Nanopore Confinement Effect on the Phase Behavior of CO2/Hydrocarbons in Tight Oil Reservoirs considering Capillary Pressure, Fluid-Wall Interaction, and Molecule Adsorption

Abstract

The pore sizes in tight reservoirs are nanopores, where the phase behavior deviates significantly from that of bulk fluids in conventional reservoirs. The phase behavior for fluids in tight reservoirs is essential for a better understanding of the mechanics of fluid flow. A novel methodology is proposed to investigate the phase behavior of carbon dioxide (CO2)/hydrocarbons systems considering nanopore confinement. The phase equilibrium calculation is modified by coupling the Peng-Robinson equation of state (PR-EOS) with capillary pressure, fluid-wall interaction, and molecule adsorption. The proposed model has been validated with CMG-Winprop and experimental results with bulk and confined fluids. Subsequently, one case study for the Bakken tight oil reservoir was performed, and the results show that the reduction in the nanopore size causes noticeable difference in the phase envelope and the bubble point pressure is depressed due to nanopore confinement, which is conductive to enhance oil recovery with a higher possibility of achieving miscibility in miscible gas injection. As the pore size decreases, the interfacial tension (IFT) decreases whereas the capillary pressure increases obviously. Finally, the recovery mechanisms for CO2 injection are investigated in terms of minimum miscibility pressure (MMP), solution gas-oil ratio, oil volume expansion, viscosity reduction, extraction of lighter hydrocarbons, and molecular diffusion. Results indicate that nanopore confinement effect contributes to decrease MMP, which suppresses to 650 psi (65.9% smaller) as the pore size decreases to 2 nm, resulting in the suppression of the resistance of fluid transport. With the nanopore confinement effect, the CO2 solution gas-oil ratio and the oil formation volume factor of the oil increase with the decrease of pore size. In turn, the oil viscosity reduces as the pore size decreases. It indicates that considering the nanopore confinement effect, the amount of gas dissolved into crude oil increases, which will lead to the increase of the oil volume expansion and the decrease of the viscosity of crude oil. Besides, considering nanopore confinement effect seems to have a slightly reduced effect on extraction of lighter hydrocarbons. On the contrary, it causes an increase in the CO2 diffusion coefficient for liquid phase. Generally, the nanopore confinement appears to have a positive effect on the recovery mechanisms for CO2 injection in tight oil reservoirs. The developed novel model could provide a better understanding of confinement effect on the phase behavior of nanoscale porous media in tight reservoirs. The findings of this study can also help for better understanding of a flow mechanism of tight oil reservoirs especially in the case of CO2 injection for enhancing oil recovery.