REE164553 DOI: 10.
2118/164553-PA Date: 19-July-14 Stage: Page: 404
Effect of Reservoir Heterogeneity on
Primary Recovery and CO2 Huff ‘n’ Puff
Recovery in Shale-Oil Reservoirs
Cheng Chen, SPE, Halliburton; and Matthew Balhoff, SPE, and Kishore K. Mohanty, SPE, University of Texas at Austin
Summary
An equation-of-state (EOS) -based compositional reservoir simu-
lator, UT-COMP, is used to simulate both primary recovery and
carbon dioxide (CO2) huff ‘n’ puff recovery in a shale matrix typ-
ical of the Bakken formation, to investigate the effect of reservoir
heterogeneity on hydrocarbon recovery. Nonaqueous components
are carefully lumped into seven pseudocomponents. Permeability
fields with various heterogeneity and correlation lengths are gen-
erated. UT-COMP is able to solve the compositional model, de-
spite the permeability difference between the fracture and matrix
being six orders of magnitude. The effects of both primary recov-
ery and CO2 huff ‘n’ puff recovery depend significantly on reser-
voir heterogeneity. In primary recovery, the recovery factor can
be fit by a two-parameter exponential formula; higher heterogene-
ity reduces the rate coefficient in the formula. Permeability fields
with identical or similar heterogeneity have similar rate coeffi-
cients, even if the correlation lengths are different, which implies
that the recovery depends primarily on heterogeneity and is insen-
sitive to correlation length. Multiple-cycle CO2 huff ‘n’ puff proc-
esses are simulated in both homogeneous and heterogeneous
reservoirs. Recovery rate in the production stage rises to a peak
value much higher than that in the primary recovery, and then
declines dramatically. The peak recovery rate decreases with
increasing huff ‘n’ puff cycles, resulting from depleted reservoir
pressure and hydrocarbons. The final recovery factor in the huff
‘n’ puff recovery is lower than that in the primary recovery,
because the incremental recovery in the production stage is unable
to compensate the loss in the injection and shut-in stages. Use of a
longer shut-in time does not help increase the recovery rate in the
production stage, because CO2 migration into the shale matrix is
very limited because of the low matrix permeability. Reservoir
heterogeneity leads to a faster decline of recovery rate in the pro-
duction stage.
Introduction
The consumption of petroleum hydrocarbons in the world has
steadily increased during the past decades. To meet the rising
demand for energy resources, production of unconventional hydro-
carbons, such as shale oil and gas, has attracted great attention. The
Bakken formation in the Williston basin covers parts of Montana,
North Dakota, and South Dakota, and is estimated to contain 100
billion bbl of oil (Clarkson and Pederson 2011). As a part of the
Bakken formation, the Elm Coulee field in Richland County, Mon-
tana, is estimated to have 3.65 billion bbl of oil and 1.85 Tcf of gas
(Pollastro et al. 2008).
The Bakken formation underlies the Lower Mississippian
Lodgepole formation and overlies the Upper Devonian Three
Forks formation at a depth of approximately 10,000 ft. The forma-
tion has three distinct layers: Mississippian upper shale, Devonian
middle dolomite, and Devonian lower shale. The upper shale is
organic-rich pyritic shale approximately 8–12 ft thick (Shoaib and
Hoffman 2009). The organic content is up to 40%. It is the source
Copyright V
C 2014 Society of Petroleum Engineers
This paper (SPE 164553) was accepted for presentation at the SPE Unconventional
Resources Conference, The Woodlands, Texas, 10–12 April 2013, and revised for
publication. Original manuscript received for review 25 June 2013. Revised manuscript
received for review 1 April 2014. Paper peer approved 8 April 2014.
404
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Total Pages: 10
rock for the Bakken formation. It is naturally fractured in some
small parts of the reservoir with an effective permeability of a few
millidarcies (Shoaib and Hoffman 2009); in other parts, the per-
meability is much lower. The middle dolomite is the main reser-
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voir facies, consisting of silty and sandy dolomite. This layer is
6–15 ft thick with porosity of 6–8% and permeability of 10–40
microdarcies (Shoaib and Hoffman 2009; Rankin et al. 2010).
The lower shale is a brownish, noncalcareous, organic mudstone
with an organic content of up to 21%. It is approximately 0–6 ft
thick and very tight. The oil is 42 API (Wang et al. 2010).
Because of the extremely low permeability, horizontal wells
with multiple hydraulic fractures are needed to produce oil from
the shale reservoirs at a significant rate (Daneshy 2009; Gaurav
et al. 2012). However, ultimate primary recovery factor is only
5–10% (Hoffman 2012). Improved oil recovery by waterflooding
may be too slow because of the low injectivity of water. In con-
trast, it may be possible to inject CO2 and nitrogen because of
their low viscosity. For instance, when pressure is higher than
1,070 psi and temperature is higher than 31 C, CO2 exists in the
supercritical (sc) phase. The density of supercritical CO2 (scCO2)
is approximately 70% that of water, and the kinematic viscosity is
0.1–0.25 that of water (Chen and Zhang 2010). Furthermore,
given a high-enough pressure, first-contact miscibility between
CO2 and oil may be achieved, which means that any amount of
CO2 can be injected and exist as a single phase with the oil (Holm
1986; Stalkup 1992). In this situation, the interfacial tension
between the oil and displacing fluid is reduced to zero; thus, the
hydrocarbon components can be transported with the CO2 in a
single phase, resulting in a higher recovery.
In CO2 (or any well-to-well) flooding, because of the low per-
meability of shale matrix, it takes a considerably long time for
pressure to propagate from the injection well to the production
well. Therefore, it might be more effective to adopt a CO2 huff
‘n’ puff approach to increase the recovery rate. Specifically, we
propose to inject scCO2 into fractured horizontal wells by apply-
ing a high pressure. CO2 will be transported into the fracture and
migrate into the surrounding shale matrix. Because of the high
pressure, first-contact or multiple-contact miscibility occurs and
CO2 mixes with the shale oil, resulting in single-phase flow. The
injection well is closed for a period of time to let CO2 mix with
oil as closely as possible. Then, the well is reopened to produce at
a lower pressure, which causes the mixture of CO2 and oil to
expand and flow out. Because the oil is miscible with the injected
CO2 under the high pressure, the transport is easier compared
with that in two-phase flow.
The production of hydrocarbons from hydraulically fractured
and naturally fractured reservoirs have been simulated by many
(Cipolla et al. 2010), but by use of noncompositional simulators.
In this study, we adopt the UT-COMP reservoir simulator to sim-
ulate multiphase, multicomponent flow in primary recovery and
CO2 huff ‘n’ puff recovery in the middle Bakken formation of the
Elm Coulee field. UT-COMP is an EOS-based compositional res-
ervoir simulator (Chang 1990), and has been widely used in reser-
voir simulations. Although numerous studies of CO2 flooding and
huff ‘n’ puff have been performed (Shoaib and Hoffman 2009;
Wang et al. 2010; Yang and Song 2013), this study is the first one
to use a reservoir simulator to systematically investigate the rela-
tionship between reservoir heterogeneity and CO2 huff ‘n’ puff.
Natural geological formations are rarely homogeneous, and it is
August 2014 SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering
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(a) (b)
700

