Oil & Gas Geology ›› 2025, Vol. 46 ›› Issue (4): 1107-1122.doi: 10.11743/ogg20250406

• Petroleum Geology • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Variation characteristics and molecular dynamics simulation of key parameters including reservoir wettability and interfacial tension in the whole petroleum system

Kanyuan SHI1,2,3(), Xiongqi PANG2,3(), Junqing CHEN2,4, Zhangxing CHEN5, Lei WANG2,3, Tingyu PU2,3, Liyin BAO2,3, Shasha HUI6, Huiyi XIAO2,3, Xinxuan CUI2,3   

  1. 1.State Key Laboratory of Shale Oil and Gas Enrichment Mechanisms and Efficient Development,SINOPEC,Beijing 102206,China
    2.State Key Laboratory of Petroleum Resources and Engineering,Beijing 102249,China
    3.College of Geosciences,China University of Petroleum (Beijing),Beijing 102249,China
    4.College of Science,China University of Petroleum (Beijing),Beijing 102249,China
    5.Ningbo Institute of Digital Twin,Eastern Institute of Technology,Ningbo,Ningbo,Zhejiang 315200,China
    6.Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration & Development,PetroChina,Beijing 100083,China
  • Received:2025-05-08 Revised:2025-07-08 Online:2025-08-30 Published:2025-09-06
  • Contact: Xiongqi PANG E-mail:shikycup@163.com;pangxq@cup.edu.cn

Abstract:

Accurately measuring the wetting angles, interfacial tension, and pore-throat radii of reservoir rocks under high temperature and pressure conditions or in ultra-tight reservoir environments remains challenging due to laboratory limitations and instrument constraints. These challenges complicate the determination of capillary pressure during hydrocarbon migration and accumulation. Given this, we calculate the wetting angles of the calcite, montmorillonite, quartz, and feldspar surfaces, as well as oil-water and gas-water interfacial tension, under relatively low temperature and pressure conditions using molecular dynamics simulation. After validating the high consistency between the simulation results and experimental data, we expand this method to high temperature and pressure conditions to simulate the corresponding variations in the above parameters. Furthermore, we calculate the pore-throat radii of reservoirs using the multiple linear regression method. Through systematic simulations based on the regional settings of the Junggar, Ordos, and Songliao basins, we obtain data on burial depth-varying wetting angles, interfacial tension, and pore-throat radii of sandstone, volcanic, and carbonate reservoirs under high-, medium-, and low-temperature geothermal fields in China. Accordingly, the quantitative relationships are established between these parameters and the temperature-pressure conditions of petroliferous basins. The simulation results indicate that the water wetting angles of calcite, montmorillonite, quartz, and feldspar decrease gradually with increasing temperature, suggesting enhanced hydrophilicity. In contrast, the water wetting angles of these minerals increase with pressure, leading to reduced hydrophilicity. Generally, in oil reservoirs, calcite tends to exhibit oil-wet behavior, montmorillonite shows neutrality to water-wet characteristics, while quartz and feldspar primarily display water-wet properties. The oil-water interfacial tension decreases gradually with rising temperature but increases progressively with pressure. In contrast, the gas-water interfacial tension decreases with rising temperature and declines further with increasing pressure. The pore throat radii of rocks show certain correlations with porosity and permeability, suggesting that reservoir physical properties play a significant role in fluid migration. The minerals exhibit significantly different wettability, interfacial tension, and pore-throat structures across varying geothermal fields. Their wetting angles trend downward with increasing geothermal gradient. Meanwhile, their interfacial tension also decreases gradually with increasing geothermal gradient, which reduces molecular interactions at oil-water or gas-water interfaces, thereby enhancing fluid mobility.

Key words: pore throat radius of the reservoir, capillary pressure, wetting angle of the reservoir, interfacial tension of the reservoir, molecular dynamic simulation, quantitative evaluation of the whole petroleum system, hydrocarbon migration

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