Geological uncertainty and effects of depositional sequence on improved oil recovery processes

Abstract

Several emerging improved oil recovery (IOR) techniques have been proposed in the past decades with promising results. However, a systematic study of reservoir heterogeneity on these advanced processes has not yet been presented. This paper provides one of the first comparative evaluations of the effects of reservoir heterogeneity on various IOR processes from the conventional methods (waterflooding, CO 2 flooding) to the emerging recovery technologies (Low-Salinity Waterflooding and CO 2 Low-Salinity WAG) for wider and more successful implementation of these projects. Since weakness exists in the current simple and unrealistic models, detailed geostatistic models are employed to provide a more realistic and unbiased evaluation of reservoir heterogeneity. A new modeling approach that involves the integration of geological software, a reservoir simulator and a robust optimizer in a closed loop for generating multiple geologically driven realizations and uncertainty assessment of different recovery processes is introduced. Then a series of numerical simulations is conducted to investigate the influences of FU and CU sequences on oil recovery. Finally, the uncertainty range of reservoir heterogeneity is thoroughly evaluated using a large number of geological realizations with significant differences on porosity and permeability distributions. The effect of the K v /K h (aspect) ratio is also addressed in this study. The simulation results indicate that the depositional sequence has a dominant effect on oil recovery in all recovery processes. The CU distribution demonstrates superior performance over the FU distribution.