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Effect of the Injection Pressure on Enhancing Oil Recovery in Shale Cores during the CO2 Huff-n-Puff Process When It Is above and below the Minimum Miscibility Pressure

Journal Article · · Energy and Fuels
 [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. Texas Tech Univ., Lubbock, TX (United States); DOE/OSTI
  2. Texas Tech Univ., Lubbock, TX (United States)
  3. Texas Tech Univ., Lubbock, TX (United States); Southwest Petroleum Univ., Chengdu (China)
+ Show Author Affiliations
In CO2 injection, there is a minimum miscibility pressure (MMP) above that CO2 can be miscible with oil, so that oil recovery will be high. This work is to investigate the effect of the injection pressure on enhanced oil recovery in shale oil cores under huff-n-puff CO2 injection, when the pressure is above and below the MMP. We first estimated the MMP for a Wolfcamp oil using slimtube tests. The slimtube test results showed that the estimated MMP for the CO2–Wolfcamp crude oil system was about 1620 psi at 104 °F. After that, we conducted 15 CO2 huff-n-puff experiments using three different Wolfcamp shale cores at pressures below and above the MMP. These pressures were 1200, 1600, 1800, 2000, and 2400 psi. Each huff-n-puff test has 7 cycles. The huff-n-puff experiments for three cores showed that, below the MMP, the injection pressure had a significant effect on enhancing oil recovery. Higher than the MMP, the increased pressure further increased the oil recovery until the injection pressure was about 200 psi higher than the MMP. In the extremely low-permeability shale oil cores, additional pressure is needed to push gas into the deeper core to be miscible with the crude oil inside the core. The results indicated that, to have a high oil recovery in shale oil reservoirs during the CO2 huff-n-puff process, the injection pressure should be higher (at least 200 psi in this case) than the MMP estimated from slimtube tests.
Research Organization:
Texas Tech Univ., Lubbock, TX (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Fossil Energy (FE)
Grant/Contract Number:
FE0024311
OSTI ID:
1534481
Journal Information:
Energy and Fuels, Journal Name: Energy and Fuels Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 31; ISSN 0887-0624
Publisher:
American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (7)

Experimental investigation on influencing factors of CO 2 huff and puff under fractured low‐permeability conditions journal June 2019
A new approach for predicting oil recovery factor during immiscible CO2 flooding in sandstones using dimensionless numbers journal February 2019
Optimization Strategy to Reduce Asphaltene Deposition-Associated Damage During CO$$_2$$ Huff-n-Puff Injection in Shale journal January 2019
Nanomodel visualization of fluid injections in tight formations journal January 2018
Experimental investigation of shale oil recovery from Qianjiang core samples by the CO 2 huff-n-puff EOR method journal January 2019
Experimental Study on Reducing CO2–Oil Minimum Miscibility Pressure with Hydrocarbon Agents journal May 2019
Huff-n-Puff Experimental Studies of CO2 with Heavy Oil journal November 2019

Figures / Tables (20)

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Related Subjects

04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS
energy & fuels
engineering
lipids
oil recovery
permeability
petrochemicals
shale