An experimental study on horizontal well waterflooding in the Cretaceous porous carbonate reservoir of Oman

Porous carbonate reservoirs,prevalent in the Middle East,are lithologically dominated by bioclastic limestones,exhibiting high porosity,low permeability,intricate pore structure,and strong heterogeneity.Waterflooding through horizontal wells is commonly used for exploiting these reservoirs.However,challenges persist,such as significant uncertainty and complex operational procedures regarding adjustment effects during the exploitation.The USH reservoir of the Cretaceous D oilfield,Oman exemplifies typical porous carbonate reservoirs.It initially underwent depletion drive using vertical wells,followed by horizontal well waterflooding in the late stage.Currently,the oilfield is confronted with substantial developmental challenges,involving the understanding of residual oil distribution,effective water cut control,and sustaining oil production since it has entered the late development stage.Employing a microscopic visualization displacement system equipped with electrodes,this study elucidated the waterflooding mechanisms and residual oil distribution in the late-stage development of the USH reservoir.The results reveal that the reservoir's vertical stacking patterns act as the main factor affecting the horizontal well waterflooding efficacy.Distinct water flow channels emerge under varying reservoir stacking patterns,with post-waterflooding residual oil predominantly distributed at the reservoir's top and bottom.The oil recovery can be enhanced by adjusting the waterflooding's flow line and intensity.The findings of this study will provide theoretical insights of waterflooding mechanisms and injection-production adjustments for exploiting other porous carbonate reservoirs in the Middle East through horizontal wells.

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.

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.

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.