Petroleum Science >2026, Issue6: 3506-3518 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.petsci.2026.01.015
Performance of multifunctional viscous slickwater for enhanced oil recovery in tight oil reservoirs Open Access
文章信息
作者:Tian-Bo Liang, Jun-Lin Wu, Zi-Lin Deng, Shuai Yuan, Hao Liu, Bin Wang, Fu-Jian Zhou
作者单位:
投稿时间:
引用方式:Liang, T.B., Wu, J.L., Deng, Z.L., et al., 2026. Performance of multifunctional viscous slickwater for enhanced oil recovery in tight oil reservoirs. Petrol. Sci. 23 (6), 3506–3518. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.petsci.2026.01.015.
文章摘要
Economically recovering oil from tight/shale reservoirs requires extensively developed propped fracture networks and rock matrix with sufficient oil mobility, which imposes higher demands on the fracturing fluid. This study develops a DME-aided viscous slickwater (MEVS) that addresses these dual challenges. During hydraulic fracturing, DME reinforces viscoelasticity through the hydrophobic association, significantly improving the proppant-carrying capacity without substantially increasing viscosity, thereby enabling the creation of extensive propped hydraulic fractures. After hydraulic fracturing, DME minimizes surfactant adsorption and deepens wettability alteration, thereby enlarging the water-wet zone of rock matrix to enhance oil recovery via imbibition and increased oil relative permeability. Laboratory evaluations using a visualized rough fracture model reveal that the fluid elasticity can be quantified using the Weissenberg number, which is then used to predict the proppant transport performance at a specific flow condition during hydraulic fracturing. In-situ NMR and pressure transmission tests confirm that DME can mobilize oil in different-sized pores from the tight rock and significantly enhance oil recovery through water imbibition, meanwhile accelerating the pressure propagation by two orders of magnitude and enlarging the surfactant-modified zone. Field applications demonstrate that MEVS can successfully carry 400 kg/m3 proppants at 10 m3/min without plugging issues, and triple oil production comparing to wells using the conventional slickwater. This work establishes an integrated fracturing-EOR approach and provides a laboratory-based method to optimize the pumping schedule in field operations.
关键词
-
Viscous slickwater; Hydraulic fracturing; Enhanced oil recovery; Wettability alteration; Viscoelasticity; Tight oil reservoirs