Air foam flooding is an important tertiary oil recovery technology, and its using effect is controlled by the reservoir heterogeneity. The main aim of this paper is to study the applicable reservoir range of this technology. Methods: Theoretical analysis clarifies the mechanism of air foam profile control and water shutoff under different reservoir heterogeneity conditions. Experimental analysis shows the difference of water flooding and foam flooding in different permeability ratio, and the dynamic verification is done by the actual production of oil fields. Results: It showed that the air foam flooding technology improves the sweep efficiency, and improves the mobility ratio through foam, and stripes oil film by surfactant. The foam system can effectively profile and block water. Because the heterogeneous reservoirs have different sizes of pore throat, large pore throat ratio and strong Jia Min effect, the effect of increasing sweep efficiency and flooding and water plugging is stronger. The oil recovery can be further enhanced on the basis of water flooding. The experimental and production dynamic data show that the stronger the reservoir heterogeneity is, the better the effect of increasing production and plugging is. Conclusions: The air foam flooding technology is suitable for the reservoir with strong heterogeneity, and the water flooding is suitable for the homogeneous reservoir. It is possible to select a heterogeneous reservoir in the oilfield to use water flooding first. Then, when the water content is high, the air foam flooding can be used.