Experimental study on spontaneous imbibition characteristics of tight rocks

Abstract

In the exploitation of tight oil and gas reservoirs, multi-stage hydraulic fracturing technology is mainly used and a complex system of fractures and matrix is formed after fracturing. In the process of field production, it is reported that longer shut-in time results in good oil and gas production rate. The reason of this phenomenon is considered as the spontaneous imbibition of oil and gas driven by capillary force in reservoirs. Spontaneous imbibition is an important recovery mechanism in low permeability and tight reservoirs. The pore structure of tight rocks is very complex and the pore connectivity is poor. It is of great significance to study the imbibition mechanism of tight porous rocks. Through the combination of spontaneous imbibition experiments, this work studies the influencing factors and reveals the mechanism of the gas/oil recovery from tight reservoirs. The spontaneous imbibition experiments were carried on the gas/water system and the oil/water system. The swelling clay minerals in shales will enhance the imbibition. Cores with high permeability have small recovery, which may be due to the low capillary force in tight cores. Fractures can promote the imbibition volume of tight cores.

Cited as: Gao, L., Yang, Z., Shi, Y. Experimental study on spontaneous imbibition characteristics of tight rocks. Advances in Geo-Energy Research, 2018, 2(3): 292-304, doi: 10.26804/ager.2018.03.07

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