scholarly journals Effect of Viscosity Action and Capillarity on Pore-Scale Oil–Water Flowing Behaviors in a Low-Permeability Sandstone Waterflood

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (24) ◽  
pp. 8200
Author(s):  
Tao Ning ◽  
Meng Xi ◽  
Bingtao Hu ◽  
Le Wang ◽  
Chuanqing Huang ◽  
...  

Water flooding technology is an important measure to enhance oil recovery in oilfields. Understanding the pore-scale flow mechanism in the water flooding process is of great significance for the optimization of water flooding development schemes. Viscous action and capillarity are crucial factors in the determination of the oil recovery rate of water flooding. In this paper, a direct numerical simulation (DNS) method based on a Navier–Stokes equation and a volume of fluid (VOF) method is employed to investigate the dynamic behavior of the oil–water flow in the pore structure of a low-permeability sandstone reservoir in depth, and the influencing mechanism of viscous action and capillarity on the oil–water flow is explored. The results show that the inhomogeneity variation of viscous action resulted from the viscosity difference of oil and water, and the complex pore-scale oil–water two-phase flow dynamic behaviors exhibited by capillarity play a decisive role in determining the spatial sweep region and the final oil recovery rate. The larger the viscosity ratio is, the stronger the dynamic inhomogeneity will be as the displacement process proceeds, and the greater the difference in distribution of the volumetric flow rate in different channels, which will lead to the formation of a growing viscous fingering phenomenon, thus lowering the oil recovery rate. Under the same viscosity ratio, the absolute viscosity of the oil and water will also have an essential impact on the oil recovery rate by adjusting the relative importance between viscous action and capillarity. Capillarity is the direct cause of the rapid change of the flow velocity, the flow path diversion, and the formation of residual oil in the pore space. Furthermore, influenced by the wettability of the channel and the pore structure’s characteristics, the pore-scale behaviors of capillary force—including the capillary barrier induced by the abrupt change of pore channel positions, the inhibiting effect of capillary imbibition on the flow of parallel channels, and the blockage effect induced by the newly formed oil–water interface—play a vital role in determining the pore-scale oil–water flow dynamics, and influence the final oil recovery rate of the water flooding.

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 2305
Author(s):  
Xiangbin Liu ◽  
Le Wang ◽  
Jun Wang ◽  
Junwei Su

The particles, water and oil three-phase flow behaviors at the pore scale is significant to clarify the dynamic mechanism in the particle flooding process. In this work, a newly developed direct numerical simulation techniques, i.e., VOF-FDM-DEM method is employed to perform the simulation of several different particle flooding processes after water flooding, which are carried out with a porous structure obtained by CT scanning of a real rock. The study on the distribution of remaining oil and the displacement process of viscoelastic particles shows that the capillary barrier near the location with the abrupt change of pore radius is the main reason for the formation of remaining oil. There is a dynamic threshold in the process of producing remaining oil. Only when the displacement force exceeds this threshold, the remaining oil can be produced. The flow behavior of particle–oil–water under three different flooding modes, i.e., continuous injection, alternate injection and slug injection, is studied. It is found that the particle size and the injection mode have an important influence on the fluid flow. On this basis, the flow behavior, pressure characteristics and recovery efficiency of the three injection modes are compared. It is found that by injecting two kinds of fluids with different resistance increasing ability into the pores, they can enter into different pore channels, resulting in the imbalance of the force on the remaining oil interface and formation of different resistance between the channels, which can realize the rapid recovery of the remaining oil.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xu-Guang Song ◽  
Ming-Wei Zhao ◽  
Cai-Li Dai ◽  
Xin-Ke Wang ◽  
Wen-Jiao Lv

AbstractThe ultra-low permeability reservoir is regarded as an important energy source for oil and gas resource development and is attracting more and more attention. In this work, the active silica nanofluids were prepared by modified active silica nanoparticles and surfactant BSSB-12. The dispersion stability tests showed that the hydraulic radius of nanofluids was 58.59 nm and the zeta potential was − 48.39 mV. The active nanofluids can simultaneously regulate liquid–liquid interface and solid–liquid interface. The nanofluids can reduce the oil/water interfacial tension (IFT) from 23.5 to 6.7 mN/m, and the oil/water/solid contact angle was altered from 42° to 145°. The spontaneous imbibition tests showed that the oil recovery of 0.1 wt% active nanofluids was 20.5% and 8.5% higher than that of 3 wt% NaCl solution and 0.1 wt% BSSB-12 solution. Finally, the effects of nanofluids on dynamic contact angle, dynamic interfacial tension and moduli were studied from the adsorption behavior of nanofluids at solid–liquid and liquid–liquid interface. The oil detaching and transporting are completed by synergistic effect of wettability alteration and interfacial tension reduction. The findings of this study can help in better understanding of active nanofluids for EOR in ultra-low permeability reservoirs.


2014 ◽  
Vol 936 ◽  
pp. 1553-1555
Author(s):  
Meng Zheng

The technology was used for handling heavy aging oil by demulsifier and three phases horizontal scrow centrifuge. Through laboratory and field test, it showed that the water content of the processed aging oil dropped from 50% to 5% below, purity oil recovery rate reached more than 95%, meeting export quality requirements. The technology improved the effective storage capacity of flow station, is of great significance to the safe and steady operation of flow station.


