Spatiotemporal evolution mechanism of miscible zone in low-permeability reservoirs based on CO2 flooding front propagation
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TE357.45

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    Abstract:

    Under the“carbon peaking and carbon neutrality”strategy,CO2 flooding is regarded as a preferred approach to simultaneously enhance oil recovery and achieve geological storage in low-permeability reservoirs,yet its field performance often falls short of expectations. To clarify the spatiotemporal evolution mechanism of the oil-gas miscible zone during CO2 flooding,physical simulation experiments of long-core CO2 flooding were conducted and complemented with multi-scale numerical simulations. The study systematically characterized the differential propagation of miscible pressure fronts,phase fronts,and compositional fronts,as well as the dynamic evolution of the miscible zone during CO2 flooding. Results show that,influenced by hydrocarbon component migration characteristics and multi-contact interactions,the miscible pressure front advances fastest,while the phase front lags behind the compositional front,leading to pronounced temporal and spatial variability in miscible zone distribution. Enhancing miscibility helps suppress the advance of the compositional front and delays the development of CO2 breakthrough channels. Moreover,injection rate and volume exert significant regulatory effects on front propagation:when the injected CO2 volume increases from 0.2 PV to 0.6 PV,the phase front extension reaches 68%,effectively broadening the miscible zone. However,excessive injection rates accelerate compositional front migration and aggravate gas channeling risks. Reservoir heterogeneity further complicates miscible zone distribution;when matrix permeability rises from 1.0 × 10-3 μm2 to 15.0 × 10-3 μm2,the CO2 phase sweep coefficient increases by 57.9%,whereas higher fracture permeability facilitates preferential compositional front migration through high-permeability pathways,resulting in uneven miscible zone distribution.

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LIU Xiliang, CHEN Hao, LI Yang, ZHANG Laibin, ZENG Hongbo. Spatiotemporal evolution mechanism of miscible zone in low-permeability reservoirs based on CO2 flooding front propagation[J]. Petroleum Geology and Recovery Efficiency,2026,(1):207~218

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History
  • Received:September 29,2025
  • Revised:December 24,2025
  • Adopted:
  • Online: February 16,2026
  • Published: