CAPILLARY PROCESSES DURING FLOODING OF LAYERED-HETEROMOGENEOUS PRODUCTIVE FORMATIONS

Abstract

The paper presents an analysis of existing laboratory methods for determining capillary pressure functions used in mathematical and computer modeling of the processes of capillary impregnation of low-permeability layers of layered heterogeneous hydrophilic reservoirs during their flooding.It is shown that in existing methods for determining capillary pressure functions in rock samples using capillarimeters and high-speed centrifuges, the factor of the formation of residual oil in the pore space of the rock is not taken into account. At the same time, the processes of displacement of oil by water from productive formations and, in particular, the processes of capillary impregnation of the rock, are characterized by the processes of formation of microvolumes precisely of immobile residual oil in its pore space. Meanwhile, when conducting laboratory studies of rock samples using existing methods, another process is physically reproduced — the process of displacement of water by oil, during which microvolumes of residual water, rather than oil, are formed.This difference in the structure of the oil-water medium leads to a significant difference between the capillary pressure functions determined by traditional methods and the capillary pressure functions that control the distribution of oil and water phases in the pore space of rocks in the processes of displacement of oil from them by water pumped into the reservoir.This difference is especially significant when flooding low-permeability rocks characterized by high capillary pressure values.The work suggests possible approaches to conducting laboratory studies of rock cores that are more consistent with the structural features of the oil-water environment during flooding of productive formations.For the most complete capillary impregnation of low-permeable layers of a layered heterogeneous formation with water from quickly watered high-permeability layers, a method is proposed that consists in the fact that the water pumped into the formation must contain the minimum required amount of oil, ensuring the mobility (connectivity) of the oil phase in the watered high-permeability layers.For this purpose, water from production wells containing a certain amount of residual oil can be used for injection into the reservoir. The economic feasibility of the proposed method should be justified by the results of computer modeling of capillary impregnation processes, taking into account the described features of capillary pressure functions characteristic ofprocesses of oil displacement from productive formations during their waterflooding.