Nuclear magnetic resonance experiments on the time-varying law of oil viscosity and wettability in high-multiple waterflooding sandstone cores

A simulated oil viscosity prediction model is established according to the relationship between simulated oil viscosity and geometric mean value of T2spectrum,and the time-varying law of simulated oil viscosity in porous media is quantitatively characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance(NMR)experiments of high multiple waterflooding.A new NMR wettability index formula is derived based on NMR relaxation theory to quantitatively characterize the time-varying law of rock wettability during waterflooding combined with high-multiple waterflooding experiment in sandstone cores.The remaining oil viscosity in the core is positively correlated with the displacing water multiple.The remaining oil viscosity increases rapidly when the displacing water multiple is low,and increases slowly when the displacing water multiple is high.The variation of remaining oil viscosity is related to the reservoir heterogeneity.The stronger the reservoir homogeneity,the higher the content of heavy components in the remaining oil and the higher the viscosity.The reservoir wettability changes after water injection:the oil-wet reservoir changes into water-wet reservoir,while the water-wet reservoir becomes more hydrophilic;the degree of change enhances with the increase of displacing water multiple.There is a high correlation between the time-varying oil viscosity and the time-varying wettability,and the change of oil viscosity cannot be ignored.The NMR wettability index calculated by considering the change of oil viscosity is more consistent with the tested Amott(spontaneous imbibition)wettability index,which agrees more with the time-varying law of reservoir wettability.

Separate-layer balanced waterflooding development technology for thick and complex carbonate reservoirs in the Middle East

Based on the waterflooding development in carbonate reservoirs in the Middle East,in order to solve the problem of the poor development effects caused by commingled injection and production,taking the thick bioclastic limestone reservoirs of Cretaceous in Iran-Iraq as an example,this paper proposes a balanced waterflooding development technology for thick and complex carbonate reservoirs.This technology includes the fine division of development units by concealed baffles and barriers,the combination of multi well type and multi well pattern,and the construction of balanced water injection and recovery system.Thick carbonate reservoirs in Iran-Iraq are characterized by extremely vertical heterogeneity,development of multi-genesis ultra-high permeability zones,and highly concealed baffles and barriers.Based on the technologies of identification,characterization,and sealing evaluation for concealed baffles and barriers,the balanced waterflooding development technology is proposed,and three types of balanced waterflooding development modes/techniques are formed,namely,conventional stratigraphic framework,fine stratigraphic framework,and deepened stratigraphic framework.Numerical simulations show that this technology is able to realize a fine and efficient waterflooding development to recover,in a balanced manner,the reserves of thick and complex carbonate reservoirs in Iran and Iraq.The proposed technology provides a reference for the development optimization of similar reservoirs.

An Integrated Oil Production Enhancement Technology Based on Waterflooding Energy Recovery

A new integrated oil production enhancement technology based on water-flooding energy recovery is proposed.After providing an extensive review of the existing scientific and technical literature on this subject,the proposed integrated technology is described together with the related process flow diagram,the criteria used to select a tar-get facility for its implementation and the outcomes of the laboratory studies conducted to analyze emulsion formation and separation kinetics.Moreover,the outcomes of numerical simulations performed using Ansys CFX software are also presented.According to these results,using the proposed approach the incremental oil production may reach 1.2 t/day(with a 13%increase)and more,even at low flow rates(less than 10 t/day),thereby providing evidence for the benefits associated with this integrated technology.

Production evolution patterns and development stage division of waterflooding oilfields

The continuous growth of recoverable reserves in a waterflooding oilfield has a significant impact on the patterns of production evolution. A new production evolution model is established by improving the Weng Cycle model. With the new model, the statistical correspondence between the production decline stage and the reserve-production imbalance is clarified,and the correlation of water cut with the recovery percent of recoverable reserves is discussed, providing quantitative basis of reservoir engineering for dividing development stages of oilfield and defining mature oilfields. According to the statistics of oilfields in eastern China, the time point corresponding to the reserve-production balance coefficient dropping to less than 1dramatically is well correlated the beginning point of production decline, thus the time when the reserve-production balance coefficient drops dramatically can be taken as the initiation point of production decline stage. The research results show that the water cut and the recovery percent of recoverable reserves have a good statistical match in the high water cut stage, and it is more rational to take both the start point of production decline stage and the water cut of 90%(or the recovery percent of recoverable reserves of 80%) as the critical criteria for defining a mature oilfield. Five production evolution patterns can be summarized as follows: growth–peak plateau–stepped decline, growth–stepped stabilizing–stepped decline, growth–stepped stabilizing–rapid decline, growth–peak plateau–rapid decline, and growth–continuous decline.