320 ft 320 ft 600

N 500
320 ft

y (feet)
Wells 400
Fractures
2000 ft
300
Computational
1000 ft
domain 200

y 100
x 50 ft

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100 200 300
x (feet)

Fig. 1—(a) A top view of horizontal wells, fractures, and the computational domain in the x–y plane (horizontal), and (b) a 35320
grid for the computational domain.

widely agreed that fine-scale heterogeneity can greatly affect
larger-scale transport properties (Chen et al. 2013). However, the
effect of heterogeneity on shale-oil production is not well-under-
stood. The Bakken formation is composed of three layers of shale
that have different mineral compositions. Each layer is also very
heterogeneous, from micron scale to reservoir scale (Honarpour
et al. 2012). This implies there is a relatively wide range of per-
meability, and it is necessary to investigate its effect on CO2 huff
‘n’ puff. In this study, we generate permeability fields with vari-
ous heterogeneity and correlation lengths to study their effect on
both primary recovery and CO2 huff ‘n’ puff recovery. By com-
parison, we try to determine if CO2 huff ‘n’ puff is able to
increase the recovery rate and consequently benefits the ultimate
recovery factor.
Reservoir Modeling
Model Geometry. A 2D top view of the horizontal computa-
tional domain is plotted in dashed lines in the x–y plane, as shown
in Fig. 1a. The vertical fractures are assumed to be evenly placed
along the horizontal well, with interval distance of approximately
320 ft. The fracture half-length is 50 ft. The east and west bounda-
ries are halfway between two adjacent fractures, and no-flow con-
ditions are used there because of symmetry. The horizontal well is
at the south boundary of the domain, where a no-flow or fixed-
pressure condition is applied, depending on the stage of the well.
The north boundary is halfway between the two adjacent horizon-
tal wells, so a no-flow condition is applied there because of sym-
metry. The domain is 3201,000 ft in the x- and y-direction,
respectively, and has thickness of 10 ft in the vertical direction.
The computational domain is divided into 3520 blocks in the x-
and y-direction, respectively, as shown in Fig. 1b. The central col-
umn of blocks represents the fracture, and its length in the x-direc-
tion is 0.005 ft or 1.5 mm, which is the fracture width. The other
blocks represent the shale matrix. Local grid refinement is used
near the well and fracture to accurately resolve mass transfer
between the matrix and well, and between the matrix and fracture.
The size of each individual block in the x- and y-direction is listed
in Table 1. It should be noted that to test the simulation depend-
ence on grid resolution, the grid is refined to 7040 blocks, but
simulation results do not change significantly. This implies that
the 3520 grid is adequate for the current scale of interest.
Rock and Fluid Properties. The porosity of fracture and shale
matrix is equal to 43 and 8%, respectively. The permeability is
10,000 and 0.01 md in the fracture and matrix, respectively, and
is assumed to be isotropic. The domain locates at a depth of 9,500
ft. Initial pressure and temperature in the reservoir are 6,840 psi
and 241 F, respectively. Formation compressibility is 1106
psi1. Fluid viscosity and compressibility are 0.205 cp and
14.6106 psi1, respectively. The bubblepoint pressure is 2,872
psi. By fluid analysis, nonaqueous components are carefully
lumped into seven pseudocomponents, and the specific properties
and mole fractions are shown in Table 2. Specifically, C7p1 cov-
ers hydrocarbons C7–9, C7p2 covers C10–20, and C7p3 covers
C21þ. In the stage of CO2 injection, the well injects a mixture of
the seven pseudocomponents with mole fractions of 99.994,
0.001, 0.001, 0.001, 0.001, 0.001, and 0.001%, respectively. The
small mole fractions for the non-CO2 components are to prevent
potential numerical instabilities.
Generation of Heterogeneous Permeability Fields. Permeability
of natural geological formations is usually assumed to be log-nor-
mally distributed. The log-permeability field, Y, defined as
Y ¼ log(k), is modeled as a Gaussian random field with a given
correlation function CY ðx; yÞ. By assuming the mean and standard
deviation of Y are l and r, respectively, the mean and variance of
2 2
k can be calculated as EðkÞ ¼ elþr =2 and VarðkÞ ¼ ðer  1Þ
2lþr2
e , respectively. The coefficient of variation (COV), defined
as the ratio of standard deviation to mean, is thus calculated as
2
COV ¼ ðer  1Þ1=2 . Porous media with COV < 0.5 are considered
homogeneous, and with COV > 1 are considered very heterogene-
ous (Jensen et al. 2000). In this study, we use the Karhunen–Loeve
expansion to generate the log-permeability field (Chen et al. 2013).
Because the covariance is bounded, symmetric, and positive defi-
X1
nite, it can be decomposed as CY ðx; yÞ ¼ kn fn ðxÞfn ðyÞ, where
n¼1

