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Tight oil has been effectively developed thanks to artificial fracture technology. The basic mechanism of effective production through fractures lies in the contact between the fractures (both natural and artificial) and the matrix. In this paper, the natural tight cores from J field in China are used to conduct experimental studies on the different fluid huff-‘n-puff process. A new core-scale fracture lab-simulation method is proposed. Woven metallic wires were attached to the outer surface of the core to create a space between the core holder and core as a high permeable zone, an equivalent fracture. Three different injecting fluids are used, including CO2, N2 and water. The equivalent core scale reservoir numerical models in depletion and huff-n-puff mode are then restored by numerical simulation with the Computer Modeling Group—Compositional & Unconventional Reservoir Simulator (CMG GEM). Simulation cases with eight different fracture patterns are used in the study to understand how fracture mechanistically impact Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) in huff n puff mode for the different injected fluids. The results showed: Firstly, regardless of the arrangement of fractures, CO2 has mostly obvious advantages over water and N2 in tight reservoir development in huff-‘n-puff mode. Through EOR mechanism analysis, CO2 is the only fluid that is miscible with oil (even 90% mole fraction CO2 is dissolved in the oil phase), which results in the lowest oil phase viscosity. The CO2 diffusion mechanism is also pronounced in the huff-‘n-puff process. Water may impact on the oil recovery through gravity and the capillary force imbibition effect. N2, cannot recover more crude oil only by elasticity and swelling effects. Secondly, the fracture arrangement in space has the most impact on CO2 huff-‘n-puff, followed by water and finally N2. The fractures primarily supply more efficient and convenient channels and contact relationships. The spatial arrangement of fractures mainly impacts the performance of CO2 through viscosity reduction in the contact between CO2 and crude oil. Similarly, the contact between water in fractures and crude oil in the matrix is also the key to imbibition. In the process of N2 huff-‘n-puff, the elasticity energy is dominant and fracture arrangement in space hardly to improve oil recovery. In addition, when considering anisotropy, water huff-‘n-puff is more sensitive to it, while N2 and CO2 are not. Finally, comparing the relationship between fracture contact area and oil recovery, oil production is insensitive to contact area between fracture and matrix for water and N2 cases.

XinJiang oilfield is located in the Northwest of China, in which large oil reserves have been discovered in reservoirs with very low permeability (<14×10 -3 μm 2 ). These reservoirs are featured with light oil in moderate depth, high reservoir pressure, but relatively low reservoir temperature (65~78 o C) and low oil viscosity (<10mPa•s). Primary production and limited water flooding experience have shown that the recovery factor in these reservoirs is very low due to lack of reservoir energy and poor water injectivity. Gas injection has been optioned as an alternative secondary or tertiary technique to maintain reservoir pressure and/or increase sweeping and displacement efficiency. In this study, the feasibility of air injection via a low temperature oxidation (LTO) process has been studied. Laboratory experiments were focused on LTO characteristics of oil samples at low temperature range and core flooding using air at various reservoir conditions. Reservoir simulation studies were conducted in order to predict the reservoir performance under the air injection scheme and to optimize the operational parameters. The oxygen consumption rates at reservoir temperature and IOR potentials at different reservoir conditions were assessed for a number of selected reservoirs in the region. A pilot project has been designed based on experimental data, reservoir simulation results and field experience of air injection gained in other regions of China. Issues related to safety and corrosion control during air injection and the project economics were also addressed in the paper.

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