Application of Flue Gas Foam-Assisted Steam Flooding in Complex and Difficult-to-Produce Heavy Oil Reservoirs.

Abstract

In order to study the mechanism of improving recovery efficiency of complex difficult-to-recover heavy oil reservoirs and explain the interaction and migration law of flue gas, foam, and steam, this paper designed the experiment of flue gas influence on heavy oil flow and the experiment of flue gas foam displacement in complex difficult-to-recover heavy oil model. The results show that the flue gas has expansion and an energy enhancement effect. Moreover, the interfacial tension of heavy oil can be reduced, and the higher the CO2 content in flue gas, the more beneficial it is to reduce the interfacial tension. When there is an interlayer in the reservoir, the gas can form a "puncture" in the interlayer, which provides a channel for the subsequent upward expansion of steam, so that the upper part of the interlayer can be used to expand the steam sweep range. The main mechanism of improving heavy oil recovery with flue gas foam is that the foam regulates fluid mobility and improves the thermal sweep efficiency of steam. In addition, the injected foam can emulsify with heavy oil, reduce the viscosity of heavy oil, and improve the fluidity of heavy oil. Finally, the maximum oil production rate increased from 1.809 to 2.455 g/min, and the recovery rate increased from 44.3 to 68.8%.