Study on the imbibition production mechanism and main controlling factors of low-permeability reservoir

Abstract

With high water cuts and high permeability reservoirs entering the middle and late stage, many old oil fields in China are facing the dilemma of oil and gas resource exhaustion, while low-permeability reservoir resources remain very rich. As an oil recovery technology, imbibition displacement plays an important role in the exploitation of low-permeability reservoirs and prolongs the production cycle of old oil fields. Based on the imbibition kinetic equation, the mechanism and process of oil displacement in imbibition recovery are explained in this paper. Based on the characteristics of small particle size and high activity, the influence of temperature, viscosity, permeability, and salinity on the degree of imbibition recovery was studied. The results show that the imbibition production of low-permeability reservoirs mainly depends on capillary force, which firstly drains oil from small pores to large pores, and then drains it by buoyancy. Using nanofluids for imbibition oil recovery, a higher recovery effect of up to 45.59% can be achieved. The change in different external conditions will affect the imbibition recovery effect. The imbibition recovery efficiency increases with the increase in temperature, decreases with the increase in oil viscosity, and increases with the increase in core permeability. The increase in salinity has an inhibiting effect on the imbibition recovery efficiency. Based on the multivariate analysis of variance, the change in permeability has the greatest influence on the degree of imbibition recovery, and the change in viscosity has the least influence on the degree of imbibition recovery.