Investigation of effect and mechanism of active water and CO2 huff-and-puff on enhanced oil recovery in tight reservoirs
Abstract view|31|times PDF download|13|times
Abstract
Huff-and-puff is a key technology for the efficient recovery of oil and gas from tight reservoirs. Active water and CO2 are two huff-and-puff media with great development potential; however, their effects on enhanced oil recovery and the contribution of imbibition displacement to enhanced oil recovery need further investigation. In this paper, short cores were spliced into long cores for huff-and-puff experiments, and then nuclear magnetic resonance testing was performed to test the transverse relaxation time spectrum of different core sections at different huff-and-puff cycles. Subsequently, the enhanced oil recovery effects, limited effective distances, and influencing factors of active water and CO2 huff and-puff were evaluated. Meanwhile, a comparative experiment without well soaking in some specific huff-and-puff cycles was designed to quantitatively split the contribution rate of elastic displacement and imbibition displacement. The results show that active water huff-and-puff mainly mobilizes crude oil in large pores, while CO2 huff-and-puff can also mobilize crude oil in small pores. The cumulative oil recovery of active water and CO2 after 4 cycles of huff-and-puff was 24.78% and 40.89%, respectively, and the limited effective distances were 6-8 cm and 8-10 cm, respectively. Elastic displacement is considered the main enhanced oil recovery mechanism of active water and CO2 huff and-puff, while imbibition displacement accounts for 20.86% and 31.52%, respectively. Due to its good diffusion and mass transfer ability, CO2 can more fully participate in the mechanism of imbibition displacement and further improve oil recovery. The findings of this paper can provide valuable theoretical and field data support for the application of huff-and-puff technology in tight reservoirs.
Document Type: Original article
Cited as: Chen, X., Zhu, J., Chao, L., Trivedi, J., Liu, J., Liu, S. Investigation of effect and mechanism of active water and CO2 huff-and-puff on enhanced oil recovery in tight reservoirs. Capillarity, 2025, 14(1): 23-34. https://doi.org/10.46690/capi.2025.01.03
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Adel, I. A., Tovar, F. D., Zhang, F., et al. The impact of MMP on recovery factor during CO2-EOR in unconventional liquid reservoirs. Paper SPE 191752 Presented at SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Dallas, Texas, USA, 24-26 September, 2018.
Ahmed, U., Meehan, D. N. Unconventional Oil and Gas Resources: Exploitation and Development. Boston, USA, CRC Press, 2016.
Ataceri, I., Haddix, G., Schechter, D., et al. Surfactant huff n puff field trials in eagle ford shale-A treatment design comparative analysis. Paper SPE 218135 Presented at SPE Improved Oil Recovery Conference, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA, 22-25 April, 2024.
Cai, J. Some key issues and thoughts on spontaneous imbibi tion in porous media, Chinese Journal of Computational Physics, 2021, 38(5): 505-512. (in Chinese)
Cai, J., Li, C., Song, K., et al. The influence of salinity and mineral components on spontaneous imbibition in tight sandstone. Fuel, 2020, 269: 117087.
Cai, J., Yu, B., Zou, M., et al. Fractal characterization of spontaneous co-current imbibition in porous media. Energy & Fuels, 2010, 24(3): 1860-1867.
Chen, T., Yang, Z., Ding, Y., et al. Waterflooding huff-n-puff in tight oil cores using online nuclear magnetic resonance. Energies, 2018, 11(6): 1524.
Chen, X., Li, Y., Sun, X., et al. Investigation of polymer assisted CO2 flooding to enhance oil recovery in low permeability reservoirs. Polymers, 2023, 15(19): 3886.
Chen, X., Zhang, Q., Trivedi, J., et al. Investigation on enhanced oil recovery and CO2 storage efficiency of temperature-resistant CO2 foam flooding. Fuel, 2024, 364: 130870.
Cudjoe, S. E., Barati, R., Tsau, J.-S., et al. Assessing the efficiency of saturating shale oil cores and evaluating hydrocarbon gas huff ‘n’puff using nuclear magnetic resonance. SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering, 2021, 24(2): 429-439.
Ding, C., Chen, J., Yang, G., et al. Novel method for the rapid evaluation of pressure depletion in tight oil reservoirs. Advances in Geo-Energy Research, 2024, 11(1): 74-80.
