A novel numerical simulation method and applications of CO2 thickened flooding
摘要
CO2-EOR (CO2 Enhanced Oil Recovery) is currently one of the predominant techniques for improving oil recovery worldwide, offering significant production enhancement. However, during CO2 flooding operations, challenges such as viscous fingering, gravity segregation, and reservoir heterogeneity often lead to severe gas channeling issues. Current mitigation strategies include water-alternating-gas (WAG) injection, CO2 viscosity thickening, hydrogel plugging, foam blockage, and nanoparticle-based conformance control. Among these, CO2 viscosity enhancement is considered a highly promising method for improving oil recovery. However, simulating CO2 thickening has remained a significant challenge, with existing research primarily focused on laboratory experiments and limited numerical simulation studies. This study employs the CMG-GEM numerical simulation software, utilizing a modified typical heterogeneous “Egg Model” reservoir, to systematically investigate the mechanisms of CO2 viscosity modification on recovery performance. To simulate CO2 thickening, this paper proposes modifying the key viscosity parameter "