LAUSR

Counter‐current imbibition is a process whereby a wetting phase spontaneously imbibes into a porous media, displacing the non‐wetting phase. This process is considered an important oil recovery mechanism during water flooding in fractured oil reservoirs. In this study, the dynamic process of counter‐current imbibition for a natural reservoir sandstone core with an all‐face‐open boundary condition was monitored using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). A series of images and relaxation time T1 spectra were acquired. The movement of water spontaneously entering the core sample while oil escapes, the spatial distribution of oil and water, and the in situ saturation change of oil and water in porous media can be accurately detected using MRI. MRI assists the direct evaluation of the basic mechanisms of imbibitions. Experimental results suggest the remaining oil was trapped in some large pores because of the capillary pressure, and the oil recovery in some large‐pore regions is lower than that in some small‐pore regions at the end of imbibition. Experimental findings show a close agreement between conventional material balance and oil recovery determined from MRI. The in situ oil recovery data agree well with the empirical models. The observations from MRI images could provide test cases to enable the development of mathematical models and to facilitate the evaluation of the proposed imbibition mechanisms. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.