Toward A Mechanistic Understanding of Re-Infiltration in Naturally Fractured Reservoirs with Surfactant-Aided Gravity Drainage Process |
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Authors: | Behrouz M Davoudi Mehdi Assareh |
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Affiliation: | School of Chemical, Petroleum and Gas Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, 16846-13114 Iran |
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Abstract: | Surfactant-aided gravity drainage is an improved oil recovery technique for water-invaded zone in fractured carbonate reservoirs, which are mostly oil-wet or mixed-wet rocks. The re-infiltration mechanism in water-invaded zone has a considerable effect on oil vertical movement in gravity drainage processes. In this work, a mechanistic understanding of re-infiltration in surfactant-aided gravity drainage, in comparison to oil–water gravity drainage is presented using an experimentally and numerically validated model. A column model is constructed from three matrix blocks. These blocks are separated from each other by horizontal fractures. A storage tank is considered on top of the model to store depleted oil from matrix blocks. The stacked-blocks model for re-infiltration is validated and verified to simulate water and chemical flooding using a mesh independency study and experimental flooding data in a composite core experiment. Using this model, several analyses are performed to investigate effects of rock and fluid properties, rock saturation functions, wettability alteration, surfactant adsorption, and capillary continuity on re-infiltration. |
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Keywords: | Surfactant Gravity drainage Re-infiltration Oil wet rock Fractured reservoirs |
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