Influence of meandering river sandstone architecture on waterflooding mechanisms: a case study of the M-I layer in the Kumkol Oilfield, Kazakhstan

In order to explore the influence of sandstone architecture on waterflooding mechanisms using the architecture method,and taking as an example the M-I layer of the Kumkol oilfield in the South Turgay Basin,Kazakhstan,we portrayed the architecture features of different types of sandstones and quantitatively characterized heterogeneities in a single sand body in meandering river facies.Based on the waterflooding characteristics of point bar sand and overbank sand according to waterflooded interpretation results in 367 wells and numerical simulation results of well groups,we finally analyzed the remaining oil potential of the meandering river sandstone and pointed out its development directions at the high water cut stage.The result shows that because lateral accretion shale beds are developed inside single sand bodies,the point bar sand is a semi-connected body.The overbank sand is thin sandstone with poor connectivity,small area and fast lateral changes.The heterogeneity of the overbank sand is stronger than the point bar sand.The sandstone architectures control the waterflooding characteristics.In meandering river sandstones,the bottom of the point bar sand is strongly waterflooded,while the top of the point bar sand and most of the overbank sand are only weakly waterflooded or unflooded.The thickness percentage of unflooded zone and weakly waterflooded zone in point bar sand is 40％,and the remaining oil in its top part is the main direction for future development.

Changing characteristics of ultralow permeability reservoirs during waterflooding operations

The characteristics of ultralow permeability reservoirs changed after waterflooding. Thin- section analysis and scanning electron microscopy （SEM） of core samples from inspection wells indicated that calcite and barite were formed in ultralow permeability reservoirs during waterflooding operations. Some asphaltene precipitates on the surface of formation rock would influence the reservoir porosity, permeability, wettability, and electrical properties. In this paper, the changes of physical, electrical, and fluid properties of ultralow permeability reservoirs during waterflooding operations were analyzed. This provides important information to improve waterflooding performance in ultralow permeability reservoirs.

Determination of microscopic waterflooding characteristics and influence factors in ultra-low permeability sandstone reservoir

Actual sandstone micromodel was used in this work to conduct the microscopic waterflooding experiment of ultra-low sandstone reservoir,since the inside seepage characteristics of microscopic waterflooding process of Chang 8 ultra-low permeability sandstone reservoir of Upper Triassic Yanchang formation in Huaqing region of the Ordos Basin,China is difficult to observe directly.Combined with physical property,casting thin sections,constant-rate mercury injection capillary pressure and nuclear magnetic resonance,the influence of reservoir property on the waterflooding characteristics in pores were analyzed and evaluated.Seepage paths of waterflooding characteristics were divided into four types:homogeneous seepage,reticular-homogeneous seepage,finger-reticular seepage and finger-like seepage,the waterflooding efficiency of which decreases in turn.More than 70%of residual oil occurs as flowing-around seepage and oil film.Physical property,pore structure and movable fluid characteristics are all controlled by digenesis and their impacts on waterflooding efficiency are in accordance.Generally,the pore throat radius size and distribution and movable fluid percentage are closely related to waterflooding law.

