On Correct Accounting of Capillary Forces when Simulating Oil Displacement Processes when Flooding Productive Formations

Abstract

The work is devoted to solving the problem of correctly determining capillary pressure functions during mathematical modeling of oil displacement processes during flooding of productive formations. It is shown that the use of these functions, determined in laboratory conditions using traditional methods using capillarimeters and high-speed centrifuges, when modeling processes of oil displacement from low-permeability productive reservoirs can lead to significant errors. The work notes that when conducting laboratory studies in rock samples, there is no formation of residual oil in a stationary form, while in real conditions of displacement of oil by water from productive formations, residual oil is formed in the rock, and in low-permeability formations the residual oil saturation can reach 50% or more of the pore volume. To obtain capillary pressure curves that more reliably reflect the real processes in productive formations during their flooding, it is proposed that when preparing rock samples for laboratory research, it is proposed to provide for the process of preliminary formation of residual oil saturation in these samples. This will make it possible to more reliably simulate the processes of oil displacement during waterflooding of productive formations in real conditions, especially when developing low-permeability oil and gas reservoirs.