Displacement behavior and mechanism of long-term water flooding in sandstone oil reservoirs

Abstract

Sandstone oil reservoirs with huge bottom water and high permeability are generally developed with high flow rate. After long-term water flooding (LTWF), the water flooding characteristics are quite different from that of original reservoir. In this paper, the effects of the PV number, viscosity, and displacement rate during LTWF are studied through experiments. The mechanism is analyzed based on analysis of changes in oil composition, rock mineral composition and wettability. The oil-water relative permeability curves, oil recovery and wettability were obtained with new experiments methods, which avoids the oil metering error by measuring oil and water separately. The research indicates that when the viscosity increases, the water phase permeability decreases, the residual oil saturation increases, and the water content rate increases earlier. A higher water flooding rate results in a higher ultimate recovery. A higher asphaltene content results in a higher viscosity and more oil-wet reservoir conditions. After LTWF, the wettability tends to water-wet, which is more favorable for heavy oil recovery. Moreover, LTWF reduces the clay content, which creates a more water-wet surface and a larger reservoir pore throat environment. This research provides insightful characteristics of offshore sandstone oil reservoirs, which can be used to enhance oil recovery.