TABLE 1—BLOCK SIZE

Block number, x-direction 1–13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23–35

Block size, x-direction (ft) 12 2 0.5 0.1 0.02 0.005 0.02 0.1 0.5 2 12
Block number, y-direction 1–10 11–15 16–17 18 19 20
Block size, y-direction (ft) 5 10 50 100 200 500

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TABLE 2—FLUID CHARACTERIZATION

Critical Critical Critical Volume Molecular Weight Diffusivity in Mole Fraction

Pressure (psi) Temperature ( R) (ft3/lbm mol) (lbm/lbm mol) Oil (ft2/D) (%)

CO2 1,070.16 547.56 1.5041 44.01 1103 0.43

C1 667.38 343.08 1.5890 16.04 1.5103 39.37
C2–3 661.79 608.24 2.8176 35.82 1103 24.20
C4–6 508.47 831.10 4.9095 69.20 7104 10.80
C7p1 292.46 915.88 7.1360 109.33 6104 9.40
C7p2 211.98 1,465.90 13.4375 210.23 4104 11.80
C7p3 124.66 1,974.41 23.1812 424.84 3104 4.00

kn and fn ðxÞ are eigenvalues and eigenfunctions, respectively, port is dominated by convection within 100 ft from the well,
ðwhich can be obtained by solving the Fredholm equation where the pressure gradient is much higher than that in the region

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beyond 100 ft from the well. In addition, we generate many more
CY ðx; yÞf ðxÞdx ¼ kf ðyÞ. Then, the log-permeability field can be
D
permeability fields with the same mean permeability, but different
X
1 pffiffiffiffiffi Vdp and correlation lengths, to investigate their effects on both pri-
expressed as YðxÞ ¼ Y ðxÞ þ kn fn ðxÞnn , where nn are inde- mary recovery and CO2 huff ‘n’ puff recovery.
n¼1
pendent Gaussian random variables with zero mean and unit var-
iance. In general, the eigenvalue problem needs to be solved Primary Recovery. In primary recovery, no fluid is injected into
numerically. In this study, we assume that the correlation function the reservoir. The well is operated as a production well. First, the
CY ðx; yÞ has the exponential form CY ðx; yÞ ¼ r2Y expðjx1  y1 j= pressure in the well is reduced to 3,500 psi from Days 1 through
L1  jx2  y2 j=L2 Þ, where rY is the variance and L1 and L2 are 100, and then reduced to 1,000 psi after 100 days. This simulates
correlation lengths in the two principal coordinate directions the scenario that the bottomhole pressure (BHP) is decreased in
separately. multiple steps. In primary depressurization, the driving force for
Heterogeneity is often measured by the Dykstra–Parsons varia- oil recovery is the pressure gradient. By UT-COMP simulations,
tion coefficient, Vdp, which is defined as we find that with production pressure of 1,000 psi, the hydrocar-
bon recovery factor after 1,000 days is 15.3%, which is in agree-
k50  k84:1 ment with numerous studies on estimating the primary recovery
Vdp ¼ ; . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ð1Þ in the Bakken formation by various methods (Clark 2009;
k50
Dechongkit and Prasad 2011; Cherian et al. 2012). With this pres-
where log(k50) is less than 50% of the samples in the log-perme- sure, gas phase is observed in the shale matrix, implying that
ability spectrum, whereas log(k84.1) is less than 84.1% of the sam- 1,000 psi is below the bubblepoint. Specifically, with the produc-
ples in the log-permeability spectrum, which is less than the mean tion pressure of 1,000 psi, the recovery factor of C1 is 54.0%
by one standard deviation. Vdp is analogous to COV, which meas- higher than that of C7p3 after 1,000 days. This is because gas
ures the ratio between variation and mean. It is easy to see migrates faster than liquids because of its higher mobility, and
0  Vdp  1. A large Vdp implies a high level of heterogeneity, lighter hydrocarbon components make up a greater fraction of
whereas a low Vdp implies a relatively homogeneous permeability gas. Consequently, the recovery factor of lighter hydrocarbon
field. components is higher than that of heavier hydrocarbon compo-
A homogeneous shale matrix with permeability of 0.01 md is nents. We then use 3,000 psi as the production pressure, and no
referred to as the base scenario, and noted as Homo01 in Table 3. gas phase is observed in the shale matrix, which implies that
Four heterogeneous permeability fields are generated by use of 3,000 psi is above the bubblepoint. After 1,000 days of primary
the method described previously, and noted as Hete01 through recovery, the seven pseudocomponents have exactly the same re-
Hete04, respectively. The four scenarios have different heteroge- covery factor, because all hydrocarbon components are in the
neity levels, with Vdp equal to 0.3746, 0.6473, 0.7137, and 0.7313, nonaqueous liquid phase and transported at the same rate.
respectively. Their mean permeabilities are all equal to 0.01 md. Because gas occupies pore space and thus reduces the relative
Correlation lengths in the x-direction, Lx, and in the y-direction, permeability of oil, we want to keep the BHP higher than the bub-
Ly, are both equal to 40 ft, which is a typical value found in natu- blepoint to maximize oil production. In the following study, we
ral geological formations (Chen et al. 2013). In this study, hetero- use 3,000 psi as the production pressure. By directly comparing
geneous permeability fields are generated only in the region the primary recovery with CO2 huff ‘n’ puff recovery, it will be
within 100 ft from the well, and the permeability beyond 100 ft determined if CO2 huff ‘n’ puff is able to increase the ultimate re-
from the well is assumed to be homogeneous and equal to 0.01 covery factor.
md. This is because the y-direction block size beyond 100 ft from
the well is bigger than the correlation length; therefore, we are
unable to generate accurate random fields in that region. How- CO2 Huff ‘n’ Puff Recovery. In CO2 huff ‘n’ puff recovery, we
ever, as will be shown in the Results section, hydrocarbon trans- want the CO2 injection pressure to be higher than the CO2/oil
minimum miscibility pressure, at which the crude oil and CO2
become miscible. By use of the reservoir temperature and oil
composition, the minimum miscibility pressure is estimated to be
TABLE 3—RESERVOIR HETEROGENEITY
3,000 psi by 1D slimtube simulation, which is also consistent with
correlations (Alston et al. 1985; Li et al. 2012). Therefore, we set
k (md) Vdp Lx (ft) Ly (ft)
the BHP as 4,000 psi during CO2 injection. Specifically, the well
pressure is fixed at 3,000 psi from Days 1 through 300 to carry
Homo01 0.01 0 N/A N/A out primary recovery. Then, the well is operated as an injection
Hete01 0.01 0.3746 40 40 well from Days 301 through 330, at the fixed pressure of 4,000
Hete02 0.01 0.6473 40 40 psi. During this period, a fluid with 99.994% mole fraction of
CO2 is injected into the reservoir. Because both the temperature
Hete03 0.01 0.7137 40 40
and pressure are higher than the critical conditions, CO2 exists in
Hete04 0.01 0.7313 40 40
the sc phase. From Days 331 through 340, the well is closed,

