Oil recovery and CO2 storage in CO2 flooding

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn this study, the interfacial tension (IFT) of crude oil-carbon dioxide mixtures was measured to determine the minimum miscibility pressure. CO2 flooding with sand packs, long cores, and heterogeneous cores was conducted to investigate the oil recovery and storage efficiency. The experiment results show that the interfacial tension decreases linearly with increasing pressure at two different pressure ranges. Under immiscible condition, the oil recovery and storage efficiency are increased by 30.1% and 52.4% when the injection pressure is increased from 13 to 22 MPa, and improved by 16.3% and 22.04% when the permeability is decreased from 270 to 10 mD, respectively. Under miscible condition, increase of injection pressure can only lead to much slower increase of oil recovery and storage efficiency, and permeability almost has no influence on oil recovery and storage efficiency. The oil recovery and storage efficiency can be remarkably reduced by heterogeneity. Water alternating CO2 injection can improve the oil recovery and storage efficiency by 35.5% and 13.55%, respectively, compared with continuous injection.