A Novel Model of Foam Flooding Considering Multi-Factors for Enhancing Oil Recovery

Abstract

Foam flooding is a promising technique for achieving mobility control and diverting fluid into low-permeability strata in post-water-flooding reservoirs. However, foam flow is very complicated and is influenced by many factors which have not been studied and explored very rigorously (i.e. permeability, surfactant concentration, foam quality, reservoir temperature, oil saturation, water saturation and seepage velocity). Based on core flooding experiments of foam flowing and blocking rules using two kinds of foaming agents, a novel model of foam flooding considering the influences of the above factors is established and solved using a reservoir simulator which is formulated using the IMPES method in conjunction with a Runge-Kutta method. Then, the validation is performed by core flooding experiments in both the absence and presence of oil. Finally, the simulator is used to investigate the effects of the permeability max-min ratio, ratio of vertical to horizontal permeability, gas-liquid ratio, depositional sequence, foaming agent concentration, and reservoir temperature.