EOR: Challenges of Translating Fine Scale Displacement into Full Field Models-Part 2

Abstract

Abstract Accurate realistic modeling of the physics governing the process occurring during an EOR displacement is an important challenge the industry is facing when trying to understand and evaluate the potential enhanced-oil-recovery may bring to a given reservoir. Numerical models have been widely used for this task, displacing the traditional analytical techniques under the premise of more reliable results as a function of a detailed representation of the reservoir recovery mechanisms within the models, and often time models which, typically were designed for primary and/or secondary depletion processes are used directly for the tertiary evaluation. This paper is a continuation of an early investigation aimed to address the main challenges of modeling the fine scale displacements with a full field numerical model. The effects of model resolution, relative permeability up-scaling and force balance for immiscible displacements were investigated in our first paper. Here we concentrate on the effects of reservoir heterogeneity together with model resolution for both miscible and immiscible displacements. Up-scaling challenges are presented as a function of the displacement type and force balance, as well as the effect of fine level heterogeneity and viscous and capillary forces balance during EOR injection processes.