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TABLE 4—CO2 HUFF ‘n’ PUFF STEPS

w ¼ 10 days Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5

300 days of 30 days of 10 days of well 100 days of Repeat Steps 2 through 4
primary recovery; CO2 injection; shut-in production; until 1,000 days
production injection pressure ¼ production pressure ¼
pressure ¼ 3,000 psi 4,000 psi 3,000 psi
w ¼ 20 days Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5
300 days of 30 days of 20 days of well 100 days of Repeat Steps 2 through 4
primary recovery; CO2 injection; shut-in production; until 1,000 days
production injection pressure ¼ production pressure ¼
pressure ¼ 3,000 psi 4,000 psi 3,000 psi

(a) (b) (c)

p (psi) p (psi) p (psi)

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700 6600 700 6296 700 3683
6360 6076 3637
6120 5857 3592
600 5881 600 5637
600 3546
5641 5417 3501
5401 5197 3455
5161 4978 3410
500 4921 500 4758 500 3364
4681 4538 3319
4441 4319 3273
y (feet)

y (feet)

400

y (feet)
4201 400 4099 400 3228
3962 3879 3182
3722 3659 3137
3482 3440 3091
300 300 3220 300
3242 3046

200 200 200

100 100 100

100 200 300 100 200 300 100 200 300

x (feet) x (feet) x (feet)
1 day 100 days 1000 days

Fig. 2—Pressure profiles in a primary recovery at (a) 1, (b) 100, and (c) 1,000 days in scenario Homo01.

letting CO2 mix with oil in the reservoir. The well shut-in time is
noted as w, and thus in this scenario w ¼ 10 days. From Days 341
through 440, the well is reopened to produce hydrocarbons, at a
fixed pressure of 3,000 psi. The same CO2 huff ‘n’ puff steps are
repeated until Day 1,000, giving rise to five cycles of CO2 huff
‘n’ puff. Another scenario with w ¼ 20 days is also studied, which
leads to 4.7 cycles of huff ‘n’ puff up to 1,000 days. Detailed steps
for both w ¼ 10 days and w ¼ 20 days are listed in Table 4.
Results and Discussion
Primary Recovery. To test the effect of heterogeneity, simula-
tions of primary recovery are performed on Homo01, Hete01,
Hete02, Hete03, and Hete04, separately. Production pressure is
fixed at 3,000 psi, and primary recovery is simulated up to 1,000
days. In the base scenario, Homo01, the permeability field is ho-
mogeneous. Pressure profiles at 1, 100, and 1,000 days are pre-
sented in Fig. 2. It can be seen that as time increases, the reservoir
pressure decreases gradually because of the extraction of hydro-
100
80
y (feet)
carbons. Fig. 3 shows the contour map of log(k) for scenario
Hete04, where the mean permeability k ¼ 0.01 md, Vdp ¼ 0.7313,
and Lh ¼ Lv ¼ 40 ft. Fig. 4 shows the pressure profiles in the pri-
mary recovery at 1, 100, and 1,000 days, separately. It is found
that the distribution of pressure contours is asymmetric and the
contour lines are not smooth because of reservoir heterogeneity.
Specifically, the propagation of pressure contour lines is slower in
the right side because of the lower-permeability region there, as
shown in Fig. 3.
Hydrocarbon recoveries as function of time for scenarios
Homo01, Hete01, Hete02, Hete03, and Hete04 are shown in Fig.
5a. First, the recovery factors of all hydrocarbon components in
the primary recovery are the same. This implies that the produc-
tion pressure of 3,000 psi is higher than the bubblepoint, so there
is no gas phase. Both light and heavy components are transported
in the liquid phase, thus the transport rates are similar. Second, it
is observed that the recovery rates in the heterogeneous perme-
ability fields are lower than those in the more homogeneous ones.
This implies that production is dominated by convective transport,
which is controlled by the heterogeneity of the permeability field.
log(k)
The following two-parameter formula is used to fit the rela-
–1.68 tionship between recovery r and dimensionless time t :
–2.71

