Gas Injection Gravity Miscible Displacement Development of Fractured-Vuggy Volatile Oil Reservoir in the Fuman Area of the Tarim Basin

This study investigates gas injection gravity miscible flooding to enhance oil recovery in fractured-vuggy volatile oil reservoirs of the Fuman area, Tarim Basin. The Fuman 210 reservoir, containing light oil with high maturity, large column heights, and strong fracture control, provides favorable conditions for gravity-driven flooding. Laboratory tests show that natural gas and CO2 achieve miscibility, while N2 reaches near-miscibility. Mixed gas injection, especially at a natural gas to nitrogen ratio of 1:4, effectively lowers minimum miscibility pressure and enhances displacement efficiency. Full-diameter core experiments confirm that miscibility improves oil washing and expands the sweep volume. Based on these results, a stepped three-dimensional well network was designed, integrating shallow injection with deep production. Optimal parameters were determined: injection rates of 50,000–100,000 m3/day per well and stage-specific injection–production ratios (1.2–1.5 early, 1.0–1.2 middle, 0.8–1.0 late). Field pilots validated the method, maintaining stable production for seven years and achieving a recovery factor of 30.03%. By contrast, conventional development relies on depletion and limited water flooding, and dry gas injection yields only 12.6%. Thus, the proposed approach improves recovery by 17.4 percentage points. The novelty of this work lies in establishing the feasibility of mixed nitrogen–natural gas miscible flooding for ultra-deep fault-controlled carbonate reservoirs and introducing an innovative stepped well network model. These findings provide new technical guidance for large-scale application in similar reservoirs.

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Publication Details

Journal
Energies
Published
2025-10-09
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/en18195317
Primary Topic
Hydrocarbon exploration and reservoir analysis
Type
article
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article

Gas Injection Gravity Miscible Displacement Development of Fractured-Vuggy Volatile Oil Reservoir in the Fuman Area of the Tarim Basin

Wei Zhou, Zhiliang Liu, Liming Lian, Yao Ding et al.
Energies
Hydrocarbon exploration and reservoir analysis
article

Gas Injection Gravity Miscible Displacement Development of Fractured-Vuggy Volatile Oil Reservoir in the Fuman Area of the Tarim Basin

Wei Zhou, Zhiliang Liu, Liming Lian, Yao Ding, Xingliang Deng, Chao Zhang
article en

Abstract

This study investigates gas injection gravity miscible flooding to enhance oil recovery in fractured-vuggy volatile oil reservoirs of the Fuman area, Tarim Basin. The Fuman 210 reservoir, containing light oil with high maturity, large column heights, and strong fracture control, provides favorable conditions for gravity-driven flooding. Laboratory tests show that natural gas and CO2 achieve miscibility, while N2 reaches near-miscibility. Mixed gas injection, especially at a natural gas to nitrogen ratio of 1:4, effectively lowers minimum miscibility pressure and enhances displacement efficiency. Full-diameter core experiments confirm that miscibility improves oil washing and expands the sweep volume. Based on these results, a stepped three-dimensional well network was designed, integrating shallow injection with deep production. Optimal parameters were determined: injection rates of 50,000–100,000 m3/day per well and stage-specific injection–production ratios (1.2–1.5 early, 1.0–1.2 middle, 0.8–1.0 late). Field pilots validated the method, maintaining stable production for seven years and achieving a recovery factor of 30.03%. By contrast, conventional development relies on depletion and limited water flooding, and dry gas injection yields only 12.6%. Thus, the proposed approach improves recovery by 17.4 percentage points. The novelty of this work lies in establishing the feasibility of mixed nitrogen–natural gas miscible flooding for ultra-deep fault-controlled carbonate reservoirs and introducing an innovative stepped well network model. These findings provide new technical guidance for large-scale application in similar reservoirs.

EnergiesVol. 18(19)
Tarim University (CN), Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development (CN), China National Petroleum Corporation (China) (CN)
Openalex Percentile: Top 67%
Hydrocarbon exploration and reservoir analysis
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