Correlations of residual oil distribution with pore structure during the water flooding process in sandstone reservoirs

Abstract

The displacement of residual oil by water flooding in porous media is an important mechanism of enhanced oil recovery in many sandstone reservoirs. Nonetheless, our basic understanding of the influence of complex pore geometries of natural porous media on fluid distribution is still incomplete. Herein, two-phase flow simulations were performed to investigate the pore-scale dynamics of imbibition in a heterogeneous sandstone rock sample. Furthermore, the relationship between residual oil distribution and pore structure parameters was quantitatively characterized based on a pore-throat segmentation method. The findings suggest that the pore-scale displacement and snap-off processes have a strong dependence on the coordination number and aspect ratio. The entrapment and remobilization of oil clusters were also analyzed under continuous and discontinuous displacement modes. In addition, a new quantitative method to evaluate the displacement potential and mobilization pattern of remaining oil was presented and discussed. Statistical analysis revealed that the development of sub-pathways and the suppression of snap-off are responsible for the decrease in residual oil saturation with increasing capillary number during water injection. Moreover, the connected residual oil clusters trapped in pores with high coordination number prefer to be displaced and produced. Finally, the displacement modes with different capillary numbers under different initial oil distributions were evaluated to explain the effect of pore structure. By incorporating these correlations of displacement events with pore-throat geometry, existing predictive models can be improved, which could be helpful for the fine tapping of highly disconnected remaining oil in sandstone reservoirs.

Document Type: Original article

Cited as: Zhang, Q., Yang, Y., Wang, D., Sun, H., Zhong, J., Yao, J., Lisitsa, V. Correlations of residual oil distribution with pore structure during the water flooding process in sandstone reservoirs. Advances in Geo-Energy Research, 2024, 12(2): 113-126. https://doi.org/10.46690/ager.2024.05.04

References

Alhammadi, A. M., Gao, Y., Akai, T., et al. Pore-scale X-ray imaging with measurement of relative permeability, capillary pressure and oil recovery in a mixed-wet micro-porous carbonate reservoir rock. Fuel, 2020, 268: 117018.

Alizadeh, M., Fatemi, M. Pore-doublet computational fluid dynamic simulation of the effects of dynamic contact angle and interfacial tension alterations on the displacement mechanisms of oil by low salinity water. International Journal of Multiphase Flow, 2021, 143: 103771.

Andersson, L., Herring, A., Schlüter, S., et al. Defining a novel pore-body to pore-throat “Morphological Aspect Ratio” that scales with residual non-wetting phase capillary trapping in porous media. Advances in Water Resources, 2018, 122: 251-262.

Andrew, M., Bijeljic, B., Blunt, M. J. Pore-scale contact angle measurements at reservoir conditions using X-ray microtomography. Advances in Water Resources, 2014, 68: 24-31.

Armstrong, R. T., Porter, M. L., Wildenschild, D. Linking pore-scale interfacial curvature to column-scale capillary pressure. Advances in Water Resources, 2012, 46: 55-62.

Aziz, R., Niasar, V., Erfani, H., et al. Impact of pore morphology on two-phase flow dynamics under wettability alteration. Fuel, 2020, 268: 117315.

Blunt, M. J. Physically-based network modeling of multi-phase flow in intermediate-wet porous media. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, 1998, 20(3): 117-125.

Blunt, M. J. Multiphase Flow in Permeable Media: A Pore-Scale Perspective. London, UK, Cambridge University Press, 2017.

Blunt, M. J., Bijeljic, B., Dong, H., et al. Pore-scale imaging and modelling. Advances in Water Resources, 2013, 51: 197-216.

Brackbill, J. U., Kothe, D. B., Zemach, C. A continuum method for modeling surface tension. Journal of Computational Physics, 1992, 100(2): 335-354.

Bultreys, T., Singh, K., Raeini, A. Q., et al. Verifying pore network models of imbibition in rocks using time-resolved synchrotron imaging. Water Resources Research, 2020, 56(6): e2019WR026587.

Cai, J., Chen, Y., Liu, Y., et al. Capillary imbibition and flow of wetting liquid in irregular capillaries: A 100-year review. Advances in Colloid and Interface Science, 2022, 304: 102654.

Chatzis, I., Dullien, F. A. L. Dynamic immiscible displacement mechanisms in pore doublets: Theory versus experiment. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 1983, 91(1): 199-222.

Ellman, S., Mascini, A., Bultreys, T. Validating mechanistic models of fluid displacement during imbibition. Advances in Water Resources, 2024, 183: 104590.

