Effect of Matrix Wettability CO2 Assisted Gas-oil Garvity Drainage in Naturally Fractured Reservoirs

The wettability behavior of the matrix block is one of the major factors controlling the effectiveness of the employed EOR methods in NFRs. Water injection in NFRs with mixed-wet or effectively oil-wet matrix blocks usually results in low oil recoveries. In this case, gas injection is considered to be an alternative process, where the process benefits from the gravity forces and the process is called gas-oil gravity drainage.

In this study, the effect of matrix wettability on the efficiency of gravity drainage by CO2 injection is addressed. Laboratory experiments and numerical simulation were performed to analyze the process under different wettability conditions of the matrix. It is concluded that for a system with an effectively oil-wet matrix, water is the most non-wetting phase while CO2 is the intermediate-wetting phase. In the three phase setting, which includes carbon dioxide, this is considered favorable for oil production. However, with a strongly water-wet matrix, CO2 is always the least wetting phase. For this condition, it turns out that when water is displaced by the gravity drainage process part of the oil is also produced. It is observed that higher oil recoveries are achieved by CO2 injection in an oil-wet matrix block.