling approaches, those of Boeije and Rossen (2015a) and a non-linear least-square minimization approach (Eftekhari et al., 2015). The two approaches can yield significantly different foam parameters. Thus, we critically assess their ability in deriving reliable foam parameter estimates. In particular, the way the two approaches treat shear-thinning foam behaviour and foam coalescence is discussed. The foam parameter set acquired from the latter approach is further used as input in foam diversion calculations: this serves to evaluate mobility predictions in non-communicating reservoir layers. This study aims to provide a framework to integrate experimental work, modelling and simple qualitative diversion calculations to provide a background for the upscaling of foam studies, with particular focus on heterogeneous systems.

Foam can increase sweep efficiency within a porous medium, which is useful for oil-recovery processes[1]. The flow of foam in porous media is a complex process that depends on properties like permeability, porosity and surface chemistry, but also temperature. Although the surface activity of surfactants as a function of temperature is well described at the liquid/liquid or liquid/ gas interface, data on the effect of temperature on foam stability is limited, especially in porous media. In this work, we tested a surfactant (AOS) at different temperatures, from 20°C to 80°C, in a sandstone porous medium with co-injection of foam. The pressure gradient, or equivalently the apparent viscosity, was measured in steady-state experiments. The core-flood experiments showed that the apparent viscosity of the foam decreased by 50% when the temperature increased to 80°C. This effect correlates with the lower surface tension at higher temperatures. These results are compared to bulk foam experiments, which show that at elevated temperatures foam decays and coalesces faster. This effect, however, can be attributed to the faster drainage at high temperature, as a response to the reduction in liquid viscosity, and greater film permeability leading to faster coarsening. Our results using the STARS foam model show that one cannot fit foam-model parameters to data at one temperature and apply the model at other temperatures, even if one accounts for the change in fluid properties (surface tension and liquid viscosity) with temperature. Experiments show an increase in gas mobility in the low-quality foam regime with increasing temperature that is inversely proportional to the decrease in gas-water surface tension. In the high-quality regime, results suggest that the water saturation at which foam collapses fmdry increases and Pc * decreases with increasing temperature.