Journal of Petroleum & Environmental Biotechnology

Simulation study of asphaltene deposition and solubility of CO2 in the brine during cyclic CO2 injection process in unconventional tight reservoirs

7^th World Congress on Petrochemistry and Chemical Engineering

November 13-14, 2017 Atlanta, USA

Rashid S Mohammad

China University of Petroleum, China

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Pet Environ Biotechnol

Abstract:

The oil production from unconventional resources such as ultra-low permeability or porosity rocks were increased in the last decades due to advance in technologies that are horizontal drilling and multistage fracturing techniques provided a highly conductivity paths for the injected gas (CO2) to diffuse and penetrate into the micro-permeable matrixes. The study of cyclic CO2 injection and hydrocarbon recovery in ultra-low permeability reservoirs is mainly function of several parameters, initially the structural parameters such as fracture permeability, fracture conductivity, fracture half-length, fracture spacing and matrix porosity then the operational and fluid properties such as bottom-hole pressure, primary depletion time, CO2 injection time and number of cycles. Permeability reduction induced by asphaltene precipitation is one of the serious issues in the oil industry especially when it causes plugging to the porous media and reduces oil productivity. On the other hand, the solubility of CO2 in the brine is one of the safest and permanent trapping methods when considering CO2 storage mechanisms in geological formations. Moreover, CO2 dissolution in the aqueous phase is an important technique of CO2 enhanced oil recovery as it increases oil displacement efficiency and improves the sweep efficiency. However, the effects of the above uncertain parameters on the process of CO2 enhanced oil recovery have not been clearly understood systematically. Hence, it is absolutely important to study the most significant parameters dominating in this process. The main object of this work is to improve cyclic CO2 injection process especially for tight reservoirs considering the effects of asphaltene deposition on the oil production and solubility of CO2 in the brine. A suitable modeling process underlies effective simulation tools for quantitative studies of tight reservoir performance, in order to avoid asphaltene precipitation, minimize CO2 emission, optimize cyclic CO2 injection and maximize oil production.