Review on Phase Behavior in Tight Porous Media and Microscopic Flow Mechanism of CO2 Huff-n-Puff in Tight Oil Reservoirs

The successful development of tight oil reservoirs in the U.S. shows the bright future of unconventional reservoirs. Tight oil reservoirs will be the main target of exploration and development in the future, and CO2 huff-n-puff is one of the most important methods to enhance oil recovery factor of tight oil reservoirs in North America. To improve the performance of CO2 huff-n-puff, injection and production parameters need to be optimized through numerical simulation. The phase behavior and microscopic flow mechanism of CO2 huff-n-puff in porous media need to be further investigated. This paper presents a detailed review of phase behavior and microscopic flow mechanism in tight porous media by CO2 huff-n-puff. Phase behavior in tight porous media is different from that in a PVT cylinder since the capillary pressure in tight porous media reduces the bubble point pressure and increases the miscibility pressure and critical temperature. The condensate pressure in tight porous media and nonequilibrium phase behavior need to be further investigated. The microscopic flow mechanism during CO2 huff-n-puff in tight porous media is complicated, and the impact of molecular diffusion, gas-liquid interaction, and fluid-rock interaction on multiphase flow is significant especially in tight porous media. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and molecular simulation are efficient methods to describe the microscopic flow in tight oil reservoirs, while the NMR is not cost-effective and molecular simulation needs to be improved to better characterize and model the feature of porous media. The improved molecular simulation is still a feasible method to understand the microscopic flow mechanism of CO2 huff-n-puff in tight oil reservoirs in the near future. The microscopic flow model in micropore network based on digital core is worth to be established, and phase behavior needs to be further incorporated into the microscopic flow model of CO2 huff-n-puff in tight porous media.