This paper discusses the effect of influencing factors on the distribution of incremental oil displaced by a polymer flood (extra-displaced oil) using numerical reservoir simulation. These factors include the location, area and permeability of a thin low-permeability interbed, and the perforation location relative to the interbed. Simulation results show the locations from where the incremental oil was displaced by the polymer solution. The interbed position from the oil formation top affects the location of extra-displaced oil. The interbed area has a slight influence on the whole shape of extra-displaced oil. Larger interbed area leads to higher partition extent of extra-displaced oil. Higher vertical permeability of interbeds contributes to worse partition extent of extra-displaced oil and the partition effect disappears if the ratio of vertical to horizontal permeability is more than 0.05. The perforation location relative to the interbed affects polymer displacement efficiency, and also has a significant effect on the distribution of extra-displaced oil in polymer flooding.
The construction of a network model is one of the key techniques in organic com-bination of microscopic flow experiment and simulation. The construction method of a three-dimensional network model is presented on the basis of CT scanning images in this paper. A series of CT slice images describing microscopic pore structure and fluid distribution of actual rock is obtained with the help of the in-dustrial microfocus CT system. Based on the extraction of pore space skeleton, pore and throat information, the corresponding network model is established, and the conversion from three-dimensional CT image information to pore-throat size distribution and topological information is also achieved. The feature of this me-thod lies in the fact that complicated pore space of rock may be characterized by pores and throats with a simple shape while keeping the geometry and flow char-acteristics. It is indicated that the calculated results of porosity, permeability, rela-tive permeability curve and microscopic remaining oil distribution match very well the experimental results of water flooding and polymer flooding. This network model may fairly well characterize the rock microscopic pore-throat size and topo-logical characteristics.