A Study on the Adaptability of Nonhydrocarbon Gas-Assisted Steam Flooding to the Development of Heavy Oil Reservoirs

Abstract

In view of the serious heat loss in the process of steam injection for heavy oil recovery, nonhydrocarbon gas combined with steam has attracted much attention in recent years to realize the efficient development of heavy oil. Due to the wide variety of nonhydrocarbon gases, their performance in pressurization, dissolution, viscosity reduction, and heat loss decrease is changeable. In this paper, four groups of one-dimensional physical simulation experiments on different nonhydrocarbon gas-assisted steam flooding methods were carried out, and the effect on oil displacement characteristics under high temperature and pressure conditions was studied. Moreover, the differences in N2, CO2, and flue gas in energy supplementation, heat transfer, and oil recovery efficiency were also analyzed. The results showed that the three nonhydrocarbon gas-assisted steam flooding methods could significantly improve the oil displacement efficiency, which was specifically embodied as a faster oil production rate and longer production period. Compared with pure steam flooding, the recovery was increased by 12.13%, 16.71% and 13.01%, respectively. The effects of N2 in energy supplementation and heat transfer reinforcement were the greatest among the three nonhydrocarbon gases, followed by those of flue gas, and the CO2 effects were the worst. The temperature at the end of the sandpack model increased by 14.3 °C, 8.8 °C and 13.1 °C, respectively. In addition, CO2-assisted steam flooding had a prominent oil recovery effect, and the oil content of the sands in the front and middle of the model was significantly lower than that of other displacement methods. Most importantly, combined with the analysis of the remaining oil in the oil sands after displacement, we explained the contrasting contradictions of the three non-hydrocarbon gases in terms of recovery and energy supply/heat transfer, and further confirmed the gas properties and reservoir adaptability of the three non-hydrocarbon gases. The results may provide a theoretical basis for the selection of nonhydrocarbon gases for heavy oil reservoirs with different production requirements.