Visualization of Carbon Dioxide Enhanced Oil Recovery by Diffusion in Fractured Chalk

Summary This work demonstrates that diffusion may be a viable oil-recovery mechanism in fractured reservoirs during injection of carbon dioxide (CO2) for enhanced oil recovery, depending on the CO2 distribution within the fracture network and distance between fractures. High oil recovery was observed during miscible, supercritical CO2 injection (RF = 86% original oil in place) in the laboratory with a fractured chalk core plug with a large permeability contrast. Dynamic 3D fluid saturations from computed-tomography (CT) imaging made it possible to study the local oil displacement in the vicinity of the fracture, and to calculate an effective diffusion coefficient with analytical methods. The obtained diffusion coefficient varies between 0.83 and 1.2 ×10−9m2/s, depending on the method used for calculation. A numerical sensitivity analysis, with a validated numerical model that reproduced the experiments, showed that the rate of oil production during CO2 injection declined exponentially with increasing diffusion lengths from the CO2-filled fracture and oil-filled matrix. In a numerical upscaling effort, with the experimentally achieved diffusion coefficient, oil-recovery rates and local flow were studied in an inverted five-spot pattern in a heavily fractured carbonate reservoir.