60 –3.74
–4.77 r ¼ rm ½1  expðs  t Þ; . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ð2Þ
40 –5.79
–6.82
20 –7.85 where rm and s are the two parameters. rm is the asymptotic value
–8.88
of r when time approaches infinity, and s is the rate coefficient. t
100 200 300
x (feet) is defined as t ¼ t/tc. tc is the characteristic time defined as h2/a,
where h is the characteristic length equal to half of the domain
Fig. 3—Contour map of log(k) in scenario Hete04, where k 5 width and a is the pressure diffusivity defined as k=ð/lf Cf Þ,
0.01 md, Vdp 5 0.7313, and Lh 5 Lv 5 40 ft. where k is matrix permeability, / is matrix porosity, lf is fluid

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(a) p (psi) (b) p (psi) (c) p (psi)

700 6600 700 6437 700 4070
6360 6208 3998
6120 5978 3927
5880 5749 3856
600 600 600 3785
5640 5520
5400 5291 3713
5161 5062 3642
500 4921 500 4833 500 3571
4681 4604 3499
4441 4375 3428
3357
y (feet)

400 4201 400 4146 400

y (feet)

y (feet)
3961 3917 3285
3721 3687 3214
3481 3458 3143
300 3241 300 3229
300 3071

200 200 200

100 100 100

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100 200 300 100 200 300 100 200 300
x (feet) x (feet) x (feet)

1 day 100 days 1000 days

Fig. 4—Pressure profiles in a primary recovery at (a) 1, (b) 100, and (c) 1,000 days in scenario Hete04.

viscosity, and Cf is fluid compressibility. By these means, we
relate the dimensionless time to pressure diffusivity, because the
recovery process is dominated by convection, which depends
mainly on the propagation and gradient of the pressure field. With
Eq. 2, the recovery rate—time derivative of r—is calculated as
rm s expðs  t Þ. By rearranging Eq. 2, we obtain 1  r=rm ¼
expðs  t Þ. logð1  r=rm Þ is plotted as function of t , as shown
in Fig. 5b; therefore, the absolute value of the slope is equal to s.
By exponential function fitting, the absolute values of the slope in
scenarios Homo01, Hete01, Hete02, Hete03, and Hete04 are
found to be 1,970, 1,900, 1,670, 1,530, and 1,370, respectively. It
is noticed that a higher Vdp results in a lower s. This is reasonable
because a higher heterogeneity level hampers the development of
convective transport, which is the dominant transport mechanism
(a) 7%
6%
5%
Recovery
in hydrocarbon recovery. Simulations of primary recovery are
performed in more realizations of permeability field. These real-
izations cover a wide range of Vdp and different combinations of
correlation length. For each individual simulation, the value of s
is obtained. All data are plotted in Fig. 6, in which 37 simulations
are presented. First, all data can be fit by a linear function, written
as
s ¼ 765Vdp þ 2; 070; . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ð3Þ
which implies that a higher Vdp results in a lower s. Second, it is
found that the rate coefficient is insensitive to correlation length,
because the values of s are similar for two scenarios with the
same Vdp but different correlation lengths. Therefore, correlation
length does not enter Eq. 3, and the magnitude of s is determined
solely by Vdp. This finding is similar to previous studies of the
effect of heterogeneity on density-driven convection in geological
CO2 sequestration (Simmons et al. 2010; Chen et al. 2013). In
these studies, it was found that the critical time for the onset of
density-driven convection is controlled by heterogeneity, and it is

4% insensitive to different combinations of correlation length. Eq. 3

implies that the value of s can be estimated if Vdp is known,
3% homo01 whereas the value of the second parameter in Eq. 2, rm, depends
hete01 (Vdp = 0.3746)
2% mainly on production pressure and hydrocarbon composition.
hete02 (Vdp = 0.6473)
1% hete03 (Vdp = 0.7137)
hete04 (Vdp = 0.7313) CO2 Huff ‘n’ Puff Recovery. In CO2 huff ‘n’ puff, after 300
0% days of production with the well pressure fixed at 3,000 psi, CO2
0 200 400 600 800 1000
Time (days)
is injected into the reservoir from Days 301 through 330 at the

(b) 1 2200

2000

homo01 1800
1–r/rm

hete01 (Vdp = 0.3746)

s

hete02 (Vdp = 0.6473)

hete03 (Vdp = 0.7137) 1600
hete04 (Vdp = 0.7313)
Simulation data
exp(–1.97E+03 t*)
exp(–1.90E+03 t*) 1400 s = –765Vdp + 2070
exp(–1.67E+03 t*)
exp(–1.53E+03 t*)
exp(–1.37E+03 t*)
0.1 1200
0 0.0002 0.0004 0.0006 0.0008 0.001 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
t* Vdp

Fig. 5—(a) Hydrocarbon recovery as function of time, and (b) Fig. 6—s as function of Vdp for all realizations of permeability
1–r/rm as function of the dimensionless time, t  . field.

