Investigation of Oil Saturation Development behind Spontaneous Imbibition Front Using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance T2

Abstract

Spontaneous imbibition is a critical mechanism for the development of water-wet fractured reservoirs. In order to improve the ultimate oil recovery, it is important to understand the change of in situ oil saturation during the spontaneous imbibition process. In this study, spontaneous imbibition experiments of two ends open (TEO) are conducted using unconsolidated sand packs. The sand packs are filled with quartz sands of three different particle sizes respectively and are fully oil-saturated. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) T2 is used to monitor the saturation development behind spontaneous imbibition front. For porous media of the same lithology, the imbibition speed and final oil recovery decline with the reduction of average pore size. As the imbibition front constantly moves forward, the change of oil saturation behind the imbibition front does exist, and the major decrease of oil saturation happens in the large pore space. In terms of a particular region behind the spontaneous imbibition front, with the progression of the front, the oil saturation gradient in the area declines. Specifically, the dramatic gradient descent occurs when the spontaneous imbibition front just passes by. The smaller the average pore size is (the larger the mesh of sand is), the more rapid the saturation changes behind imbibition front. For porous media of small pore size, even when the imbibition front has moved far away, oil saturation still changes a lot.