The Influence of Heterogeneity, Wetting, and Viscosity Ratio on Oil Recovery From Vertically Fractured Reservoirs

We use upscaling through homogenization to predict oil recovery from fractured reservoirs consisting of matrix columns, also called vertically fractured reservoirs (VFRs), for a variety of conditions. The upscaled VFR model overcomes limitations of the dual-porosity model, including the use of a shape factor. The purpose of this paper is to investigate three main physical aspects of multiphase flow in fractured reservoirs: reservoir wettability, viscosity ratio, and heterogeneity in rock/fluid properties. The main characteristic that determines reservoir behavior is the Peclet number that expresses the ratio of the average imbibition time divided by the residence time of the fluids in the fractures. The second characteristic dimensionless number is the gravity number. Upscaled VFR simulations, aimed at studying the mentioned features, add new insights. First, we discuss the results at low Peclet numbers. For only small gravity numbers, the effect of contact angle, delay time for the nonequilibrium capillary effect, the heterogeneity of the matrix-column size, and the matrix permeability can be ignored without appreciable loss of accuracy. The ultimate oil recovery for mixed-wet VFRs is approximately equal to the Amott index, and the oil production does not depend on the absolute value of the phase viscosity but on viscosity ratio. However, large gravity numbers enhance underriding, aggravated by large contact angles, longer delay times, and higher viscosity ratios. Layering can lead to an improvement or deterioration, depending on the fracture aperture and permeability distribution. At low Peclet numbers, the fractured reservoir behaves very similarly to a conventional reservoir and depends largely on the viscosity ratio and the gravity number. At high Peclet numbers, after water breakthrough, the oil recovery appears to be proportional to the cosine of the contact angle and inversely proportional to the sum of the oil and water viscosity. In addition, the mixed-wetting effect is more pronounced; there are significant influences of delay time (nonequilibrium effects), matrix permeability, matrix-column size, and the column-size distribution on oil recovery. At low gravity numbers and an effective length/thickness ratio larger than 10, the oil recovery is independent of the vertical-fracture-aperture distribution. For the same amount of injected water, the recovery at low Peclet numbers is larger than the recovery at high Peclet numbers.