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(a) (b) (c)

p (psi) p (psi) p (psi)
700 5192 700 5157 700 4784
5112 5080 4665
5032 5003 4546
600 4951 600 4926 600 4427
4871 4850 4308
4790 4773 4189
4710 4696 4070
500 4629 500 4619 500 3951
4549 4542 3832
4468 4465 3714
y (feet)

y (feet)
400 4388 400 4389 400 3595

y (feet)
4307 4312 3476
4227 4235 3357
4146 4158 3238
300 4066
300 4081
300 3119

200 200 200

100 100 100

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100 200 300 100 200 300 100 200 300
x (feet) x (feet) x (feet)
330 days 340 days 440 days

Fig. 7—Pressure profiles in a CO2 huff ‘n’ puff recovery at (a) 330, (b) 340, and (c) 440 days in scenario Homo01.

fixed pressure of 4,000 psi. The well is then closed for 10 days,
letting CO2 mix with oil. After the shut-in period, the well is
opened again for hydrocarbon production in the following 100
days, with the production pressure of 3,000 psi. The injection-
shut-in-production cycle is repeated until 1,000 days, leading to
five cycles of CO2 huff ‘n’ puff. The huff ‘n’ puff processes are
simulated on both Homo01 and Hete04 to evaluate the interaction
between permeability structure and oil recovery. Pressure profiles
in Homo01 at 330, 340, and 440 days are presented in Fig. 7. Day
330 is in the injection stage of the first huff ‘n’ puff cycle, and
higher pressure is observed at the south side of the domain
because the well pressure is fixed at 4,000 psi. Day 340 is in the
shut-in stage of the first huff ‘n’ puff cycle. It is noticed that the
difference between the maximum and minimum pressures is
reduced compared with that in the injection stage because of
energy dissipation in the shut-in period. Day 440 is in the produc-
tion stage of the first huff ‘n’ puff cycle, and the pressure at the
fracture is fixed at 3,000 psi, which drives hydrocarbons migrating
to the well. CO2 mole fractions in nonaqueous phases in Homo01
at 330, 340, and 440 days are shown in Fig. 8. High mole fraction
of CO2 is observed in the well and fracture, whereas very low mole
fraction of CO2 is found in the shale matrix. Specifically, CO2
mole fraction in nonaqueous phases in the shale matrix is lower
than 7% all the time. This implies that CO2 migration into the shale
matrix is limited at the hundreds-of-days scale because of the low
permeability in the matrix. Pressure profiles and CO2 mole frac-
tions in nonaqueous phases in Hete04 at 330, 340, and 440 days are
presented in Figs. 9 and 10, respectively. Similar phenomena as
observed in Homo01 are noticed, except that the contour lines are
not smooth because of permeability heterogeneity.
Recovery factors for the primary recovery, multiple-cycle CO2
huff ‘n’ puff with w ¼ 10 days and w ¼ 20 days are plotted as a
function of time up to 1,000 days, as shown in Fig. 11. Simula-
tions are carried out in both Homo01 and Hete04. In Homo01, the
final recovery factors for the primary recovery and for CO2 huff
‘n’ puff with w ¼ 10 days and w ¼ 20 days are 6.73, 6.60, and
6.50%, respectively, as shown in Fig. 11a. The final recovery fac-
tors of the two huff ‘n’ puff processes are 1.93 and 3.42% lower
than those in the primary recovery. This implies that the incre-
mental recovery factors by CO2 huff ‘n’ puff are unable to

(a) (b) (c)

CO2MF CO2MF
700 CO2MF
0.9377 700 0.9373 700 0.1988
0.8754 0.8751 0.1859
0.8132 0.8129 0.1729
600 0.7510 0.1599
600 0.7507 600
0.6888 0.6885 0.1470
0.6265 0.6263 0.1340
500 0.5643 0.5641 0.1210
0.5021 500 0.5019 500 0.1080
0.4399 0.4397 0.0951
0.3776
y (feet)

0.3775 0.0821
400 0.3154
y (feet)

400 0.3153 400 0.0691

0.2532 0.0562
y (feet)

0.2531
0.1910 0.0432
0.1909
300 0.1287 0.0302
0.1287
0.0665 300 0.0665 300 0.0173

200
200 200

100
100 100

100 200 300

x (feet) 100 200 300 100 200 300
x (feet) x (feet)
330 days 340 days 440 days

Fig. 8—CO2 mole fractions (abbreviated as CO2MF) in nonaqueous phases in a CO2 huff ‘n’ puff recovery at (a) 330, (b) 340, and (c)
440 days in scenario Homo01.

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(a) p (psi) (b) p (psi) (c) p (psi)

700 5605 700 5577 700 5210
5506 5485 5063
5407 5393 4916
600 5308 5301 600 4768
5208
600 4621
5209
5109 5117 4474
5010 5025 4326
500 4911 500 4934 500 4179
4811 4842 4032
y (feet) 4712 4750 3884

y (feet)

y (feet)
400 4613 400 4658 400 3737
4514 4566 3589
4414 4474 3442
4315 4382 3295
300 4216 300 4291 300 3147

200 200 200

100 100 100

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100 200 300 100 200 300 100 200 300
x (feet) x (feet) x (feet)
330 days 340 days 440 days

Fig. 9—Pressure profiles in a CO2 huff ‘n’ puff recovery at (a) 330, (b) 340, and (c) 440 days in scenario Hete04.