Gao, Y., Raeini, A. Q., Blunt, M. J., et al. Dynamic fluid con-figurations in steady-state two-phase flow in Bentheimer sandstone. Physical Review E, 2021, 103(1): 013110.

Gong, W., Liu, Y., Xi, C., et al. Dynamic characterization of residual oil during long-term waterflooding experiments in heterogeneous porous structures. Fuel, 2024, 356: 129567.

Graveleau, M., Soulaine, C., Tchelepi, H. A. Pore-scale simulation of interphase multicomponent mass transfer for subsurface flow. Transport in Porous Media, 2017, 120(2): 287-308.

Guo, Y., Zhang, L., Zhu, G., et al. A Pore-scale investigation of residual oil distributions and enhanced oil recovery methods. Energies, 2019, 12(19): 3732.

Joekar-Niasar, V., Hassanizadeh, S. M., Dahle, H. K. Non-equilibrium effects in capillarity and interfacial area in two-phase flow: Dynamic pore-network modelling. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 2010, 655: 38-71.

Kimbrel, E. J. H., Wildenschild, D., Herring, A. L., et al. The effect of original and initial saturation on residual non-wetting phase capillary trapping efficiency. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, 2022, 120: 103758.

Li, J., Jiang, H., Wang, C., et al. Pore-scale investigation of microscopic remaining oil variation characteristics in water-wet sandstone using CT scanning. Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering, 2017, 48: 36-45.

Li, J., Liu, Y., Gao, Y., et al. Effects of microscopic pore structure heterogeneity on the distribution and morphology of remaining oil. Petroleum Exploration and Development, 2018, 45(6): 1112-1122.

Liang, M., Yang, S., Miao, T., et al. Minimum applied pressure for a drop through an abruptly constricted capillary. Microfluidics and Nanofluidics, 2015, 19(1): 1-8.

Lin, Q., Bijeljic, B., Berg, S., et al. Minimal surfaces in porous media: Pore-scale imaging of multiphase flow in an altered-wettability Bentheimer sandstone. Physical Review E, 2019, 99(6): 063105.

Liu, S., Dou, X., Zeng, Q., et al. Critical parameters of the Jamin effect in a capillary tube with a contracted cross section. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, 2021, 196: 107635.

Mascini, A., Boone, M., Van Offenwert, S., et al. Fluid invasion dynamics in porous media with complex wettability and connectivity. Geophysical Research Letters, 2021, 48(22): e2021GL095185.

Michels, R., Siebert, D. N., dos Santos, L. O. E. Investigation on the influence of capillary number on drainage in porous media using a lattice Boltzmann method. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, 2021, 205: 108918.

Mohamed, A. I. A., Khishvand, M., Piri, M. A pore-scale experimental investigation of process-dependent capillary desaturation. Advances in Water Resources, 2020, 144: 103702.

Nabizadeh, A., Adibifard, M., Hassanzadeh, H., et al. Computational fluid dynamics to analyze the effects of initial wetting film and triple contact line on the efficiency of immiscible two-phase flow in a pore doublet model. Journal of Molecular Liquids, 2019, 273: 248-258.

Namaee-Ghasemi, A., Ayatollahi, S., Mahani, H. Pore-scale simulation of the interplay between wettability, capillary number and salt dispersion on the efficiency of oil mobilization by low salinity waterflooding. SPE Journal, 2021, 26(6): 4000-4021.

Nguyen, V. H., Sheppard, A. P., Knackstedt, M. A., et al. The effect of displacement rate on imbibition relative permeability and residual saturation. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, 2006, 52(1): 54-70.

Pak, T., Butler, I. B., Geiger, S., et al. Droplet fragmentation: 3D imaging of a previously unidentified porescale process during multiphase flow in porous media. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2015, 112(7): 1947-1952.

Pak, T., Rabbani, H. S., Qaseminejad Raeini, A., et al. Effects of the pore morphology on multiphase fluid displacement in porous media-A high-resolution modeling investigation. ACS Omega, 2023, 8(4): 3889-3895.

Patel, H. V., Kuipers, J. A. M., Peters, E. A. J. F. Effect of flow and fluid properties on the mobility of multiphase flows through porous media. Chemical Engineering Science, 2019, 193: 243-254.

Pereira, G. G. Fluid flow, relative permeabilities and capillary pressure curves through heterogeneous porous media. Applied Mathematical Modelling, 2019, 75: 481-493.

Qin, X., Xia, Y., Qiao, J., et al. Modeling of multiphase flow in low permeability porous media: Effect of wettability and pore structure properties. Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, 2023, in press, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrmge.2023.06.007.

