Experimental study on blocking mechanism of nitrogen foam for enhancing oil recovery in heavy oil reservoirs

Abstract

Foam flooding is one of the effective techniques during thermal recovery process in heavy oil reservoir. Nitrogen is generally co-injection with the foaming agent for the generation of foam. However, the mechanism has not been totally understood, thereby requiring further discussion. In this study, a series of sand pack experiments for nitrogen foam steam flooding were designed and conducted. A comparison of influencing factors, including gas-liquid (foaming agent) ratio, permeability, injection scheme, and oil saturation was used to evaluate the stability and blocking mechanisms of foam. The results show that the blocking capacity of the gas-liquid ratio of 1:1 is the greatest in all cases under high-temperature condition. The blocking mechanism of foam is analyzed, which indicates that foam is selective to block larger pores and throats in porous media with high-permeability. And also, the stability of foam becomes worse while meeting oil. This characteristic is favorable for improving the sweep efficiency to enhance oil recovery in developing heavy oil reservoir.