2021 ◽  
Vol 229 ◽  
pp. 116097
Author(s):  
Jing Shi ◽  
Mustapha Gourma ◽  
Hoi Yeung

2015 ◽  
Vol 733 ◽  
pp. 174-177
Author(s):  
Xin Yuan Zhao ◽  
Yi Kun Liu ◽  
Feng Jiao Wang ◽  
Ru Ya Chen ◽  
Jin Ming Wang

In order to reveal the impact of reservoir heterogeneity on its recovery and by taking the interlayer heterogeneous and inner layer sand superimposition model (two forms of complexity situation) into account, water flooding experiments have been conducted on parallel connected rock cores, which are selected and artificially casted cores with different permeability, at different injection rates. Experimental results suggested that water displacement recovery is kept decreasing with the increasing of interlayer heterogeneity. when the interlayer permeability ratio (ratio of high permeability versus low permeability) is at about 6.5 and water displacement rate is set at 0.5ml/min, 1ml/min, 1.5ml/min, 2ml/min, respectively, the water flooding experiments indicated that the low permeability recovery increased significantly and low permeability layer became main producer with the increasing of water displacement rate, on the opposite, the high permeability recovery showed no little big change. Laboratory experiments on the model of layer sand body superimposition revealed that the recovery rate of FTRLPTPL model is about 5%~10% higher than that of FTPLPTRL model.(FTRLPTPL is briefed from that flooding from the thick and rich in oil layer and produced from the thin and poor in oil layer. FTPLPTRL is briefed from that flooding from the thin and poor in oil layer and produced from the thick and rich in oil layer.) Analysis on the experiments in different reservoir inner situation told us that recovery enhancement of low permeability layer can play a significant role in increasing the overall recovery rate.


2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 384-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lun ZHAO ◽  
Xi CHEN ◽  
Li CHEN ◽  
Renyi CAO ◽  
Xiangzhong ZHANG ◽  
...  

Open Physics ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 703-713 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hao Yongmao ◽  
Lu Mingjing ◽  
Dong Chengshun ◽  
Jia Jianpeng ◽  
Su Yuliang ◽  
...  

AbstractAimed at enhancing the oil recovery of tight reservoirs, the mechanism of hot water flooding was studied in this paper. Experiments were conducted to investigate the influence of hot water injection on oil properties, and the interaction between rock and fluid, petrophysical property of the reservoirs. Results show that with the injected water temperature increasing, the oil/water viscosity ratio falls slightly in a tight reservoir which has little effect on oil recovery. Further it shows that the volume factor of oil increases significantly which can increase the formation energy and thus raise the formation pressure. At the same time, oil/water interfacial tension decreases slightly which has a positive effect on production though the reduction is not obvious. Meanwhile, the irreducible water saturation and the residual oil saturation are both reduced, the common percolation area of two phases is widened and the general shape of the curve improves. The threshold pressure gradient that crude oil starts to flow also decreases. It relates the power function to the temperature, which means it will be easier for oil production and water injection. Further the pore characteristics of reservoir rocks improves which leads to better water displacement. Based on the experimental results and influence of temperature on different aspects of hot water injection, the flow velocity expression of two-phase of oil and water after hot water injection in tight reservoirs is obtained.


Author(s):  
Long Yu ◽  
Qian Sang ◽  
Mingzhe Dong

Reservoir heterogeneity is the main cause of high water production and low oil recovery in oilfields. Extreme heterogeneity results in a serious fingering phenomenon of the displacing fluid in high permeability channels. To enhance total oil recovery, the selective plugging of high permeability zones and the resulting improvement of sweep efficiency of the displacing fluids in low permeability areas are important. Recently, a Branched Preformed Particle Gel (B-PPG) was developed to improve reservoir heterogeneity and enhance oil recovery. In this work, conformance control performance and Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) ability of B-PPG in heterogeneous reservoirs were systematically investigated, using heterogeneous dual sandpack flooding experiments. The results show that B-PPG can effectively plug the high permeability sandpacks and cause displacing fluid to divert to the low permeability sandpacks. The water injection profile could be significantly improved by B-PPG treatment. B-PPG exhibits good performance in profile control when the high/low permeability ratio of the heterogeneous dual sandpacks is less than 7 and the injected B-PPG slug size is between 0.25 and 1.0 PV. The oil recovery increment enhanced by B-PPG after initial water flooding increases with the increase in temperature, sandpack heterogeneity and injected B-PPG slug size, and it decreases slightly with the increase of simulated formation brine salinity. Choosing an appropriate B-PPG concentration is important for B-PPG treatments in oilfield applications. B-PPG is an efficient flow diversion agent, it can significantly increase sweep efficiency of displacing fluid in low permeability areas, which is beneficial to enhanced oil recovery in heterogeneous reservoirs.


2014 ◽  
Vol 694 ◽  
pp. 340-345
Author(s):  
Ke Liang Wang ◽  
Jin Yu Li ◽  
Lei Lei Zhang ◽  
Xue Li ◽  
Guo Qiang Fu ◽  
...  

Profile control and flooding technique is an effective way to enhance the oil recovery of low permeability reservoir.Analyzing the relation between oil and water interface and determining injection volume under different concentration is the key to success in profile controlling and flooding in low permeability reservoir .The research is about SJT-B collosol of physicochemical property under normal pressure and temperature.We also carry on the study on measuring SJT-B collosol interfacial tension for a long time under different concentration.Besides, we conduct the plugging degree experiment by injecting SJT-B collosol with the concentration of 0.8% in different permeability core.The lower the core permeability, the higher the plugging degree. By optimizing the injection pattern we conduct the three-tube parallel profile control and flooding experiment in the low permeability heterogeneous core.It indicates that SJT-B collosol mainly access to high permeability layer and have an effective plugging effect .The absorbed liquid rate of medium permeability layer is increased apparently ,while low permeability layer is increased slightly.The SJT-B collosol of injection method has efficient effect on enhancing the oil recovery of low permeability reservoir in late water flooding.


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