Raeini, A. Q., Bijeljic, B., Blunt, M. J. Generalized net-work modeling: Network extraction as a coarse-scale discretization of the void space of porous media. Physical Review E, 2017, 96(1): 013312.

Raeini, A. Q., Blunt, M. J., Bijeljic, B. Modelling two-phase flow in porous media at the pore scale using the volume-of-fluid method. Journal of Computational Physics, 2012, 231(17): 5653-5668.

Rusche, H. Computational Fluid Dynamics of Dispersed Two-Phase Flows at High Phase Fractions. London, UK, Imperial College, 2002.

Shams, M., Raeini, A. Q., Blunt, M. J., et al. A study to investigate viscous coupling effects on the hydraulic conductance of fluid layers in two-phase flow at the pore level. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 2018, 522: 299-310.

Shams, M., Singh, K., Bijeljic, B., et al. Direct numerical simulation of pore-scale trapping events during capillary-dominated two-phase flow in porous media. Transport in Porous Media, 2021, 138: 443-458.

Singh, K., Bultreys, T., Raeini, A. Q., et al. New type of pore-snap-off and displacement correlations in imbibition. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 2022, 609: 384-392.

Singh, K., Menke, H., Andrew, M., et al. Dynamics of snap-off and pore-filling events during two-phase fluid flow in permeable media. Scientific Reports, 2017, 7(1): 5192.

Ubbink, O., Issa, R. I. A method for capturing sharp fluid interfaces on arbitrary meshes. Journal of Computational Physics, 1999, 153(1): 26-50.

Wang, S., Chen, L., Feng, Q., et al. Pore-scale simulation of gas displacement after water flooding using three-phase lattice Boltzmann method. Capillarity, 2023a, 6(2): 19-30.

Wang, W., Xie, Q., An, S., et al. Pore-scale simulation of multiphase flow and reactive transport processes involved in geologic carbon sequestration. Earth-Science Reviews, 2023b, 247: 104602.

Wang, W., Xie, Q., Wang, H., et al. Pseudopotential-based multiple-relaxation-time lattice Boltzmann model for multicomponent and multiphase slip flow. Advances in Geo-Energy Research, 2023c, 9(2): 106-116.

Wang, X., Yin, H., Zhao, X., et al. Microscopic remaining oil distribution and quantitative analysis of polymer flooding based on CT scanning. Advances in Geo-Energy Research, 2019, 3(4): 448-456.

Weller, H. G., Tabor, G., Jasak, H., et al. A tensorial approach to computational continuum mechanics using object-oriented techniques. Computer in Physics, 1998, 12(6): 620-631.

Wu, D. S., Hu, R., Lan, T., et al. Role of pore-scale disorder in fluid displacement: Experiments and theo-retical model. Water Resources Research, 2021, 57(1): e2020WR028004.

Yang, P., Guo, H., Yang, D. Determination of residual oil distribution during waterflooding in tight oil formations with NMR relaxometry measurements. Energy & Fuels, 2013, 27(10): 5750-5756.

Yang, Y., Cai, S., Yao, J., et al. Pore-scale simulation of remaining oil distribution in 3D porous media affected by wettability and capillarity based on volume of fluid method. International Journal of Multiphase Flow, 2021, 143: 103746.

Yang, Y., Tao, L., Iglauer, S., et al. Quantitative statistical evaluation of micro residual oil after polymer flooding based on X-ray micro computed-tomography scanning. Energy & Fuels, 2020, 34(9): 10762-10772.

Yang, Y., Wang, J., Wang, J., et al. Pore-scale modeling of coupled CO2 flow and dissolution in 3D porous media for geological carbon storage. Water Resources Research, 2023, 59(10): e2023WR035402.

Yang, Y., Yang, H., Tao, L., et al. Microscopic determination of remaining oil distribution in sandstones with different permeability scales using computed tomography scanning. Journal of Energy Resources Technology, 2019, 141(9): 092903.

Zacharoudiou, I., Chapman, E. M., Boek, E. S., et al. Pore-filling events in single junction micro-models with corre-sponding lattice Boltzmann simulations. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 2017, 824: 550-573.

Zhang, C., Zhang, Q., Wang, W., et al. Capillary and viscous forces during CO2 flooding in tight reservoirs. Capillarity, 2022, 5(6): 105-114.

Zhang, Y., Lin, C., Ren, L. Flow patterns and pore structure effects on residual oil during water and CO2 flooding: In situ CT scanning. Energy & Fuels, 2023, 37(20): 15570-15586.