Experimental Study of Water Displacement Rates on Remaining Oil Distribution and Oil Recovery in 2D Pore Network Model

An amount of oil remains in oil reservoirs even at the high water-cut stage of produced liquid from oil wells. To reveal the mechanism of displacement rates to affect the remaining oil in pore scales, a two-dimensional (2D) glass etching pore network model and real-time visual system were set up to observe the characteristics of oil distribution from water flooding and study the influence of displacement rates on oil recovery. It was found that the geometry of remaining oil in the pore network is diverse and dynamically changed at the high water-cut stage. Three geometric representative parameters were defined for the classification of five types of remaining oil (contiguous, branching, film, dropwise, bar columnar type), and controlling mechanisms for each type of remaining oil were analyzed. The experimental results show that the remaining oil saturation decreases from 21.2% to 6.5% when water injection rates increase from 0.05 to 0.5 mL/min. The increase in displacement rate improves the displacement efficiency of four types of remaining oil in the range of 55.00% to 93.67% except for dropwise type. The experimental data also indicate that the reduction in continuous residual oil and branched residual oil mainly contributes to the improvement of oil recovery of the whole network model. With the increase in displacement rate (from 0.05 to 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, and 0.5 mL/min), the areas of five types of representative local residual oil reduce step by step. This research validates that the increase in water flooding rate in porous media leads to reduction in oil saturation, and it will improve oil recovery in oil reservoirs by enhancing water injection rates

Computer Modeling of the Displacement Behavior of Carbon Dioxide in Undersaturated Oil Reservoirs

The injection of CO2 into oil reservoirs is performed not only to improve oil recovery but also to store CO2 captured from fuel combustion. The objective of this work is to develop a numerical simulator to predict quantitatively supercritical CO2 flooding behaviors for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR). A non-isothermal compositional flow mathematical model is developed. The phase transition diagram is designed according to the Minimum Miscibility Pressure (MMP) and CO2 maximum solubility in oil phase. The convection and diffusion of CO2 mixtures in multiphase fluids in reservoirs, mass transfer between CO2 and crude and phase partitioning are considered. The governing equations are discretized by applying a fully implicit finite difference technique. Newton-Raphson iterative technique was used to solve the nonlinear equation systems and a simulator was developed. The performances of CO2 immiscible and miscible flooding in oil reservoirs are predicted by the new simulator. The distribution of pressure and temperature, phase saturations, mole fraction of each component in each phase, formation damage caused by asphaltene precipitation and the improved oil recovery are predicted by the simulator. Experimental data validate the developed simulator by comparison with simulation results. The applications of the simulator in prediction of CO2 flooding in oil reservoirs indicate that the simulator is robust for predicting CO2 flooding performance

Computer Modeling of the Displacement Behavior of Carbon Dioxide in Undersaturated Oil Reservoirs

The injection of CO2 into oil reservoirs is performed not only to improve oil recovery but also to store CO2 captured from fuel combustion. The objective of this work is to develop a numerical simulator to predict quantitatively supercritical CO2 flooding behaviors for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR). A non-isothermal compositional flow mathematical model is developed. The phase transition diagram is designed according to the Minimum Miscibility Pressure (MMP) and CO2 maximum solubility in oil phase. The convection and diffusion of CO2 mixtures in multiphase fluids in reservoirs, mass transfer between CO2 and crude and phase partitioning are considered. The governing equations are discretized by applying a fully implicit finite difference technique. Newton-Raphson iterative technique was used to solve the nonlinear equation systems and a simulator was developed. The performances of CO2 immiscible and miscible flooding in oil reservoirs are predicted by the new simulator. The distribution of pressure and temperature, phase saturations, mole fraction of each component in each phase, formation damage caused by asphaltene precipitation and the improved oil recovery are predicted by the simulator. Experimental data validate the developed simulator by comparison with simulation results. The applications of the simulator in prediction of CO2 flooding in oil reservoirs indicate that the simulator is robust for predicting CO2 flooding performance

A computational method of critical well spacing of CO2 miscible and immiscible concurrent flooding