Correct understanding and application of waterflooding characteristic curves

Through reviewing the generation process and essential characteristics of waterflooding curves, the essence and characteristics of Zhang Jinqing waterflooding curve and Yu Qitai waterflooding curve recommended in Chinese Petroleum Industry Standard 'Calculation methods for Recoverable Oil Reserves(SY/T5367—1998)' were discussed, and some technical issues related to the curves were examined in-depth. We found that:(1) All the waterflooding curves are based on empirical formulas derived from oilfield production experience and statistics methods, and can characterize oil displacement features by water quite well.(2) A new waterflooding curve can be derived by combining waterflooding parameters and using different mathematical calculations as long as the parameter combinations and mathematical operation meet a linear relationship, so proposing new waterflooding curves by changing the combination mode has no practical significance anymore.(3) The upwarp of waterflooding curve in the extremely high water cut stage is because the mobility ratio curve has an inflection point with the rapid rise of water cut after reaching a certain value, and the later rapid rise of mobility ratio changes the original two-phase flow dynamics.(4) After entering into water cut stage, all the waterflooding curves with linear relationship can be used to make prediction, even curves with inflection points, as long as they have a straight section above the inflection point.(5) Actual data of waterflooding oilfields has proved that Type A, Zhang Jinqing and Yu Qitai waterflooding curves all can predict accurately oil recoverable reserves in extremely high water cut stage and can be promoted.

Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation of Oil Field Waterflooding Effect

Oil field waterflooding is a complex man-controlled systematic behavior, and the related evaluation methods vary greatly. This paper put forward a fuzzy comprehensive method of evaluating controlled development level by analysis of the macroscopic evaluation to oil field waterflooding effect with combination of original reservoir geological state. This fuzzy evaluation technique bears unique advantages because there is little difference among evaluation indexes which represent the dynamic and static state of regional neighborhood of development units (blocks, Production Company, etc.). Not only the mathematical method for evaluating oil field waterflooding effect is set up, but also the method is applied in three blocks of D oil field. The calculated results show the effectiveness and practicability of the method.

Experimental study on the oil production characteristics during the waterflooding of different types of reservoirs in Ordos Basin, NW China

Waterflooding experiments were conducted in micro-models(microscopic scale)and on plunger cores from low permeability,extra-low permeability and ultra-low permeability reservoirs in the Ordos Basin under different displacement pressures using the NMR techniques to find out pore-scale oil occurrence state,oil production characteristics and residual oil distribution during the process of waterflooding and analyze the effect of pore structure and displacement pressure on waterflooding efficiency.Under bound water condition,crude oil mainly occurs in medium and large pores in the low-permeability sample,while small pores and medium pores are the main distribution space of crude oil in extra-low permeability and ultra-low permeability samples.During the waterflooding,crude oil in the medium and large pores of the three types of samples are preferentially produced.With the decrease of permeability of the samples,the waterflooding front sequentially shows uniform displacement,network displacement and finger displacement,and correspondingly the oil recovery factors decrease successively.After waterflooding,the residual oil in low-permeability samples is mainly distributed in medium pores,and appears in membranous and angular dispersed phase;but that in the extra-low and ultra-low permeability samples is mainly distributed in small pores,and appears in continuous phase formed by a bypass flow and dispersed phase.The low-permeability samples have higher and stable oil displacement efficiency,while the oil displacement efficiency of the extra-low permeability and ultra-low permeability samples is lower,but increases to a certain extent with the increase of displacement pressure.

Statistical prediction of waterflooding performance by K-means clustering and empirical modeling

Statistical prediction is often required in reservoir simulation to quantify production uncertainty or assess potential risks.Most existing uncertainty quantification procedures aim to decompose the input random field to independent random variables,and may suffer from the curse of dimensionality if the correlation scale is small compared to the domain size.In this work,we develop and test a new approach,K-means clustering assisted empirical modeling,for efficiently estimating waterflooding performance for multiple geological realizations.This method performs single-phase flow simulations in a large number of realizations,and uses K-means clustering to select only a few representatives,on which the two-phase flow simulations are implemented.The empirical models are then adopted to describe the relation between the single-phase solutions and the two-phase solutions using these representatives.Finally,the two-phase solutions in all realizations can be predicted using the empirical models readily.The method is applied to both 2D and 3D synthetic models and is shown to perform well in the P10,P50 and P90 of production rates,as well as the probability distributions as illustrated by cumulative density functions.It is able to capture the ensemble statistics of the Monte Carlo simulation results with a large number of realizations,and the computational cost is significantly reduced.

