Effect of stress sensitivity on displacement efficiency in CO2 flooding for fractured low permeability reservoirs

Carbon dioxide flooding is an effective means of enhanced oil recovery for low permeability reservoirs. If fractures are present in the reservoir, CO₂ may flow along the fractures, resulting in low gas displacement efficiency. Reservoir pore pressure will fluctuate to some extent during a CO₂ flood, causing a change in effective confining pressure. The result is rock deformation and a reduction in permeability with the reduction in fracture permeability, causing increased flow resistance in the fracture space. Simultaneously, gas cross flowing along the fractures is partially restrained. In this work, the effect of stress changes on permeability was studied through a series of flow experiments. The change in the flowrate distribution in a matrix block and contained fracture with an increase in effective pressure were analyzed. The results lead to an implicit comparison which shows that permeability of fractured core decreases sharply with an increase in effective confining pressure. The fracture flowrate ratio declines and the matrix flowrate ratio increases. Fracture flow will partially divert to the matrix block with the increase in effective confining pressure, improving gas displacement efficiency.