Investigating the Effects of Heterogeneity, Injection Rate, and Water Influx on GAGD EOR in Naturally Fractured Reservoirs

Abstract

The gas-assisted gravity drainage (GAGD) process is designed and practiced based on gravity drainage idea and uses the advantage of density difference between injected CO2 and reservoir oil. In this work, one of Iran western oilfields was selected as a case study and a sector model was simulated based on its rock and fluid properties. The pressure of CO2 gas injection was close to the MMP of the oil, which was measured 1740 psia. Both homogeneous and heterogeneous types of fractures were simulated by creating maps of permeability and porosity. The results showed that homogeneous fractures had the highest value of efficiency, namely 40%; however, in heterogeneous fractures, the efficiency depended on the value of fracture density and the maximum efficiency was around 37%. Also, the effect of injection rate on two different intensities of fracture was studied and the results demonstrated that the model having higher fracture intensity had less limitation in increasing the CO2 injection rate; furthermore, its BHP did not increase intensively at higher injection rates either. In addition, three different types of water influxes were inspected on GAGD performance to simulate active, partial, and weak aquifer. The results showed that strong aquifer had a reverse effect on the influence of GAGD and almost completely disabled the gravity drainage mechanism. Finally, we inventively used a method to weaken the aquifer strength, and thus the gravity drainage revived and efficiency started to increase as if there was no aquifer.