Abstract

The goal of this project is to improve the efficiency of miscible CO₂ floods and enhance the prospects for flooding heterogeneous reservoirs. Results of the second year of the three-yr project are presented under three main topics:

1. fluid and matrix interaction,
2. conformance control/sweep efficiency, and
3. reservoir simulation.

Tests were completed that demonstrate the feasibility of using lignosulfonate as a sacrificial agent in CO₂-foam flooding. A number of techniques developed over the years at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, as well as conventional tests, were used to assess the feasibility of a water and/or CO₂ flood of the low permeability Blinebry reservoir in the Teague field. A preliminary study using fuzzy controller for parameter adjustments in history matching indicates satisfactory results can be obtained. A software tool is presented that utilizes parallel and distributed simulation across the Internet for configuring a web-based parallel processing system to support a soft computing technique for reservoir simulation. This technique solves history matching, economically using commodity hardware or a cluster of ordinary personal computers. A literature review was completed on CO₂ projects to identify the extent of injectivity problems, especially related to alternating the injection of water with gas.