Effect of CO2 Flooding During EOR Process on the Rock Petrophysical and Electrical Properties

Abstract

Abstract During the life of a producing oil field several production stages are encountered. Initially, when the field is launched to production, oil flows naturally to the surface due to existing reservoir pressure in the primary phase. As reservoir pressure drops, water is typically injected to boost the pressure to displace the oil in the secondary phase. After water flooding the remaining oil can be recovered by a variety of means such as Carbon dioxide (CO2) injection, natural gas miscible injection, and steam recovery in the final tertiary or enhanced oil recovery (EOR) phase. CO2 has the capability of invading the zones that were unswept by water, as well as releasing and reducing trapped oil. This paper discusses some of the experimental work that have been done in the literature and trying to connect it together to address the effect of CO2 flooding on the electrical properties of carbonate rocks and this paper will motivate the reader towards a new area of research that have not been fully covered. Knowing the change of rock electrical properties with the CO2 injection will enable the monitoring of CO2 front using electrical logging survey. This process can be used in EOR or storage in brine aquifers, the status of the reservoir can be determined through the monitoring of CO2 by seismic or electrical survey.