Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Measurement of Oil and Water Distributions in Spontaneous Imbibition Process in Tight Oil Reservoirs
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Experiments
2.1. Materials
2.2. Experimental Setup
2.3. Experimental Procedures
- (1)
- Prepare short core samples, I01, I02, I03, and I04, with a length of 2.521 cm for SI experiments.
- (2)
- Clean, dry, and measure the petrophysical properties, shown in Table 1, of the short core samples.
- (3)
- Evacuate the four cores in a sealed container and saturate them with simulated oil. Then, place the core in the core holder and inject 20 pore volumes of simulated oil into the core at a constant injection rate of 0.005 mL/min to ensure these cores are fully saturated with simulated oil.
- (4)
- Remove core from the core holder and age in simulated oil for 48 h to restore the native wettability.
- (5)
- Remove cores from the simulated oil, carefully wipe the simulated oil from the core surface. Conduct SI tests using cores I02, I03, and I04 using the improved imbibition cell and simulated formation water without MnCl2.
- (6)
- Place core I01 in the NMR apparatus for testing its transverse relaxation time (T2) spectrum in the state of saturated oil. Put the core I01 into Amott cell so that it is immersed in simulated formation water with MnCl2. Because it is inconvenient to frequently remove core I01 for NMR tests, the Amott cell is used in this test instead of the improved imbibition cell.
- (7)
- Measure the T2 spectrum (core I01) at different time intervals, such as 1 h, 4 h and 10 h, using NMR. Collect MRI of the core at the same times.
- (8)
- Clean and dry the core I01 after the SI experiment is completed. Perform MICP to obtain the pore size.
3. Experimental Analysis Fundamental Theory
3.1. NMR Theory
3.2. Relationship Between T2 Spectrum and Pore Throat Radius
4. Results and Discussions
4.1. Pore Radius Distribution
4.2. NMR Results
4.3. MRI Results
4.4. Spontaneous Imbibition Pathway
5. Conclusions
- The water absorbed into the micropores and mesopores will drive away their original saturated oil, which will enter the large pores hydraulic communication and cause the original saturated oil in the macro pores to escape the core.
- MRI results can effectively demonstrate the distribution of oil and water during the SI process. The development of the SI front can be seen by performing NMI on different stages of SI. MRI results clearly show that the remaining oil accumulates in the central region of the core because a large amount of water is absorbed in the late stage of SI, and the water in the pores gradually connects to form a water shield that blocks the flow of the oil phase.
- We propose a new concept termed spontaneous imbibition pathway, which is the essential cause of the rate of SI. The surface of the core tends to form many SIPs, so the rate of SI is fast. The deep core does not easily form many SIPs, so the rate of SI is slow. Although the SIP theory we proposed can explain the reason for the rate of SI. However, the formation mechanism and quantitative calculation of the SIP have not been studied, which is the focus of our next research.
- The advantage of NMR technology is that it can be visualized for SI. However, it needs to combine the Amott cell. The whole research process needs to take out and put the core sample from the Amott cell multiple times, so that will cause experimental errors. How to combine the Amott cell and NMR to form an integrated device is the next development direction.
Author Contributions
Funding
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Sample No. | Length (cm) | Diameter (cm) | Porosity (%) | Permeability (10−3μm2) | Pore Volume (cm3) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
I01 | 5.353 | 2.521 | 9.94 | 0.0761 | 2.655 |
I02 | 5.441 | 2.521 | 8.81 | 0.0644 | 2.391 |
I03 | 5.454 | 2.521 | 7.56 | 0.0621 | 2.057 |
I04 | 5.278 | 2.521 | 8.42 | 0.0682 | 2.217 |
pH | Cation (mg/L) | Anion (mg/L) | Total Salinity (mg/L) | Water Type | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
K+ | Na+ | Ca2+ | Mg2+ | Ba2+ | Sr2+ | HCO3− | Cl− | |||
7.31 | 2643 | 2711 | 241 | 42 | 55 | 61 | 313 | 8641 | 14,707 | CaCl2 |
T2 Relaxation Time, ms | Pore Radius, μm | Pore Type |
---|---|---|
T2 ≤ 10 | Pore radius ≤ 0.26 | Micropore |
10 < T2 ≤ 100 | 0.26 < Pore radius ≤ 2.56 | Mesopore |
T2 > 100 | Pore radius > 2.56 | Macropore |
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Nie, X.; Chen, J. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Measurement of Oil and Water Distributions in Spontaneous Imbibition Process in Tight Oil Reservoirs. Energies 2018, 11, 3114. https://doi.org/10.3390/en11113114
Nie X, Chen J. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Measurement of Oil and Water Distributions in Spontaneous Imbibition Process in Tight Oil Reservoirs. Energies. 2018; 11(11):3114. https://doi.org/10.3390/en11113114
Chicago/Turabian StyleNie, Xiangrong, and Junbin Chen. 2018. "Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Measurement of Oil and Water Distributions in Spontaneous Imbibition Process in Tight Oil Reservoirs" Energies 11, no. 11: 3114. https://doi.org/10.3390/en11113114