scholarly journals NEW AQUEOUS POLYMER FOR HIGH-TEMPERATURE RESERVOIRS

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (30) ◽  
pp. 380-386
Author(s):  
Y. V. SAVINYKH ◽  
L. D. LANG

Polymer flooding is technologically simple and highly effective method of enhanced oil recovery. The method is based on adding a small amount of polymer in conventional water flooding of oil reservoirs. The increase in viscosity and the reduction of the mobility of injected water are to equalize the displacement front by slowing the moving of water in the highly permeable zones and restricting the formation of water finger. These factors help to increase the sweep efficiency and oil-water displacement efficiency during flooding. Polymer flooding has been used successfully in clastic and carbonate reservoirs, as well as in low-permeability reservoirs such as a fractured basement. However, most of the current polymer gel used for control water flows are decayed by a high content of ions Ca2+ and Mg2+ in formation water or in injected water. Similarly, polymer gels lose their stability at high reservoir temperature (above 70°C). Developing water-soluble polymer, which does not change their rheological properties under high salinity and high temperature (over 100°C), is very important when producing offshore, where sea water is commonly used for flooding (high salinity of 30-40 g/L).

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1905-1913
Author(s):  
Tagwa A. Musa ◽  
Ahmed F. Ibrahim ◽  
Hisham A. Nasr-El-Din ◽  
Anas. M. Hassan

AbstractChemical enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes are usually used as additives for hydrocarbon production due to its simplicity and relatively reasonable additional production costs. Polymer flooding uses polymer solutions to increase oil recovery by decreasing the water/oil mobility ratio by increasing the viscosity of the displacing water. The commonly used synthetic water-soluble polymer in EOR application is partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM). However, synthetic polymers in general are not attractive because of high cost, environmental concerns, limitation in high temperature, and high-salinity environment. Guar gum is an environmentally friendly natural water-soluble polymer available in large quantities in many countries and widely used in various applications in the oil and gas industry especially in drilling fluids and hydraulic fracturing operations; however, very limited studies investigated on guar as a polymer for EOR and no any study investigated on its uses in high-temperature and high -salinity reservoirs. The objective of this study is to confirm the use of guar gum as a natural polymer for EOR applications in sandstone reservoirs and investigate its applicability for high-temperature and high-salinity reservoirs. The study experimentally investigated rheological characteristics of a natural polymer obtained from guar gum with consideration of high temperature (up to 210 °F) and high salinity (up to 20% NaCl) and tested the guar solution as EOR polymer. The results of this study show that the guar solution can be used as an environmentally friendly polymer to enhance oil recovery. Based on the results, it can be concluded that guar gum shows shear-thinning behavior and strongly susceptible to microbial degradation but also shows a very good properties stability in high temperature and salinity, where in low shear rate case, about 100 cp viscosity can be achieved at 210 °F for polymer prepared in deionized water. Guar polymer shows good viscosity in the presence of 20% NaCl where the viscosity is acceptable for temperature less than 190 °F. Also, the flooding experiment shows that the recovery factor can be increased by 16%.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chengli Zhang ◽  
Peng Wang ◽  
Guoliang Song

Based on the properties of high temperature and salinity reservoir, the water-soluble polymer with good heat resistance and salt tolerance can be obtained through copolymerization between 2-acrylamide-2-methyl sulfonate monomer (AMPSN) and acrylamide monomer (AM) in water. The star shaped stable complexes (STARPAM) with the star nucleus of β-CD are prepared by living radical polymerization, which can improve the viscosity and change the percolation characteristics of the polymer in porous media. In the article, the performance of the STARPAM (star-shaped polymer) with heat resistance and salt tolerance was evaluated by comparing the viscosification property, heat and salt resistance, calcium and magnesium tolerance, and long-term thermal stability of STARPAM (star-shaped polymer) with those of HPAM (partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide) and MO-4000 (linear polymer). The results of physical simulation experiment showed that the viscosity of the STARPAM is 3.3 times that of MO-4000 and 4 times that of HPAM under the conditions of mineralization degree of 20000 mg/L, concentration of 1500 mg/L, and 75°C, which indicated that heat resistance and salt tolerance of the STARPAM are excellent. Oil displacement experiments showed that STARPAM can enhance oil recovery by 20.53% after water flooding, and the effect of oil displacement is excellent. At present, 19 wells were effective with a ratio of 95.2%. Compared with before treatment, the daily liquid production increased by 136 m3, daily oil production increased by 44.6 t, water cut decreased by 4.67 percentage points, and flow pressure decreased by 1.15 MPa.


