Abstract
Waterflooding performance is significantly affected by the capillary pressure in low-permeability reservoirs because of the fine pores and throats as well as the difference of interfacial surfaces and viscosities between the displacing and displaced fluids. While there is no doubt that water displacement under such conditions is obviously different from the typical Buckley-Leverett (B-L) theory. Therefore, a mechanism understanding of oil displacement by waterflooding in the presence of capillary pressure is the basis for predicting the ultimate recovery and water cut, and there is a need for developing a mathematical model to describe waterflooding under low-permeability condition. A method was proposed to investigate the effect of capillary pressure on water displacement process. Based on the exponential relationship between relative permeability and water saturation, Darcy’s equation, and non-piston displacement theory, a new water driving characteristic curve chart was obtained for analyzing the waterflooding effect and predicting ultimate oil recovery. Furthermore, the influences of different factors on waterflooding performance considering capillary pressure were discussed. Results show that the oil/water viscosity ratio, oil recovery rate, and relative permeability ratio significantly influence the water breakthrough time, waterflooding sweep efficiency, and ultimate recovery. Capillary pressure decreases the waterless recovery degree, accelerates the increase rate of water cut and shortens waterless oil production period in low permeability reservoirs.
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This paper was prepared for presentation at the 2019 International Field Exploration and Development Conference in Xi’an, China, 16–18 October, 2019.
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The project is supported by the major special project of Petrochina (Grant Number: 2016D-44). The authors also wish to thank the directors, for permission to publish this paper.
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Fu, Lb., Hao, Fj., Chen, S., Bo, B., Ni, J. (2020). Capillary Effects on Waterflooding Performance in Low Permeability Reservoirs. In: Lin, J. (eds) Proceedings of the International Field Exploration and Development Conference 2019. IFEDC 2019. Springer Series in Geomechanics and Geoengineering. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2485-1_7
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