Search

For the gas flood process, crude oil physical properties including oil volume and viscosity would be greatly changed resulting from gas solution and extraction. First, solubility of natural gas in oil and brine was measured and compared. Meanwhile, the resulting oil expansion and viscosity reduction were experimentally tested. Second, oil viscosity increase due to extraction was studied by extraction experiments. Finally, oil recovery of natural gas and propane-enriched natural gas flood was studied under different pressures. Results show that solubility of natural gas in oil is dozens of times of that in brine. Variation of crude oil physical properties during natural gas injection mainly includes the remarkable volume expansion and viscosity reduction caused by gas dissolution into oil, and the oil volume shrinkage and viscosity increase caused by extraction are not so significant. The oil recovery of natural gas flood grows linearly with increased injection pressure and gas solubility in oil, b...