Huff and Puff by Flue Gas for Tight Oil Recovery to Achieve Sustainable Energy Future

Abstract

Due to its distribution and reserve characteristics, tight oil has become one of the main targets for future oil and gas exploration. The use of waste flue gas for oil displacement can not only reduce carbon emissions but also enhance oil recovery, which is a technology with great prospects nowadays. In this paper, the pore structure of the tight reservoir core was first characterized by scanning electron microscopy and casting thin section test. Based on these foundations, the displacement experiment was carried out on the tight oil recovery modelling platform, and the pressure distribution and recovery percent of reserves by flue gas huff and puff were innovatively characterized. Study shows that the formation pressure can be maintained in a good level by this technology and the final recovery can be improved a lot than depletion exploitation method. Therefore, the flue gas huff and puff is an effective and advanced technology for tight oil recovery. In the end, specific suggestions are also provided concerning future studies on the field application of flue gas flooding for enhanced oil recovery.