Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology, Vol.48, No.2, 29-36, 2009
Influences of Different Modes of Reservoir Heterogeneity on Performance and Oil Recovery of Carbon Dioxide Miscible Flooding
Reservoir heterogeneity represents one of the most dominant factors affecting the performance of CO(2) miscible flooding and its expected oil recovery. The main goal of this study is to investigate the influence of different modes of reservoir heterogeneity on oil recovery by supercritical CO(2) miscible flooding. The investigated heterogeneity modes include: 1) different single fractured reservoirs of different inclination angles, 2) different permeability configurations of layered reservoirs, and 3) the sequence of permeability distributions in composite reservoirs. Complete reservoir rock and oil compositional analyses were performed. The minimum miscibility pressure (MMP) of oil-CO(2) was mathematically calculated using several empirical correlations and determined experimentally using slim tube tests. The core flood tests were achieved using actual fluids injected through 12 actual reservoir rock samples. Of these, four samples were of different fracturing angles as single fractured reservoirs, four samples were of different permeability configurations as layered rocks and four samples represented composite reservoirs. The slug size of supercritical CO(2) was optimized to be 0.15 PV, injected and chased by actual reservoir brine through these different simulated modes of reservoir heterogeneity. The results indicated that all different modes of reservoir rock heterogeneity have a crucial influence on oil recovery by CO(2) miscible flooding in carbonate oil reservoirs. Of note, unfractured reservoirs produced higher oil recovery by CO(2) miscible flooding than single fractured ones. An oil reservoir with a 30 degree inclination angle of single fracture produced the highest oil recovery, whereas, fractured rocks with a 45 degree fracture produced the minimum oil recovery in this category. The rock permeability sequences of medium-low-high (MLH) mode for composite reservoirs and medium-high-low (MHL) distribution mode for layered reservoirs are highly recommended for CO(2) miscible flooding. The results have proven the suitability of the CO(2) application for layered and composite heterogeneous carbonate reservoirs, however, it does not recommend this EOR process for single fractured reservoirs. The results have also shown a real impact on oil recovery of the reservoir heterogeneity mode prevailing in the reservoir under development by this EOR process.