compensate the loss in the injection and shut-in stages, because
CO2 migration into the shale matrix is limited and CO2 flowback
is low. In Hete04, the final recovery factors for the primary recov-
ery and for CO2 huff ‘n’ puff with w ¼10 days and w ¼ 20 days
are 5.83, 5.59, and 5.50%, respectively, as shown in Fig. 11b. The
final recovery factors of the two huff ‘n’ puff processes are 4.12
and 5.66% lower than those in the primary recovery. In both the
homogeneous and heterogeneous scenarios, when the well is reop-
ened after the shut-in period in CO2 huff ‘n’ puff, the recovery
rate declines quickly and converges to that of the primary recov-
ery, giving rise to a relatively lower final recovery factor. In the
heterogeneous scenario studied here, CO2 huff ‘n’ puff has a rela-
tively limited effect in increasing the final recovery factor,
because reservoir heterogeneity dissipates the kinetic energy in
convective flow.
Recovery rates, defined as time derivatives of the recovery fac-
tors, are plotted as a function of time, as shown in Fig. 12. In both
Homo01 and Hete04, the recovery rates of primary recovery are
consistent with the analytical solution, rm s expðs  t Þ. In CO2
huff ‘n’ puff, the recovery rate is zero in the injection and shut-in
stages because no hydrocarbon is recovered in these stages. In the
production stage, immediately after the well is reopened, the re-
covery rate rises to a peak value quickly, and then declines and
converges to that in the primary recovery. In both the homogene-
ous and heterogeneous domains, it is observed that the peak value
of recovery rate decreases with increasing huff ‘n’ puff cycles,
resulting from depleted reservoir pressure and hydrocarbons. It is
also interesting to notice that the recovery rate in the production
stage in the scenario with w ¼ 20 days is not higher than that in
the scenario with w ¼ 10 days. This implies that a longer shut-in
time does not help increase the recovery rate, because CO2 migra-
tion into the shale matrix is limited and flowback is low.
By comparing Figs. 12a and 12b, it is noticed that the major
difference between the homogeneous and heterogeneous domains
in multiple-cycle CO2 huff ‘n’ puff is the time taken for the recov-
ery rate to decline. Specifically, in Hete04, the recovery rate in
the production stage declines much more quickly than that in
Homo01. This is because of the kinetic energy dissipation in con-
vective flow resulting from reservoir heterogeneity, and this
explains why the final recovery factors in the heterogeneous do-
main are lower than those in the homogeneous domain, as shown
in Fig. 11. The time for the recovery rate to decline to that in the
primary recovery is referred to as the decline time and is plotted
as a function of huff ‘n’ puff cycle number, as shown in Fig. 13. It

(a) CO2MF (b) CO2MF (c) CO2MF

700 0.8738 700 0.8559 700 0.1691
0.8159 0.7991 0.1581
0.7579 0.7424 0.1471
0.6999 600 0.6856 600 0.1361
600 0.6288 0.1252
0.6420
0.5840 0.5720 0.1142
0.5260 0.5153 0.1032
500 0.4681 500 0.4585 500 0.0922
0.4101 0.4017 0.0812
0.3521 0.3449 0.0702
y (feet)

400 0.2941 400 0.2882 400 0.0592

y (feet)
y (feet)

0.2362 0.2314 0.0482

0.1782 0.1746 0.0373
0.1202 0.1178 0.0263
300 0.0623
300 0.0611 300 0.0153

200 200 200

100 100 100

100 200 300 100 200 300 100 200 300

x (feet) x (feet) x (feet)
330 days 340 days 440 days

Fig. 10—CO2 mole fractions in nonaqueous phases in a CO2 huff ‘n’ puff recovery at (a) 330, (b) 340, and (c) 440 days in scenario
Hete04.

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 REE164553 DOI: 10.2118/164553-PA Date: 19-July-14 Stage: Page: 411 Total Pages: 10

(a) 7% (a) 9.E–04

8.E–04 homo01 primary

Recovery Rate (day–1)

6% homo01 w = 10 days
7.E–04
5% homo01 w = 20 days
6.E–04

Recovery
4% 5.E–04
slow
3% homo01 primary 4.E–04
decline
homo01 w = 10 days 3.E–04
2%
2.E–04
homo01 w = 20 days
1% 1.E–04
0% 0.E+00
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 9001000
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
Time (days)
Time (days)

(b) 9.E–04
(b) 7% hete04 primary
8.E–04 hete04 w = 10 days

Recovery Rate (day–1)

6% 7.E–04 hete04 w = 20 days
6.E–04

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5%
5.E–04
Recovery

4%
4.E–04 fast
3% 3.E–04 decline
hete04 primary
2.E–04
2% hete04 w = 10 days
hete04 w = 20 days 1.E–04
1% 0.E+00
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 9001000
0% Time (days)
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
Time (days)
Fig. 12—Recovery rates by primary recovery and multiple-cycle
Fig. 11—Recovery factors by primary recovery and multiple- CO2 huff ‘n’ puff recovery in (a) scenario Homo01 and (b) sce-
cycle CO2 huff ‘n’ puff recovery in (a) scenario Homo01 and (b) nario Hete04.
scenario Hete04.

