Mathematical model and sensitivity analysis for describing emulsification in ASP flooding

Alkali-surfactant polymer flooding has become an important technique to improve oil recovery following the development of oil fields while the function of emulsification in enhanced oil recovery is rarely considered in the existing mathematical model for numerical simulation. In this paper, the mechanism of improving the recovery of the emulsification was analyzed in ASP flooding, and a relatively perfect mathematical model with deep filtration-theory was established, in which oil–water volume equation, saturation equation, viscosity equation, and permeability reduction equation are included. The new model is used to simulate the actual block of an oil field; the simulated results of the new model and an old model without considering the emulsification are compared with the actual well history. It is found that new model which is easy to be realized in numerical simulation has a high precision fitting, and the effect of adding oil and decreasing water is obvious. The sensitivity of emulsification was analyzed, and the results show that the water reducing funnel becomes wider and the rate of water cut decreases rapidly with the increase of emulsifying capacity, and then the rate of recovery slows down. The effect of increasing oil and decreasing water is better, and the degree of recovery increases. The emulsification of the ASP flooding is maintained at a moderate level, which corresponds to Φ = 0.2 in the new model, and the emulsification is applied to realize the general mathematical quantitative description, so as to better guide the oilfield development.