Pore-scale investigation on occurrence characteristics and conformance control mechanisms of emulsion in porous media

Abstract

Microscopic computed tomography (Micro-CT) is used to visualize microscopic flow in sandstone core samples during emulsion flooding. The images obtained during the experiment are processed quantitatively with a series of methods to evaluate the occurrence characteristics and oil recovery enhancement mechanisms of emulsion. (1) The emulsion is distributed in the cores in spherical shape, and its sphericity is significantly different from that of the remaining oil. Sphericity can be taken as a characteristic parameter to identify emulsion. (2) The emulsion with specific size prefers to stay in pores with matching sizes; when the emulsion volume is smaller than the product of the lower limit of pore occupancy and the corresponding pore volume, it will not be able to effectively trap in the pore to achieve conformance control. In the process of emulsion displacement designing, we need to design emulsion with suitable particle size according to the pore distribution of the reservoir. (3) Mobilization ratio of the pores can be increased from 23.1% to 59.3% by emulsion flooding after subsequent water flooding, and the average oil displacement efficiency at the pore-scale can be increased from 22.9% to 75.8% under the test conditions; (4) After emulsion flooding, the clustered remaining oil and the oil phase in the trapped emulsion are the main targets for further EOR.

Keywords

• Micro-CT
• emulsion flooding
• occurrence characteristic
• conformance control
• enhanced oil recovery