Effect of Nanoscale Pore-Size Distribution on Fluid Phase Behavior of Gas-Improved Oil Recovery in Shale Reservoirs

Summary The improved oil recovery (IOR) of unconventional shale reservoirs has attracted much interest in recent years. Gas injection, such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and natural gas, is one of the most considered techniques for its sweep efficiency and effectiveness in low-permeability reservoirs. However, the uncertainties of fluid phase behavior in shale reservoirs pose a great challenge in evaluating the performance of a gas-injection operation. Shale reservoirs typically have macroscale to nanoscale pore-size distribution in the porous space. In fractures and macropores, the fluid shows bulk behavior, but in nanopores, the phase behavior is significantly altered by the confinement effect. The integrated behavior of reservoir fluids in this complex environment remains uncertain. In this study, we investigate the nanoscale pore-size-distribution effect on the phase behavior of reservoir fluids in gas injection for shale reservoirs. A case of Anadarko Basin shale oil is used. The pore-size distribution is discretized as a multiscale system with pores of specific diameters. The phase equilibria of methane injection into the multiscale system are calculated. The constant-composition expansions are simulated for oil mixed with various fractions of injected gas. It is found that fluid in nanopores becomes supercritical with injected gas, but lowering the pressure to less than the bubblepoint turns it into the subcritical state. The bubblepoint is generally lower than the bulk and the degree of deviation depends on the amount of injected gas. The modeling of confined-fluid swelling shows that fluid swelled from nanopores is predicted to contain more oil than the swelled fluid at bulk state.