A New Method to Identify the Development Degree of Preferential Flow Paths in Water Flooding Reservoir

During the long-term water flooding development of the reservoir, the preferential flow paths between oil and water wells are generally developed, which seriously restricts the production degree of the reservoir. How to effectively identify the preferential flow paths has become the key to improving the effect of water flooding. In this paper, in order to solve the problem of difficult identification of preferential flow paths in reservoirs, parameters such as the multiple of water flux flow, the change value of permeability, and the water saturation were selected. The weight coefficient of each parameter was determined by the variation coefficient method of objective weighting, then the comprehensive identification index of the reservoir was obtained by weighting each parameter, and the development degree of the preferential flow paths was described. Finally, the eclipse post-processing was used to realize the visualization of the simulation, and the quantitative standard of the preferential flow paths of the reservoir was divided. On this basis, a new method for identifying preferential flow paths by considering changes in physical properties and fluid mobility of water flooding reservoirs was established. The calculation results of the new method applied to typical water flooding reservoirs show that the preferential flow paths calculated by the new method were highly consistent with the judgment results of trace element tracers, indicating that the new method established could accurately identify the preferential flow paths in the reservoir. The new method for identifying preferential flow paths in water flooding reservoirs provides a scientific basis for adjusting measures in later oil reservoirs.