Abstract: Based on the theory of non-Darcy seepage, a mathematical model for CO2 miscible and immiscible concurrent flooding considering changes of oil viscosity and threshold pressure gradient of oil and CO2 is established. A computational method of critical well spacing of CO2 miscible and immiscible concurrent flooding in ultra-low permeability reservoirs is deduced by solving the distribution of CO2 concentration in miscible flooding area with the mass transfer-diffusion-absorption equation and solving the saturation equation of immiscible affected area with characteristic line method. A critical well spacing example is built in the F142 and G89 reservoir blocks and the results show: (1) The critical well spacing increases with gas injection pressure, while decreases with gas injection speed; (2) The contribution of length in pure CO2 seepage area to the critical well spacing is the largest, the contribution of length in CO2-Oil effective mass transfer area and immiscible affected area is secondary, the contribution of pure oil area is the least, the gap of length between pure CO2 seepage area and CO2-Oil effective mass transfer area and immiscible affected area decreases with gas injection speed and it increases with the decreasing of gas injection speed, meanwhile, the law is more significant; (3) Pressure drop gradient of miscible affected area is significantly different from that of immiscible affected area and pressure drop gradient of CO2-Oil effective mass transfer area in miscible affected area is bigger than that of immiscible affected area. Key words: ultra-low permeability reservoirs, miscible flooding, immiscible flooding, critical well spacing, threshold pressure gradien

A Practical Compositional Method for Simulation of CO2 Flooding in Porous and Fractured Petroleum Reservoirs

CO2 flooding is one of the most effective and used methods for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) approaches. The number of CO2 flooding projects has increased rapidly in China and around the world. Compositional simulation is required for evaluating CO2 flooding in EOR operations, especially for miscible or nearly miscible flooding when black-oil simulation is no longer adequate. The simulation method proposed here is a multi-dimensional, three-phase, and compositional modeling approach, which is applicable to both porous and fractured reservoirs. In the model formulation, a generalized multi-continuum approach is adopted to handle flow and transport in naturally fractured reservoirs and the mass flux of each mass component is contributed by advection and diffusion processes. In addition, precipitation of heavy oil components and assorption of CO2 on the solid grains are modeled based on reversible linear or nonlinear isotherms. The governing partial differential equations for conservation of each component are discretized using a finite volume method and the resulting discrete equations are solved fully implicitly by Newton-Raphson iteration. The equation of state (EOS) by Soave-Redlich-Kwong is used to calculate the physical properties of fluids. Research has shown that the flash calculations with EOS in compositional simulation are computationally intensive and may not be reliable at near critical conditions. Therefore, a K-value based approach, improved by Almehaideb et al. (2002), is used for partitioning of oil components and CO2 between oil and CO2 phases. In addition, the laboratory measured oil and CO2 phase compositional data can be used alternatively to account for compositional effect in this model. Two numerical examples are presented to show that the proposed modeling method is efficient for simulation of CO 2 flooding processes in EOR operations. Copyright 2011, Society of Petroleum Engineers.EI

Dynamic and static comprehensive prediction method of natural fractures in fractured oil reservoirs: A case study of Triassic Chang 63 reservoirs in Huaqing Oilfield, Ordos Basin, NW China

In consideration of the limited adaptability scope, low accuracy and high demand of great cost data of existent fracture prediction methods, a new fracture predicting method was advanced by implementing geological static data and production dynamic data from the Triassic Chang 63 reservoirs in the Huaqing Oilfield. Five constraints, lithology, sedimentary facies, thickness, rock rupture index and fracture intensity controlling the development of fractures were sorted out based on the static geological data. The multiple linear regression method was adopted to work out the quantitative relationships between the five constraints and fracture density, and the fracture density property of the whole area was calculated. Based on production dynamic data of well history, tracer, well interference test and intake profile test, the direction and distribution of fracture horizontally and vertically were figured out by reservoir engineering analysis method. The fracture density property was verified and quantitatively corrected with numerical simulation, and a 3D discrete fracture geological model in agreement with both geological cognition and dynamic production performance was built. The numerical simulation shows that the fracture model has higher fitting consistency, high reliability and adaptability. Key words: fractured oil reservoir, natural fracture, fracture geological model, fracture prediction, Huaqing Oilfield, Ordos Basi