Ding, M., Wang, Y., Liu, D., et al. Enhancing tight oil recovery using CO2 huff and puff injection: An experimental study of the influencing factors. Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering, 2021, 90: 103931.
Ganjdanesh, R., Eltahan, E., Sepehrnoori, K., et al. A field pi lot of huff-n-puff gas injection for enhanced oil recovery in Permian Basin. Paper SPE 201622 Presented at SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Virtual, 26-29 October, 2020.
Hao, Y., Wu, Z., Chen, Z., et al. The characteristics and effects of huff-n-puff in shale with brine, aqueous surfactant solutions and CO2. Journal of CO2 Utilization, 2024, 79: 102655.
Huang, X., Wang, X., He, M., et al. The influence of CO2 huff and puff in tight oil reservoirs on pore structure characteristics and oil production from the microscopic scale. Fuel, 2023, 335: 127000.
Ji, H., Zhang, L., Zhang, L,. et al. Measurement and characterization of mixed wettability for tight sandstone based on spontaneous imbibition contact angle distribution. Journal of Northeast Petroleum University, 2023, 47(2): 117-124. (in Chinese)
Li, L., Sheng, J., Su, Y., et al. Further investigation of effects of injection pressure and imbibition water on CO2 huff-n-puff performance in liquid-rich shale reservoirs. Energy & Fuels, 2018, 32(5): 5789-5798.
Liu, J., Li, H., Tan, Q., et al. Quantitative study of CO2 huff-n-puff enhanced oil recovery in tight formation using online NMR technology. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, 2022, 216: 110688.
Liu, J., Liu, S., Chen, X., et al. A method for synergistic oil recovery based on imbibition agent and imbibition agent. CN117072125A, 2023.
Liu, S., Liu, X., Zhou, Z. Method and device for simulating fracturing fluid imbibition and production enhancement in dual-porosity and dual-permeability medium reservoirs. ZL201910431122.9, 2020.
Lotfollahi, M., Beygi, M. R., Abouie, A., et al. Optimization of surfactant flooding in tight oil reservoirs. Paper URTEC 2696038 Presented at SPE/AAPG/SEG Unconventional Resources Technology Conference, Austin, Texas, USA, 24-26 July, 2017.
Lu, C., Zhang, M., Hua, Y., et al. Investigation of surfactant huff-n-puff injection for enhanced oil recovery in unconventional reservoirs: An integrated experimental and numerical simulation approach coupled with the HLD-NAC methodology. Energy & Fuels, 2023, 38(1): 356-373.
Lv, W., Gong, H., Dong, M., et al. Potential of nonionic polyether surfactant-assisted CO2 huff-n-puff for enhanced oil recovery and CO2 storage in ultra-low permeability unconventional reservoirs. Fuel, 2024, 359: 130474.
Ma, Q., Yang, S., Lv, D., et al. Experimental investigation on the influence factors and oil production distribution in different pore sizes during CO2 huff-n-puff in an ultra-high-pressure tight oil reservoir. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, 2019, 178: 1155-1163.
Maurich, D. Experimental study of the effect of continuous surfactant injection alternating cyclic huff & puff stimulation on oil efficiency recovery in a 3D reservoir physical model. Journal of Applied Science (Japps), 2019, 1(2): 18-30.
Meng, Q., Cai, J. Recent advances in spontaneous imbibition with different boundary conditions. Capillarity, 2018, 1(3): 19-26.
Qin, G., Dai, X., Sui, L., et al. Study of massive water huff-n puff technique in tight oil field and its field application. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, 2021, 196: 107514.
Shi, X., Sun, L., Zhan, J., et al. Carbon dioxide huff-puff technology and application in tight oil horizontalwells in the northern Songliao Basin. Acta Petrolei Sinica, 2022, 43(7): 998-1006. (in Chinese)
Shuler, P. J., Lu, Z., Ma, Q., et al. Surfactant huff-n-puff application potentials for unconventional reservoirs. Paper SPE 179667 Presented at SPE Improved Oil Recovery Conference, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA, 11-13 April, 2016.