Mechanisms and experimental research of ion-matched waterflooding to enhance oil recovery in carbonate reservoirs: A case of Cretaceous limestone reservoirs in Halfaya Oilfield, Middle East

Based on systematically summarizing the achievements of previous ion-matched waterflooding researches,the diversity and synergy of oil recovery enhancement mechanisms and the interaction between mechanisms are examined according to two classification standards,and the influence of behaviors of different ions on different mechanisms and oil displacement efficiency are investigated.Ionic strength is proposed to characterize the behavior differences of univalent and divalent ions,the relationships between ionic strength,effective concentration,and mechanisms are established to characterize the ion behavior behind various mechanisms,and evaluate the performance of ion-matched injection water.The mechanisms of enhancing oil recovery by ion-matched waterflooding include:(1)The ion-matched water can reduce the ion strength and match the ion composition of formation water,thereby reducing the difference between the effective concentration of univalent ions and divalent ions on the surface of carbonate rocks,and improving the effective concentration of potential determining ions(especially SO42-).(2)It can improve wettability,oil-water interface properties,pore structure and physical properties of the reservoir,and finally enable the establishment of a new ionic equilibrium conducive to waterflooding while breaking the original equilibrium.In this study,experiments such as relative permeability curve,interfacial tension,and core-flooding were carried out on carbonate core samples from the Cretaceous Mishrif Formation reservoirs in Halfaya Oilfield,Middle East,a method for injection water evaluation was established and the injection water suitable for these reservoirs was selected:6 times diluted seawater.Compared with ordinary seawater,oil displacement efficiency can be increased by more than 4.60%and compared with the optimum dilution of formation water,oil displacement efficiency can be increased by 3.14%.

Production Dynamic Prediction Method of Waterflooding Reservoir Based on Deep Convolution Generative Adversarial Network(DC-GAN)

The rapid production dynamic prediction of water-flooding reservoirs based on well location deployment has been the basis of production optimization of water-flooding reservoirs.Considering that the construction of geological models with traditional numerical simulation software is complicated,the computational efficiency of the simulation calculation is often low,and the numerical simulation tools need to be repeated iteratively in the process of model optimization,machine learning methods have been used for fast reservoir simulation.However,traditional artificial neural network(ANN)has large degrees of freedom,slow convergence speed,and complex network model.This paper aims to predict the production performance of water flooding reservoirs based on a deep convolutional generative adversarial network(DC-GAN)model,and establish a dynamic mapping relationship between well location deployment and output oil saturation.The network structure is based on an improved U-Net framework.Through a deep convolutional network and deconvolution network,the features of input well deployment images are extracted,and the stability of the adversarial model is strengthened.The training speed and accuracy of the proxy model are improved,and the oil saturation of water flooding reservoirs is dynamically predicted.The results show that the trained DC-GAN has significant advantages in predicting oil saturation by the well-location employment map.The cosine similarity between the oil saturation map given by the trained DC-GAN and the oil saturation map generated by the numerical simulator is compared.In above,DC-GAN is an effective method to conduct a proxy model to quickly predict the production performance of water flooding reservoirs.

Production performance forecasting method based on multivariate time series and vector autoregressive machine learning model for waterflooding reservoirs

A forecasting method of oil well production based on multivariate time series(MTS)and vector autoregressive(VAR)machine learning model for waterflooding reservoir is proposed,and an example application is carried out.This method first uses MTS analysis to optimize injection and production data on the basis of well pattern analysis.The oil production of different production wells and water injection of injection wells in the well group are regarded as mutually related time series.Then a VAR model is established to mine the linear relationship from MTS data and forecast the oil well production by model fitting.The analysis of history production data of waterflooding reservoirs shows that,compared with history matching results of numerical reservoir simulation,the production forecasting results from the machine learning model are more accurate,and uncertainty analysis can improve the safety of forecasting results.Furthermore,impulse response analysis can evaluate the oil production contribution of the injection well,which can provide theoretical guidance for adjustment of waterflooding development plan.

