Conformance control and water plugging are a widely used EOR method in mature oilfields. However, majority of conformance control and water plugging agents are unavoidable dehydrated situation in high-temperature and high-salinity low permeability reservoirs. Consequently, a novel conformance control system HPF-Co gel, based on high-temperature stabilizer (CoCl₂·H₂O, CCH) is developed. The HPF-Co bulk gel has better performances with high temperature (120 °C) and high salinity (1×10⁵ mg/L). According to Sydansk coding system, the gel strength of HPF-Co with CCH is increased to code G. The dehydration rate of HPF-Co gel is 32.0% after aging for 150 d at 120 °C, showing excellent thermal stability. The rheological properties of HPF gel and HPF-Co gel are also studied. The results show that the storage modulus (G′) of HPF-Co gel is always greater than that of HPF gel. The effect of CCH on the microstructure of the gel is studied. The results show that the HPF-Co gel with CCH has a denser gel network, and the diameter of the three-dimensional network skeleton is 1.5–3.5 μm. After 90 d of aging, HPF-Co gel still has a good three-dimensional structure. Infrared spectroscopy results show that CCH forms coordination bonds with N and O atoms in the gel amide group, which can suppress the vibration of cross-linked sites and improve the stability at high temperature. Fractured core plugging test determines the optimized polymer gel injection strategy and injection velocity with HPF-Co bulk gel system, plugging rate exceeding 98%. Moreover, the results of subsequent waterflooding recovery can be improved by 17%.

The development of fractured-vuggy carbonate reservoirs is extremely difficult because of the complex fractured-vuggy structure and strong heterogeneity. Foam flooding is a potential enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technology in fractured-vuggy carbonate reservoirs. Based on the similarity criterion, three types of 2D visual physical models of the fractured-vuggy structure were made by laser ablation technique, and a 3D visual physical model of the fractured-vuggy reservoir was made by 3D printing technology. Then the physical analog experiments of foam flooding were carried out in these models. The experimental results show that foam can effectively improve the mobility ratio, control the flow velocity of the fluid in different directions, and sweep complex fracture networks. The effect of foam flooding in fractures can be improved by increasing foam strength and enhancing foam stability. The effect of foam flooding in vugs can be improved by reducing the density of the foam and the interfacial tension between foam and oil. Three types of microscopic residual oil and three types of macroscopic residual oil can be displaced by foam flooding. This study verifies the EOR of foam flooding in the fractured-vuggy reservoir and provides theoretical support for the application of foam flooding in fractured-vuggy reservoirs.