Potential and challenges for the new method supercritical CO2/H2O mixed fluid huff-n-puff in shale oil EOR

The successful development of shale oil is important to ensure energy security. However, shale oil recovery is typically less than 10%. Supercritical CO2/H2O huff-n-puff is a potential EOR strategy for shale oil development, but it is still in the exploratory stage. Supercritical CO2/H2O huff-n-puff exerts the capacity of two kinds supercritical fluids, and using the same well as an injection well and a production well, which solves the problem of gas channeling in shale oil reservoir after fracturing by conventional gas drive method. This paper provides a brief overview of the advantages, potential, injection method, summarize the problems and future research directions of the new technology in shale oil development, which is of great important for the shale oil reservoir developments.