Countercurrent imbibition is an important mechanism for tight oil recovery,that is,water imbibes spontaneously from the fracture into the porous matrix while oil flows reversely into the fracture.Its significance over...Countercurrent imbibition is an important mechanism for tight oil recovery,that is,water imbibes spontaneously from the fracture into the porous matrix while oil flows reversely into the fracture.Its significance over cocurrent imbibition and forced imbibition is highlighted when permeability reduces.We used the computed tomography(CT)scanning to measure the one-dimensional evolution of water saturation profile and countercurrent imbibition distance(CID)at different fluid pressures,initial water saturations,and permeability.Surprisingly,experiments show that CID evolution for tight reservoir cores dramatically deviates from the classical diffusive rule(i.e.,evolutes proportional to square root of time,t^(0.5)).At early stage,CID extends faster than t^(0.5)(super-diffusive);while at late stage,CID extends much slower than t^(0.5)(sub-diffusive).After tens of hours,the CID change becomes too slow to be practically efficient for tight oil recovery.This research demonstrates that this deviation from classic theory is a result of(1)a much longer characteristic capillary length than effective invasion depth,which eliminates full development of a classical displacement front;and(2)non-zero flow at low water saturation,which was always neglected for conventional reservoir and is amplified in sub-mili-Darcy rocks.To well depict the details of the imbibition front in this situation,we introduce non-zero wetting phase fluidity at low saturation into classical countercurrent imbibition model and conduct numerical simulations,which successfully rationalizes the non-diffusive behavior and fits experimental data.Our data and theory imply an optimum soaking time in tight oil recovery by countercurrent imbibition,beyond which increasing exposed fracture surface area becomes a more efficient enhanced oil recovery(EOR)strategy than soaking for longer time.展开更多
The multi-scaled pore networks of shale or tight reservoirs are considerably different from the conventional sandstone reservoirs.After hydraulic fracturing treatment,the spontaneous imbibition process plays an import...The multi-scaled pore networks of shale or tight reservoirs are considerably different from the conventional sandstone reservoirs.After hydraulic fracturing treatment,the spontaneous imbibition process plays an important role in the productivity of the horizontal wells.Applying the color-gradient model of Lattice Boltzmann Method(LBM)accelerated with parallel computing,we studied the countercurrent spontaneous imbibition process in two kinds of pore structures with different interlacing distributions of large and small pores.The effect of geometry configuration of pore arrays with different pore-scale and the capillary number Ca on the mechanism of counter-current spontaneous imbibition as well as the corresponding oil recovery factor are studied.We found that the wetting phase tends to invade the small pore array under small Ca in both types of geometry configurations of different pore arrays of four pore arrays zones.The wetting phase also tends to invade the pore array near the inlet for injecting the wetting phase no matter if it is a large pore array or small pore array except for the situation when the Ca is large to a certain value.In this situation,the small pore arrays show resistance to the wetting phase,so the wetting phase doesn't invade the small pore near the inlet,but invades the large pore preferentially.Both the geometry configurations of different pore arrays and Ca have a significant effect on the oil recovery factor.This work will help to solve the doubt about the selectivity of the multi-scaled pores of the wetting phase and the role of pores with different sizes in imbibition and oil draining in countercurrent spontaneous imbibition processes.展开更多
文摘Countercurrent imbibition is an important mechanism for tight oil recovery,that is,water imbibes spontaneously from the fracture into the porous matrix while oil flows reversely into the fracture.Its significance over cocurrent imbibition and forced imbibition is highlighted when permeability reduces.We used the computed tomography(CT)scanning to measure the one-dimensional evolution of water saturation profile and countercurrent imbibition distance(CID)at different fluid pressures,initial water saturations,and permeability.Surprisingly,experiments show that CID evolution for tight reservoir cores dramatically deviates from the classical diffusive rule(i.e.,evolutes proportional to square root of time,t^(0.5)).At early stage,CID extends faster than t^(0.5)(super-diffusive);while at late stage,CID extends much slower than t^(0.5)(sub-diffusive).After tens of hours,the CID change becomes too slow to be practically efficient for tight oil recovery.This research demonstrates that this deviation from classic theory is a result of(1)a much longer characteristic capillary length than effective invasion depth,which eliminates full development of a classical displacement front;and(2)non-zero flow at low water saturation,which was always neglected for conventional reservoir and is amplified in sub-mili-Darcy rocks.To well depict the details of the imbibition front in this situation,we introduce non-zero wetting phase fluidity at low saturation into classical countercurrent imbibition model and conduct numerical simulations,which successfully rationalizes the non-diffusive behavior and fits experimental data.Our data and theory imply an optimum soaking time in tight oil recovery by countercurrent imbibition,beyond which increasing exposed fracture surface area becomes a more efficient enhanced oil recovery(EOR)strategy than soaking for longer time.
基金supported by the Joint foundation for enterprise innovation and development of the National Natural Science Foundation of China(U19B6003-03-04-03)by the Beijing Municipal Natural Science Foundation(No.2214077).
文摘The multi-scaled pore networks of shale or tight reservoirs are considerably different from the conventional sandstone reservoirs.After hydraulic fracturing treatment,the spontaneous imbibition process plays an important role in the productivity of the horizontal wells.Applying the color-gradient model of Lattice Boltzmann Method(LBM)accelerated with parallel computing,we studied the countercurrent spontaneous imbibition process in two kinds of pore structures with different interlacing distributions of large and small pores.The effect of geometry configuration of pore arrays with different pore-scale and the capillary number Ca on the mechanism of counter-current spontaneous imbibition as well as the corresponding oil recovery factor are studied.We found that the wetting phase tends to invade the small pore array under small Ca in both types of geometry configurations of different pore arrays of four pore arrays zones.The wetting phase also tends to invade the pore array near the inlet for injecting the wetting phase no matter if it is a large pore array or small pore array except for the situation when the Ca is large to a certain value.In this situation,the small pore arrays show resistance to the wetting phase,so the wetting phase doesn't invade the small pore near the inlet,but invades the large pore preferentially.Both the geometry configurations of different pore arrays and Ca have a significant effect on the oil recovery factor.This work will help to solve the doubt about the selectivity of the multi-scaled pores of the wetting phase and the role of pores with different sizes in imbibition and oil draining in countercurrent spontaneous imbibition processes.
