Investigation on Enhanced Oil Recovery with Foaming Viscosity Reducer Flooding in Deep Heavy Oil Reservoir Using Experimental and Numerical Simulation Methods

In the late stage of oil development, water channeling is a severe issue with viscosity-reducer flooding in deep heavy oil reservoirs, making it challenging to have a viscosity-reducing impact. The foaming viscosity reducer compound flooding uses the selective plugging characteristic of foam to block the water channeling and greatly reduce the viscosity of heavy oil at the same time. The basic mechanisms of the foaming viscosity reducer compound flooding were summarized based on the laboratory experiments, and the parameters required for the numerical simulation were also obtained. The geological model of a target deep oil reservoir with different mechanisms of action was established, and the influence of the injection parameters of foaming viscosity reducer compound flooding on the oil recovery factor was systematically studied by numerical simulation after production in history well matched. The results show that foaming and viscosity reducer compound flooding can solve the problems of weak flow capacity and water channeling of heavy oil. After considering the economic cost and oil recovery efficiency, the optimal foaming viscosity reducer concentration is chosen to be 0.5wt%, the injection volume is 0.07 PV, the gas-liquid ratio is 1.5:1, the injection rate is 70 m3/d, and the final oil recovery is 14.36% higher than that of water flooding. This study achieves the optimal development of the target reservoir and provides certain reference significance for the efficient development of deep heavy oil reservoirs where water channeling occurs.