@Article{ee.2026.078072,
AUTHOR = {Houchuan Huang, Ning Li, Shichang Ju, Aiping Zheng, Yufeng Jia, Pan Wang, Yuhui Zhou},
TITLE = {Optimizing CO<sub>2</sub>-EOR Strategies in Water-Sensitive Tight Conglomerate Reservoirs: Mechanisms and Field Application},
JOURNAL = {Energy Engineering},
VOLUME = {},
YEAR = {},
NUMBER = {},
PAGES = {{pages}},
URL = {http://www.techscience.com/energy/online/detail/27897},
ISSN = {1546-0118},
ABSTRACT = {The sustainable development of conglomerate reservoirs in the Junggar Basin is critically constrained by low permeability, high illite content, and severe water sensitivity. Conventional water flooding has proven inefficient, characterized by rapid pressure depletion and suboptimal recovery factors (avg. 5.5%). This study systematically investigates the efficacy of CO<sub>2</sub> injection as an alternative Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) mechanism. Through integrated core-flooding experiments and numerical simulations, we evaluated the displacement efficiency of CO<sub>2</sub>, N<sub>2</sub>, and CH<sub>4</sub>. Results demonstrate that CO<sub>2</sub> injection yields a superior ultimate recovery factor of 38.39%-substantially outperforming the historical water flooding baseline as well as N<sub>2</sub> and CH<sub>4</sub>. This superiority is primarily due to CO<sub>2</sub> effectively extracting light hydrocarbons (contributing 80% to incremental recovery) under high pressure and inducing significant oil swelling and viscosity reduction, significantly outperforming other media due to its ability to extract light hydrocarbons (contributing 80% to incremental recovery) and reduce oil viscosity. Furthermore, numerical optimization identifies horizontal well cyclic huff-and-puff as the optimal deployment strategy for this reservoir class. Field pilots of CO<sub>2</sub> pre-pad energized fracturing validated these findings, achieving a 38% enhancement in initial productivity compared to conventional fractured wells. This stimulation effect sustained elevated production rates for approximately 150 days. These results provide a robust technical framework for revitalizing depleted, water-sensitive conglomerate reservoirs.},
DOI = {10.32604/ee.2026.078072}
}