Experimental and Analytical Investigation on Effects of Different Mechanisms on Recovery of Bypassed Oil During Immiscible Methane Injection

Large portion of oil might be bypassed due to reservoir heterogeneities. Several phenomena could recover the bypassed oil in matrixes; Marangoni is the most unfamiliar one which triggers a convective flow from a point with low interfacial tension to a point with high interfacial tension.In this study, Experimental and analytical tools were used to investigate the effect of thermal Marangoni flux on the enhancement of oil recovery during immiscible gas injection in a matrix-fracture system. Results of non-isothermal experiments have been compared with isothermal experiments (zero level of Marangoni flow) to study the presence of Marangoni flow. Analytical calculations of dimensionless numbers were implemented to study the dominant forces and mechanisms and as a result, the Marangoni flux does exist and has significant impact on the recovery of bypassed oil and also its magnitude is proportional to the absolute value of temperature gradient in oil/gas interface.