Simulation Studies on Comparative Evaluation of Waterflooding and Gas Injection in Niger Delta Thin-Bed Reservoir

There is a need to increase ultimate recovery from petroleum reservoirs. In order to guarantee efficient resource extraction from reservoirs, primary recovery methods cannot be relied on throughout the life of a well. There is a time in the life of a reservoir when the primary energy will not be sufficient to ensure economic recovery. Complete abandonment of the reservoir at this point may not be a sound engineering decision given the huge investments in developing the asset. Secondary recovery methods present potentials for the recovery of the other trapped resources. The choice of the secondary recovery means depends on the reservoir and geologic conditions and should be determined by modeling and simulation. In this work, a simulation study is conducted for Niger Delta Field ABX2 to determine the performance of water-flooding and gas injection in the recovery of the asset after the primary recovery stage. ECLIPSE Blackoil simulator was used for the modeling and simulation. An equal reservoir rectangular grid block was designed for both the waterflooding and water injection comprising a total of 750 grid cells. Water and gas were injected in both cases at an injection rate of 11,000 stb/d and 300,000 scf/d for waterflooding and gas injection respectively. From the results of the simulation, it was realized that waterflooding gave a higher total oil recovery than gas injection. The difference in oil recovery from water-flooding and gas injection amounted to 0.08 MMstb/d. The Field Oil Recovery Efficiency (FOE) for waterflooding and gas injection was 38% and 16% respectively giving a difference of 22%. The waterflooding method was troubled with excessive water cuts due to water breakthroughs. Waterflooding was chosen against gas injection to be applied to Field ABX2 to improve recovery after primary production ceased.

Analytical model of 2D leakoff in waterflood-induced fractures

Waterflood-induced fractures,also known as self-induced fractures,spontaneously form at injection wells during waterflooding.These fractures propagate long distances through rock,allowing injected fluids to travel far away from a well,both within and outside the flooding layer.Essentially,the me-chanics of waterflood-induced fracture propagation is similar to that of hydraulic fractures,which are intentionally created for reservoir stimulation.Fracturing models developed for hydraulic fractures can also be applied to waterflood-induced fractures.However,waterflood-induced fractures are typically pumped with much larger volumes of water or brine and grow much longer in time.As a result,fluid leakoff from waterflood fractures into the formation is more extensive and two-dimensional(2D),a characteristic that is often ignored in a majority of modern fracturing simulators,making their appli-cation to waterflood fractures unreliable.In this work,we revisit the problem of leakoff for long-growing waterflood-induced fractures and develop a new analytical model for fluid leakoff that provides improved predictions of fracture geometry and can be easily implemented in fracturing simulators.We incorporate the developed solution into the classical Perkins-Kern-Nordgren(PKN)model of fracture growth,which shows that the choice of the Carter or a 2D leakoff model greatly impacts fracture ge-ometry at large time.The conducted parametric study shows while a toughness-dominated regime af-fects fracture evolution,most of fracture lifetime occurs in a viscosity-and-leakoff-dominated regime.We also develop an asymptotic solution for a leakoff profile in the limiting case of 2D leakoff domination(~~M and~~K).Finally,we study 3D fracture growth and out-of-zone injection with three layers and a complex structure of zones.The study shows that ignoring the 2D leakoff during simulation results in a significant overestimation of fracture geometry predictions.The present work,thus,plays an important role in improving waterflood fracture modelling,as it highlights the significance of 2D leakoff in waterflood-induced fractures and provides a reliable analytical model for fluid leakoff that can be incorporated into modern fracture simulators.

高含水复杂断块油藏单层系边外注水开发模式

复杂断块油藏在开发后期面临综合含水率高、地层能量不足、剩余油分布复杂、井网适应性差等问题。以济阳坳陷沾化凹陷中部垦71断块油藏为例,基于水驱油藏的油包水和水包油2种油水分布状态,利用理论模型推导和数值模拟方法,开展了单层系边外注水开发模式研究。结果表明:从采液端和注水端的受力分析可获得单层系开发的合理注水量、合理采液量和合理注采井距,单层系开发的合理注水压差、合理注水量、合理采液量是影响其剩余油饱和度、含水饱和度的关键因素,对油层合理地层压力水平及剩余油二次富集起主要控制作用。通过加大注采井距至油水边界外围,以2.9倍含油条带宽度为合理注采井距的临界值,采用短注长静置的非对称周期注采方式,建立单层系边外注水开发模式,有利于保持单层系的压力系统稳定和提高剩余油波及率,从而提高原油采收率。矿场实践表明,采用单层系边外注水开发模式后,垦71断块油藏日产油量提高至254 t/d,含水率控制在93.7%,采收率提高至31.53%,采油速率提高4.9%,显示出良好的增产效果。单层系边外注水开发模式解决了高含水复杂断块油藏开发中的剩余油分布分散、水驱波及率低和井网适应性差等难题,可为复杂断块油藏开发提供指导和借鉴。

