Improved Oil Recovery, IOR, in shales is a topic of growing interest due to the low oil recovery observed in shales. Evaluating different IOR chemicals at the lab scale has proved difficult and time consuming due to their ultra-low permeability and low porosity. Conventional core procedures (such as core floods) are often not practical to use with such samples since they take too long.

In this study, we introduce a new laboratory method for measuring the oil recovery in a huff-and-puff IOR process in shales. In huff-and-puff IOR, a treatment additive and a gas are typically injected in combination into the reservoir. Oil production is initiated after a shut-in period. Our experimental protocol starts by saturating preserved shales with oil by exposing them to the reservoir oil under pressure for an extended time. To speed up this process the preserved shale sample is crushed and sieved to 5-10 mesh. The pressure vessels are then loaded with these oil-saturated 5-10 mesh shale particles and the desired IOR fluid is injected into the pressure vessel. The vessel is rotated to ensure full contact with the shale. The samples are heated to ensure that the fluid is at reservoir pressure and temperature. Several tests were done to ensure that the fluid temperature and pressure inside the vessels were at the desired conditions throughout the 72-hour test period. T₂ NMR scans were carried out before and after treatment to determine the amount of incremental oil recovery from the treatment. In tests where the two fluid phases were indistinguishable, deuterium was used in the treatment fluid in lieu of water. Excellent reproducible results were obtained with this method. This new method has been used to test a number of different treatment fluids, gases and solvents under a variety of conditions. The test can be completed in a matter of a few days as compared to several weeks that would be required for a core flood. Several tests can be run simultaneously, further speeding up the process. The results of the laboratory tests can be scaled to the field by using suitable surface-to-volume ratios in the lab and comparing them to the field.

With this new method we have a fast and robust method for conducting these huff-and-puff experiments in a repeatable, and precise manner. This allows us to quickly evaluate different IOR fluids for a particular shale-fluid system at reservoir conditions.