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Uncertainties - Extension of Smart Waterflooding from Core to Field Scale
- Publisher: European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers
- Source: Conference Proceedings, IOR 2017 - 19th European Symposium on Improved Oil Recovery, Apr 2017, Volume 2017, p.1 - 18
Abstract
Smart waterflooding has emerged as an EOR process of much interest in recent years. Much research is being reported, along with a few successful field applications, notably clastics. In most cases, there are undeniable inconsistencies in results between lab and field cases. This leads to unpredictable outcomes and misleading profit prediction of smart waterflooding projects. The objective of this work is to evaluate uncertainties in smart waterflooding from core- to field-scale.
Kozaki (2012) experiment is mimicked by 1-D numerical model that couples with geochemical reactions. Validation results show that there are many combinations of matching parameters that can describe coreflooding results. Each realization may lead to different results when extended to 3-D heterogeneity model. Hence, to cover ranges of uncertainties, many realizations should be tested before summarizing smart waterflooding performance.
Full-field heterogeneity model also shows that smart waterflooding is sensitive to grid size and heterogeneity. With different grid volume settings, results vary dramatically. This may contribute towards smart waterflooding misinterpretation. Furthermore, heterogeneity alters smart waterflooding within a particular range by affecting cation exchange capacity, and subsequently interpolant value, which is used to represent system wettability. Therefore, these parameters should be accounted in field-scale simulation to obtain smart waterflooding true potential.