Oil & Gas Geology ›› 2017, Vol. 38 ›› Issue (2): 391-399.doi: 10.11743/ogg20170220

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A study on mechanisms and numerical simulation of secondary foamy oil by gas injection in heavy oil reservoirs

Sun Xiaofei1, Zhang Yanyu1, Duan Xuewei2, Zhao Chunyan3, Li Xingmin4   

  1. 1. School of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum(East China), Qingdao, Shandong 266580, China;
    2. Tarim Oilfield Company, PetroChina, Korla, Xinjiang 841000, China;
    3. Institute of Engineering and Technology, Xinjiang Oil Field Company, Karamay, Xinjiang 834000, China;
    4. Rescarch Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development, PetroChina, Beijing 100083, China
  • Received:2015-12-17 Revised:2017-02-08 Online:2017-04-28 Published:2017-05-04

Abstract: The paper attempted to propose a new method of improving later stage performance of cold production from heavy oil reservoirs in respect of forming secondary foamy oil through gas injection.A foamy oil unconventional swelling experiment was designed and carried out to verify the feasibility of generating secondary foamy oil by gas injection and reveal its mechanism of enhancing oil recovery.And then based on the experiment,a sandpack experiment was performed to study the formation of foamy oil during natural gas huffs and puffs,and continuous and intermittent gas flooding processes.The possibility of establishing a numerical model with gas injection characteristics of foamy oil reservoirs incorporated was explored so as to serve for simulating the mechanism of foamy oil formation and later evaluation of EOR results of secondary foamy oil with different ways of gas injection in fields.The results showed that gas injection formed secondary foamy oil with better EOR results in that the oil facilitated the volume expansion,viscosity reduction and light component increase in heavy crude.Compared with natural depletion,the natural gas huff and puff process,with a rich foamy oil fluid generated,was 7.24% higher in terms of recovery percent of reserves;but the continuous and intermittent gas injection processes yielded negative result as they weakened or totally destroyed the foamy oil.Numerical modeling also indicated that the natural gas huff and puff performed better with a cumulative oil production increased by 14.7% after 8 rounds of huff and puff processes in 12 wells;while the continuous and intermittent gas injections as well as edge gas injection were unable to generate secondary foamy oil fluids because of massive gas channeling.

Key words: gas flooding, natural gas huff and puff, foamy oil, heavy oil, reservoir numerical model, EOR

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