Reservoir heterogeneity controls of CO_(2)-EOR and storage potentials in residual oil zones:Insights from numerical simulations

Residual oil zones(ROZs)have large potential for CO_(2)enhanced oil recovery(EOR)and geologic storage.During CO_(2)injection,the migration of CO_(2)in ROZs controls the performance of both EOR and storage.However,it has not been clearly visualized and understood that how geological heterogeneity factors control the transport of CO_(2)in ROZs.In this study,the oil recovery performance and geologic storage potential during continuous CO_(2)injection in a representative ROZ are studied based on geostatistical modelling and high-fidelity three-phase flow simulation.We examined the influence of autocorrelation length of permeability,global heterogeneity(DykstraeParsons coefficient),and permeability anisotropy on cumulative oil recovery and CO_(2)retention fraction.Simulation results indicate that,as the permeability autocorrelation length increases,the cumulative oil recovery and CO_(2)storage efficiency decrease.This results from the accelerated migration of CO_(2)along high permeability zones(i.e.,gas channeling).The increase in global heterogeneity and permeability anisotropies can lead to low oil recovery and poor CO_(2)sequestration performance,depending on the degree of CO_(2)channeling.The net utilization ratio of CO_(2)(CO_(2)retained/oil produced)unfavorably increases with both autocorrelation length and Dykstra eParsons coefficient,but decreases with the increase in kv/kh.Such a decrease is attributed to enlarged swept volume induced by gravity override.The study provides important implications for fieldscale CO_(2)EOR and storage applications in ROZs.

Relative permeability estimation of oil-water two-phase flow in shale reservoir

Oil-water two-phase flow is ubiquitous in shale strata due to the existence of connate water and the injection of fracturing fluid.In this work,we propose a relative permeability model based on a modified Hagen-Poiseuille(HP)equation and shale reconstruction algorithm.The proposed model can consider the nanoconfined effects(slip length and spatially varying viscosity),oil-water distribution,pore size distribution(PSD),total organic matter content(TOC),and micro-fracture.The results show that the increasing contact angles of organic matters(OM)and inorganic minerals(iOM)increase the relative permeability of both oil and water.As the viscosity ratio increases,the relative permeability of oil phase increases while that of water phase decreases,due to the different water-oil distribution.The effective permeability of both oil and water decreases with the increasing TOC.However,the relative permeability of water phase increases while that of oil phase decreases.The increasing number and decreasing deviation angle of micro-fracture increase the effective permeability of oil and water.However,microfracture has a minor effect on relative permeability.Our model can help understand oil-water twophase flow in shale reservoirs and provide parameter characterization for reservoir numerical simulation.