Cold damage from wax deposition in a shallow, low-temperature, and high-wax reservoir in Changchunling Oilfield

Sci Rep. 2020 Aug 26;10(1):14223. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-71065-z.

Abstract

Wax deposition is an important factor that influences oil production for high-wax crude oilfield. There are few studies on the formation damage by wax deposition, especially cold damage to the shallow low-temperature reservoir. With laboratory tests conducted on reservoir oil and cores of Changchunling Oilfield, this study aims to experimentally investigate the influence of temperature variations on characteristics of oil-water percolation and cold damage mechanisms, as well as the relative permeability of high-wax reservoirs. Experimental results show that seepage flow of high-wax crude is significantly sensitive to temperature-wax deposition evidently increases, whereas the cold damage such as the pore-throat radius and relative permeability sharply decrease with the decline in formation temperature. The research results can be applied to enhance oil recovery of high-viscosity or high-wax oilfields.