中东巨厚复杂碳酸盐岩油藏分层系均衡注水开发技术

基于中东碳酸盐岩油藏注水开发实践,以两伊地区(伊拉克和伊朗)白垩系巨厚生物碎屑灰岩油藏为例,针对笼统注采导致开发效果差的难题,提出以隐蔽隔夹层为格架精细划分开发层系、多类型多井型井网有机组合、构建均衡注采体系为核心的巨厚复杂碳酸盐岩油藏均衡注水开发技术。两伊地区巨厚碳酸盐岩油藏具有垂向非均质性强、多成因超高渗透层发育、隔夹层隐蔽性强等特征,基于隐蔽隔夹层识别与刻画技术、封隔能力评估技术,提出均衡注水开发技术,形成常规层系架构、精细层系架构、深化层系架构3种均衡注水开发模式和技术。数值模拟表明,均衡注水开发技术可实现两伊地区巨厚复杂碳酸盐岩油藏精细高效注水开发、均衡动用不同类型储量,并为同类油藏的开发优化提供借鉴。

塔里木盆地富满断控破碎体油藏储集类型特征与注水替油效果

塔里木盆地走滑断裂控制的超深油气藏是近年来中国油气勘探开发最重要领域之一,但目前该类型油藏的储集空间类型并不清楚,不同储集空间类型与注水效果关系不明确,严重制约了富满油田的高效开发。在充分分析野外露头、岩心、成像测井以及动态监测资料的基础上,系统剖析了断控破碎体的3种主要储集空间类型及其与注水效果的关系。提出了断控破碎体的概念,指出富满油田主要为断控破碎体油藏,研究结果表明:①断裂空腔型储集体主要分布在断裂带的核部,由断层滑动面产状变化引发内部体积调整形成了“空腔”型洞穴。埋藏条件下的储集空间相对较为封闭,内部孔隙空间较大,注水后原油置换率较高,部分油井动用储量的注水采收率可高达93%。②角砾间孔隙型储集体主要分布在断裂带的核部,由相邻的角砾相互支撑而形成角砾间不规则储集空间类型。该类储集体分布较为均匀,孔隙度中等,单位压降下的产液量较高,但是由于储集空间内部连接并不通畅,注水后置换率较低,需要研究探索构建立体结构井网来提高开发效果。③构造裂缝型储集体主要分布在断裂带的损伤带和过程带,在断层带的两侧和端部发育形成一定宽度的裂缝带。裂缝带周边也会发育少量孔隙,部分区域会形成一定的渗流优势通道,因此注入水的流失量较大,注水效果相对于断裂空腔型储集体较差。研究成果支撑了富满油田上产原油350×10^(4) t,可助推注水开发方案和提高采收率方案的优化,对同类型油藏高效开发具有重要的借鉴意义。

马头营干热岩开采试验场地人工注水诱发地震探讨

结合马头营干热岩区7个临时测震台站的地震观测资料和M1井2022-06~09的加压注水数据,研究地震活动与注水压力、水流量的关系,同时分析诱发地震震源机制解及其对周边应力场的影响。结果表明,注水作业可能诱发了201个地震,震源深度主要集中在0~4 km,这个区段也是地围压较小的安全区域,发生中强震的几率较小;水流量、水压力的改变不仅影响诱发地震的时空分布特征,而且影响地震活动频度,应力积累到一定水平诱发地震发生,之后水流量、水压力与地震频度呈现正相关关系;注水量和震级之间关系不明显,压力和诱发地震震级呈线性相关;在持续注水量达到11 821 m^(3)、压力达到23.46 MPa时,有断层失稳、诱发地震的可能;最大诱发地震的震源机制解为走滑型,主压应力NNW向,与华北区域应力分布有一定偏差,可见M1井开采对局部应力分布有影响;从地震震中位置迁移规律推测,有新的地裂缝产生。