Remaining Oil Distribution and Development Strategy for Offshore Unconsolidated Sandstone Reservoir at Ultrahigh Water-Cut Stage

Due to the influence of long-term waterflooding, the reservoir physical properties and percolation characteristics tend to change greatly in offshore unconsolidated sandstone reservoirs at ultrahigh water-cut stage, which can affect the remaining oil distribution. Remaining oil characterization and proper development strategy-making are of vital importance to achieve high-efficiency development of mature reservoirs. The present numerical simulation method is difficult to apply in reservoir development due to the problems of noncontinuous characterization and low computational efficiency. Based on the extended function of commercial numerical simulator, the time-varying equivalent numerical simulation method of reservoir physical properties was established, and the research of numerical simulation of X offshore oilfield with 350,000 effective grids was completed. The results show that the time-varying reservoir properties have a significant impact on the distribution of remaining oil in ultrahigh water-cut reservoir. Compared with the conventional numerical simulation, the remaining oil at the top of main thick reservoir in X oilfield has increased by 18.5% and the remaining oil in the low-permeability zone at the edge of the nonmain reservoir has increased by 27.3%. The data of coring well and the implementation effect of measures in the X oilfield are consistent with the recognition of numerical simulation, which proves the rationality of numerical simulation results. The new method is based on a mature commercial numerical simulator, which is easy to operate and has reliable results.

Automated summary

This study establishes a time-varying equivalent numerical simulation method of reservoir physical properties based on a commercial numerical simulator, and investigates the distribution of remaining oil in ultrahigh water-cut reservoirs. The results show that the time-varying reservoir properties have a significant impact on the remaining oil distribution, and the numerical simulation results are consistent with the actual data.