is obvious that in the heterogeneous domain the decline time is
shorter, implying faster decline of the recovery rate. Therefore, it
seems that the effect of reservoir heterogeneity is to expedite the
decline of recovery rate in the production stage, leading to a
reduced final recovery factor.
Conclusions
In this study, we use the UT-COMP reservoir simulator to simu-
late both primary recovery and CO2 huff ‘n’ puff recovery in the
middle Bakken member in the Elm Coulee field. It is found that
UT-COMP is able to solve the EOS-based compositional model,
despite the permeability difference between the fracture and ma-
trix being six orders of magnitude. The effects of both primary re-
covery and CO2 huff ‘n’ puff recovery depend primarily on the
permeability structure of the reservoir. In a simple process of pri-
mary depressurization, it is found that the recovery factor can be
fitted by a two-parameter exponential formula. High heterogene-
ity reduces the rate coefficient in the formula, and there is approx-
imately a linear relationship between heterogeneity and the rate
coefficient. Permeability fields with identical or similar heteroge-
neity have similar rate coefficients, even if the correlation lengths
70
homo01 w = 10 days
60
homo01 w = 20 days
hete04 w = 10 days
Decline Time (days)
are different. This suggests that the recovery depends primarily on
heterogeneity and is insensitive to correlation length. Multiple-
cycle CO2 huff ‘n’ puff processes are simulated in both homoge-
neous and heterogeneous reservoirs. It is found that the recovery
rate in the production stage rises to a peak value much higher than
that in the primary recovery, and then declines quickly. The peak
recovery rate decreases with increasing huff ‘n’ puff cycles,
resulting from depleted reservoir pressure and hydrocarbons. The
final recovery factor in the huff ‘n’ puff recovery is lower than
that in the primary recovery because the incremental recovery in
the production stage is unable to compensate the loss in the injec-
tion and shut-in stages. The use of a longer shut-in time does not
help increase the recovery rate in the production stage because
CO2 migration into the shale matrix is limited and flowback is
low because of the low matrix permeability. The effect of reser-
voir heterogeneity is to expedite the decline of recovery rate in
the production stage, leading to a reduced final recovery factor.
To fully use the potential of CO2 huff ‘n’ puff, further hydraulic
fracturing must be performed to drive the injected CO2 migration
into the low-permeability shale matrix and increase flowback.
This study shows that reservoir heterogeneity has a significant
effect on both primary recovery and CO2 huff ‘n’ puff recovery. It
is well-known that natural geological formations are rarely homo-
geneous. Thus, transport processes depend closely on the hetero-
geneity structure. It is necessary to take into account the effect of
heterogeneity to optimize hydrocarbon production by either pri-
mary recovery or CO2 huff ‘n’ puff recovery. In addition, shale
reservoirs are usually naturally fractured; therefore, it is also im-

50
hete04 w = 20 days portant to couple the transport processes between the pore- and
40 continuum-scale domains by upscaling methods (Balhoff et al.
2007, 2008).
30 To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first to investi-
gate the effect of heterogeneity on shale-oil recovery by both pri-
20 mary recovery and multiple-cycle CO2 huff ‘n’ puff recovery.
The method used to derive Eqs. 2 and 3 can be used to analyze
10 field data. The resultant empirical formulas can be used to predict
recovery factors if the heterogeneity is known. On the other hand,
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 reservoir heterogeneity could be estimated by analyzing recovery
Huff 'n' Puff Cycle curves. In the future, a multiscale numerical model is necessary to
better resolve the transport processes at the interface between the
Fig. 13—Decline time as a function of huff ‘n’ puff cycle. fracture and shale matrix.

August 2014 SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering 411

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 REE164553 DOI: 10.2118/164553-PA Date: 19-July-14
Nomenclature
C ¼ covariance
Cf ¼ fluid compressibiliy
COV ¼ coefficient of variation
fn ¼ eigenfunction
k ¼ permeability
k50 ¼ 50 percentile permeability value
k84.1 ¼ 84.1 percentile permeability value
L1 ¼ correlation length in principal direction 1
L2 ¼ correlation length in principal direction 2
r ¼ oil recovery at any time
rm ¼ ultimate oil recovery
s ¼ decline rate coefficient
t ¼ time
tc ¼ characteristic time
t ¼ dimensionless time
Vdp ¼ Dykstra-Parsons coefficient
w ¼ well shut-in time
Y ¼ log permeability
a ¼ pressure diffusivity
kn ¼ eigenvalue
l ¼ mean of log permeability
lf ¼ fluid viscosity
nn ¼ Gaussian random variable with zero mean
r ¼ standard deviation of log permeability
u ¼ porosity
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the funding from the Gas
EOR Project at the Center for Petroleum and Geosystems Engi-
neering at the University of Texas at Austin.
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Cheng Chen is a senior technical professional at Halliburton. His
research is directed at enhanced oil recovery (EOR), formation
evaluation, rock mechanics, and multiscale simulation of fluid
flow and transport processes in porous media. Chen holds a
bachelor’s degree in hydraulic engineering from Tsinghua Uni-
versity, China, and a PhD degree in civil and environmental en-
gineering from Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois.
Matthew T. Balhoff is an associate professor of Petroleum Engi-
neering at the University of Texas at Austin. His research is
August 2014 SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering
 REE164553 DOI: 10.2118/164553-PA Date: 19-July-14
focused on EOR, unconventional resources, and numerical
simulation of flow and transport in porous media across multi-
ple spatial scales. Balhoff holds bachelor’s and PhD degrees in
chemical engineering from Louisiana State University, Baton
Rouge, Louisiana.
Kishore K. Mohanty is a professor of Petroleum Engineering at
the University of Texas at Austin. He worked at Arco Oil & Gas
August 2014 SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering
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Stage: Page: 413 Total Pages: 10
from 1981 to 1991. Mohanty’s research is focused on EOR, for-
mation evaluation, improved fracturing, and nanotechnol-
ogy. He received the Pioneer Award during the 2008 SPE IOR
Symposium and the AIME/SPE Lucas Gold Medal in 2013.
Mohanty holds a bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute
of Technology and a PhD degree from the University of Minne-
sota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, both in chemical engineering.
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