Experimental Study on the Diversion Characteristic of a Viscous Fluid in a Heterogeneous Reservoir

[Image: see text] As a typical feature of a reservoir, heterogeneity is the main reason for low oil recovery and the poor effect of acidizing measures. Diversion is the main measure to improve the acidizing effect. Over the years, technological progress has mainly focused on the material development of diverting agents. In this study, the diverting effect and influencing factors for a viscous fluid were systematically studied by the heterogeneous dual-core flooding experiment. The results are as follows: First, increasing the displacement pressure in heterogeneous reservoirs can improve the diverting effect, which is consistent with maximum differential pressure and injection rate (MADPIR) theory, but the diverting effect is weak. The injection pressure difference is increased by 50 times, and the diverting effect is improved by 16.27% at most. Second, taking a viscous fluid as the stimulation fluid can partially realize the diversion for heterogeneous reservoir and further improve the acidizing effect, and the breaking through PV can be improved by 78% at most. Using a viscous fluid as a diverting agent can achieve 100% balanced acid injection. Third, compared with a viscoelastic surfactant, a relatively uniform and stable polymer solution as the diverting agent has the possibility to completely block the low-permeability layer. So, a 5% viscoelastic surfactant as the diverting agent is more suitable for acidizing. Finally, any diverter injected into the formation will enter all layers. The conclusion that the diverting agent only enters the high-permeability layer but not the low-permeability layer is not tenable. Diverting acidizing is only effective for near-well zones, which is difficult to fundamentally solve the seepage problem of heterogeneous reservoirs.