Experiments on nitrogen assisted gravity drainage in fractured-vuggy reservoirs

Visual models of fractured-vuggy reservoirs were designed and manufactured to conduct experiments of nitrogen assisted gravity drainage (NAGD). The impacts of flooding pattern, gas injection rate, well type, and displacement direction (vertical or horizontal) on development performances and remaining oil distribution were studied. The results show that during NAGD, the sweep scope is decided by the connections between producer and reservoir, and the local sweep efficiency is decided by fracture-vuggy configuration. The homogenous fractured reservoir has higher oil recovery, and the bigger the aperture of fracture is, the higher the recovery. The main regions of remaining oil due to poor connectivity and gas-oil gravity difference include blind fractures and vugs below the connected fractures, the bottom of vugs, and the narrow and low-angle fractures. The accumulation of remaining oil in the bottom of reservoir is easily formed and controlled by the connections between producers and reservoir. The higher the gas injection rate and the stronger the fracture heterogeneity, the earlier the gas channeling and the lower the oil recovery of the producer will be. Horizontal wells have the best development effect, so horizontal well can be applied in fractured-vuggy reservoirs without bottom water. Producers should be preferentially drilled at low structural position. Gas channeling firstly occurs in the producer at high structural position, and it should be shut in timely to improve the utilization of injected gas. © 2019, The Editorial Board of Petroleum Exploration and Development. All right reserved.