Shun, L., Jun, N., Xianli, W., et al. A dual-porous and dualpermeable media model for imbibition in tight sandstone reservoirs. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, 2020, 194: 107477.
Sie, C. Y., Nguyen, Q. Laboratory experiments of field gas huff-n-puff for improving oil recovery from Eagle Ford Shale reservoirs. Arabian Journal of Geosciences, 2022, 15(21): 1634.
Thomas, G., Monger-McClure, T. Feasibility of cyclic CO2 injection for light-oil recovery. SPE Reservoir Engineer ing, 1991, 6(2): 179-184.
Wang, J., Liu, H., Qian, G., et al. Mechanisms and capac ity of high-pressure soaking after hydraulic fracturing in tight/shale oil reservoirs. Petroleum Science, 2021a, 18(6): 546-564.
Wang, S., Zheng, G., Guo, P,. et al. Comparative laboratory wettability study of sandstone, tuff, and shale using 12 MHz NMR T1-T2 fluid typing: Insight of shale. SPE Journal, 2024, 29(9): 4781-4803.
Wang, X., Xie, K., Zhang, J., et al. Study on the key influential factors on water huff-n-puff in ultralow-permeability reservoir. Geofluids, 2021b, 2021: 5885366.
Wan, Y., Jia, C., Lv, W., et al. Recovery mechanisms and formation influencing factors of miscible CO2 huff-n-puff processes in shale oil reservoirs: A systematic review. Advances in Geo-Energy Research, 2024, 11(2): 88-102.
Wei, J., Zhou, X., Zhou, J., et al. CO2 huff-n-puff after surfactant-assisted imbibition to enhance oil recovery for tight oil reservoirs. Energy & Fuels, 2020, 34(6): 7058-7066.
Wei, W., Cai, J., Xiao, J., et al. Kozeny-Carman constant of porous media: Insights from fractal-capillary imbibition theory. Fuel, 2018, 234: 1373-1379.
Wu, H., Wang, L., Yang, Y., et al. Experimental study on optimization of CO2 huff-n-puff demixing agent for tight conglomerate reservoirs. Petroleum Geology and Recovery Efficiency, 2025, 32(1): 147-155. (in Chinese)
Yin, Y., Zhang, H. Advances in tight oil reservoir development: A review of CO2 huff and puff technology. Advances in Resources Research, 2024, 4(3): 280-299.
Yu, H., Yang, Z., Ma, T., et al. The feasibility of asynchronous injection alternating production formultistage fractured horizontal wells in a tight oil reservoir. Petroleum Science Bulletin, 2018, 3(1): 32-44. (in Chinese)
Yu, W., Lashgari, H., and Sepehrnoori, K. Simulation study of CO2 huff-n-puff process in Bakken tight oil reservoirs. Paper SPE 191873 Presented at SPE Western Regional Meeting, Brisbane, Australia, 23-25 October, 2014.
Zhang, F., Adel, I. A., Park, K. H., et al. Enhanced oil recovery in unconventional liquid reservoir using a combination of CO2 huff-n-puff and surfactant-assisted spontaneous imbibition. Paper SPE 191502 Presented at SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Dallas, Texas, USA, 24-26 September, 2018a.
Zhang, T., Dai, C., Wang, K., et al, Analysis of spontaneous and dynamic imbibition characteristics of silica-based nanofluid in microscopic pore structure of tight oil reservoirs. Langmuir, 2024, 40(47): 25250-25261.
Zhang, Y., Yu, W., Li, Z., et al. Simulation study of factors affecting CO2 Huff-n-Puff process in tight oil reservoirs. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, 2018b, 163: 264-269.
Zhao, X., Liu, X., Yang, Z., et al. Experimental study on physical modeling of flow mechanism in volumetric fracturing of tight oil reservoir. Physics of Fluids, 2021, 33(10): 107118.
Zhou, X., Wang, Y., Zhang, L., et al. Evaluation of enhanced oil recovery potential using gas/water flooding in a tight oil reservoir. Fuel, 2020, 272: 117706.
Zuloaga, P., Yu, W., Miao, J., et al. Performance evaluation of CO2 Huff-n-Puff and continuous CO2 injection in tight oil reservoirs. Energy, 2017, 134: 181-192.
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
Copyright (c) 2025 The Author(s)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.