Effect of Reservoir Heterogeneity on CO 2 Flooding in Tight Oil Reservoirs

Jiashun Luo, Zhengmeng Hou, Guoqing Feng, Jianxing Liao, Muhammad Haris and Ying Xiong
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Jiashun Luo: Institute of Subsurface Energy Systems, Clausthal University of Technology, 38678 Clausthal Zellerfeld, Germany
Zhengmeng Hou: Institute of Subsurface Energy Systems, Clausthal University of Technology, 38678 Clausthal Zellerfeld, Germany
Guoqing Feng: State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China
Jianxing Liao: College of Civil Engineering, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, China
Muhammad Haris: Institute of Subsurface Energy Systems, Clausthal University of Technology, 38678 Clausthal Zellerfeld, Germany
Ying Xiong: Institute of Subsurface Energy Systems, Clausthal University of Technology, 38678 Clausthal Zellerfeld, Germany

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 9, 1-21

Abstract: Carbon dioxide (CO 2 )-enhanced oil recovery (EOR) has great potential and opportunity for further development, and it is one of the vital carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technologies. However, strong heterogeneity is one of the several challenges in developing reservoirs, especially for China’s continental tight oil reserves. This study investigates the effects of heterogeneous porosity and permeability on CO 2 flooding evolution in low-permeable tight formation. We simulated CO 2 -EOR using a numerical model developed on the platform of TOUGH2MP-TMVOC to evaluate the effect of different levels of heterogeneity on oil production, gas storage, and flow behaviors in a tight reservoir, controlled by standard deviation and correlation length. A comparison of nine cases reveals that porosity heterogeneity commonly intensifies flow channeling, and there is an oil production decline with higher standard deviation and longer correlation length of porosity field. In addition, the porosity correlation length has a negligible effect on reservoir performance when the standard deviation is relatively low. Furthermore, strong heterogeneity also has a negative impact on the storage capacity of CO 2 and oil production. Notably, as the standard deviation was raised to 0.1, a small sweep region arose with the early CO 2 breakthrough, which led to a worse flooding effect. Finally, this study exemplifies that a higher injection/production rate and CO 2 alternating N 2 injection strategies can improve oil recovery in highly heterogeneous reservoirs.

Keywords: CCUS; enhanced oil recovery; CO 2 flood; tight oil reservoir; porosity heterogeneity; flow channeling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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