Evaluation of the Enhance Oil Recovery (EOR) Potential of Water and Gas Injection in Oil Shale Reservoirs

Abstract

From oils operators interests has been made by producing oil from unconventional shale reservoirs due to the relatively unpretentious natural gas price. The ultimate recovery of shale resources is still low from 5 to 10 percents assuming even though many incredible work on it has been done to develop shale resources. More and more production strategies and stimulation strategies are being tested and considered to sort out in the improvement of oil production from the shale reservoirs, as a result of the significant role of shale resources in the future oil and gas industry. As we know the simulation approach is an inexpensive and rapid approach to assess its EOR potential, thus there’s a need of conducting a research in laboratory and applying a precise method to enhance oil recovery (EOR) in the field. In designing field testing and laboratory experiments the synthesis of simulation outcome will be assistive. In this paper by waterflooding and by gas flooding, a simulation access to appraise the EOR potential in shale oil reservoirs has been used. By sensitivity studies the oil recovery and production behavior of various strategies and schemes has been discoursed. Simulation results and consequences of gas injection, water injection and primary production have been compared thoroughly. Study and results have shown that the water injection has a much lower potential to improve the oil recovery from that of a shale oil reservoirs whereas miscible gas injection has a higher potential. Above a minimum miscible pressure (MMP) Gas injection can be thoroughly miscible with oil, so decreasing or reducing the viscosity of oil significantly, also in accession to the mechanism of pressure maintenance. Oil recovery factor can be enhanced up to 15.1 percents by gas injection in a shale reservoir which is hydraulically fractured, are specified through the simulation results, whereas from the primary depletion the oil recovery factor is only 6.5 percents. The recovery of oil from gas flooding than from waterflooding is measured about 11.9 percents. The results have shown that the only way to enhance the recovery of oil from shale oil reservoir could be possible from that of miscible gas flooding.