Capillary Trapping of CO2 in Oil Reservoirs: Observations in a Mixed-Wet Carbonate Rock

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• 作者：Ali S. Al-Menhali ; Samuel Krevor
• 刊名：Environmental Science & Technology
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：March 1, 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：50
• 期：5
• 页码：2727-2734
• 全文大小：384K
• ISSN：1520-5851

文摘

Early deployment of carbon dioxide storage is likely to focus on injection into mature oil reservoirs, most of which occur in carbonate rock units. Observations and modeling have shown how capillary trapping leads to the immobilization of CO₂ in saline aquifers, enhancing the security and capacity of storage. There are, however, no observations of trapping in rocks with a mixed-wet-state characteristic of hydrocarbon-bearing carbonate reservoirs. Here, we found that residual trapping of supercritical CO₂ in a limestone altered to a mixed-wet state with oil was significantly less than trapping in the unaltered rock. In unaltered samples, the trapping of CO₂ and N₂ were indistinguishable, with a maximum residual saturation of 24%. After the alteration of the wetting state, the trapping of N₂ was reduced, with a maximum residual saturation of 19%. The trapping of CO₂ was reduced even further, with a maximum residual saturation of 15%. Best-fit Land-model constants shifted from C = 1.73 in the water-wet rock to C = 2.82 for N₂ and C = 4.11 for the CO₂ in the mixed-wet rock. The results indicate that plume migration will be less constrained by capillary trapping for CO₂ storage projects using oil fields compared with those for saline aquifers.