Investigation of carbonated water injection (CWI) for enhanced oil recovery at the pore and corescale

本研究通过实验室实验和数值模拟,探讨了碳酸化水注入(CWI)作为一种提高石油采收率(EOR)方法的有效性。研究包括在孔隙尺度和岩心尺度上进行的实验,以及使用CMG软件进行的模拟研究。实验结果表明,CWI在提高垂直扫油效率和增加石油采收率方面具有显著效果。与水驱相比,CWI在降低油水粘度比、改善微观驱替效率以及减少残余油饱和度方面表现出色。此外,CWI在处理含裂缝的非均质储层时也显示出良好的适应性。数值模拟结果进一步验证了实验结论,表明CWI在不同的储层条件下均能有效提高石油采收率。本研究为CWI作为一种有前景的EOR方法提供了科学依据,并为未来的油田应用提供了指导。

CMG软件的应用情况

在本研究中,CMG软件(Computer Modeling Group)被广泛应用于模拟和预测CWI在不同储层条件下的表现。具体应用包括:
  1. 流体模型构建:使用CMG WinPropTM软件创建CO2-油和CO2-盐水混合物的组成和性质。
  2. 模拟实验设计:将流体模型整合到CMG-GEMTM组成的和非传统储层模拟器中,以重现本研究中进行的CWI和CO2-WAG驱替测试。
  3. 结果预测与分析:通过模拟实验结果,预测CWI在高压和高温条件下的表现,并与实验结果进行对比分析,验证模型的准确性。

作者单位

Sedigheh Mahdavi  加拿大纽芬兰纪念大学工程与应用科学学院

Abstract

Oil recovery by CO₂ injection has been studied in the laboratory and applied in the field, however, for the most part, CO₂ injection lacks acceptable sweep efficiency. Various CO₂ injection strategies such as CO₂ alternating water and gas (CO₂-WAG) and CO₂ simultaneous alternating water and gas (CO₂-SWAG) have been suggested to alleviate this problem and improve oil recovery. The amount of CO₂ required can be a limiting factor especially in offshore applications. Thus, carbonated water injection (CWI) has recently been given considerable attention as it requires less CO₂ for the injection and increases the sweep efficiency. This study provides an overview of previous work on the topic and outlines the results of an integrated experimental, theoretical, and simulation investigation of the CWI for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). The effect of carbonated water injection on vertical displacement (gravity effect) at both the pore-scale and core-scale was investigated in this study. The novelty of this research is to investigate the performance of water flooding (WF) and CWI in the presence of gravity using homogeneous and heterogeneous (fractured) porous media. The first phase of this research investigates the pore-scale displacement phenomena which occurs in the presence of CWI in a glass micromodel. Although the effects of many parameters have been studied, an investigation of the effect of gravity displacement and heterogeneous porous media on trapped oil extraction using CWI, is deficient in the current literature.

To evaluate the potential use of CWI for vertical displacement and oil extraction, a series of experiments in medium pressure homogeneous and heterogeneous (fractured) micromodels were designed at 2.1 MPa (305 psi) and 21°C (69.8 °F). The oil saturation profile, fluid flow pattern, pore-scale mechanisms, and trapped oil mobilization were analyzed during the experiments. The results of CWI showed an increased vertical sweep efficiency compared to water flooding. The fluid flow pattern in both water flooding and CWI showed that the carbonated water phase has a better sweep efficiency. Secondary CWI resulted in 16.8% additional oil recovery compared to water flooding. After a visual investigation of the impact of CWI on oil recovery and oil distribution in micromodels, core flooding experiments were designed to qualify and compare the effectiveness of water flooding, water alternating CO₂ gas (CO₂-WAG), and CWI at reservoir conditions considering the solubility of CO₂ in seawater and oil.

The results of the core flooding experiments were evaluated using a simulation study. The results of core flooding experiments showed that secondary CWI obtained the highest recovery factor of 74.8% compared to 66.5% in CO₂-WAG and 64.2% in tertiary CWI processes. The third phase the research was to simulate and predict the experimental results using Computer Modeling Group (CMG version 2014) software. The fluid model was constructed using CMG-WinPropTM to create the compositions and properties of the CO₂-oil and CO₂-brine mixtures. The fluid model was incorporated into the compositional and unconventional reservoir simulator, CMG-GEMTM, in order to reproduce the CWI and CO₂-WAG flooding tests conducted in this study. The simulation results indicated that CWI had a higher oil recovery factor compared to water flooding and CO₂-WAG. In summary, this comprehensive study highlights the CWI applicability for vertical oil sweep efficiency and enhanced oil recovery in homogeneous and heterogeneous porous media.

 

发表评论