Experimental Study on the Control Mechanism of Non-Equilibrium Retrograde Condensation in Buried Hill Fractured Condensate Gas Reservoirs

Abstract

During the depletion development of condensate gas reservoirs, when the formation pressure drops below the dew point pressure, the condensate oil and natural gas systems are in the non-equilibrium state of foggy retrograde condensation. The rational use of the non-equilibrium phase characteristics of the foggy retrograde condensation phenomenon during the development process will be beneficial to the recovery of condensate oil and natural gas. In order to clarify the retrograde condensation control mechanism during the non-equilibrium depletion development of condensate gas reservoirs, the phase characteristics of a condensate oil and gas system were studied by constant composition expansion and constant volume depletion experiments. Then, on the basis of a long core depletion experiment and chromatographic analysis experiment, the influence of different pressure drop speeds, fluid properties, and reservoir physical properties on the control effect of non-equilibrium retrograde condensation after the coupling of the fluid retrograde condensation and reservoir core is analyzed. The results show that during the pressure decline process, the condensate oil and gas system will produce a strong foggy retrograde condensation phenomenon, with the saturation of the retrograde condensate increasing and then decreasing. The cumulative recovery of the condensate oil and natural gas, as well as the mass fraction of the heavy components in the condensate oil, increase with the increase in the depletion rate. Different fluid properties and reservoir physical properties have a great influence on the cumulative recovery degree of the condensate oil, and have little influence on the recovery degree of the natural gas. This work has a certain guiding role for the stable production and enhanced recovery of fractured condensate gas reservoirs in subsurface structures of metamorphic rocks.