Geofluids ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huiying Zhong ◽  
Qiuyuan Zang ◽  
Hongjun Yin ◽  
Huifen Xia

With the growing demand for oil energy and a decrease in the recoverable reserves of conventional oil, the development of viscous oil, bitumen, and shale oil is playing an important role in the oil industry. Bohai Bay in China is an offshore oilfield that was developed through polymer flooding process. This study investigated the pore-scale displacement of medium viscosity oil by hydrophobically associating water-soluble polymers and purely viscous glycerin solutions. The role and contribution of elasticity on medium oil recovery were revealed and determined. Comparing the residual oil distribution after polymer flooding with that after glycerin flooding at a dead end, the results showed that the residual oil interface exhibited an asymmetrical “U” shape owing to the elasticity behavior of the polymer. This phenomenon revealed the key of elasticity enhancing oil recovery. Comparing the results of polymer flooding with that of glycerin flooding at different water flooding sweep efficiency levels, it was shown that the ratio of elastic contribution on the oil displacement efficiency increased as the water flooding sweep efficiency decreased. Additionally, the experiments on polymers, glycerin solutions, and brines displacement medium viscosity oil based on a constant pressure gradient at the core scale were carried out. The results indicated that the elasticity of the polymer can further reduce the saturation of medium viscosity oil with the same number of capillaries. In this study, the elasticity effect on the medium viscosity oil interface and the elasticity contribution on the medium viscosity oil were specified and clarified. The results of this study are promising with regard to the design and optimum polymers applied in an oilfield and to an improvement in the recovery of medium viscosity oil.


2011 ◽  
Vol 306-307 ◽  
pp. 654-657 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Wang ◽  
Zhi Yong Lu ◽  
Yu Gui Han ◽  
Yu Jun Feng ◽  
Chong Li Tang

Polymer flooding represents one of the most efficient processes to enhance oil recovery, but the poor thermostability and salt tolerance of the currently-used partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) impeded its use in high-temperature and high-salinity oil reservoirs. “Smart” thermoviscosifying polymers (TVPs) may overcome the deficiencies of HPAM. Steady and dynamic rheological behaviors against temperature of a novel TVP were examined in this work in comparison with a commercial HPAM polymer. It was found when increasing temperature, both apparent viscosity and elastic modulus increase for TVP aqueous solution, but decrease for HPAM solution. The results indicate that TVP shows some potential to be used in enhancing oil recovery from high-temperature and high-salinity oil reservoirs.


2013 ◽  
Vol 275-277 ◽  
pp. 496-501
Author(s):  
Fu Qing Yuan ◽  
Zhen Quan Li

According to the geological parameters of Shengli Oilfield, sweep efficiency of chemical flooding was analyzed according to injection volume, injection-production parameters of polymer flooding or surfactant-polymer compound flooding. The orthogonal design method was employed to select the important factors influencing on expanding sweep efficiency by chemical flooding. Numerical simulation method was utilized to analyze oil recovery and sweep efficiency of different flooding methods, such as water flooding, polymer flooding and surfactant-polymer compound flooding. Finally, two easy calculation models were established to calculate the expanding degree of sweep efficiency by polymer flooding or SP compound flooding than water flooding. The models were presented as the relationships between geological parameters, such as effective thickness, oil viscosity, porosity and permeability, and fluid parameters, such as polymer-solution viscosity and oil-water interfacial tension. The precision of the two models was high enough to predict sweep efficiency of polymer flooding or SP compound flooding.


e-Polymers ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Huang Zhiyu ◽  
Lu Hongsheng ◽  
Zhang Tailiang

Abstract In order to enhance oil recovery in high-temperature and high-salinity oil reservoirs, the copolymeric microspheres containing acrylamide (AM), acrylonitrile (AN) and AMPS was synthesized by inverse suspension polymerization. The copolymeric microsphere was very uniform and the size could be changed according to the condition of polymerization. The lab-scale studies showed that the copolymeric microsphere exhibit good salt-tolerance and thermal-stability when immersed in 20×105 mg/L NaCl(or KCl) solution, 7500 mg/L CaCl2 (or MgCl2) solution or 2000 mg/L FeCl3 solution, respectively. The copolymeric microsphere showed satisfactory absorbency rates. The sand-pipes experiments confirmed that the average toughness index was 1.059. It could enhance the oil recovery by about 3% compared with the corresponding irregular copolymeric particle.


SPE Journal ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Yang Zhao ◽  
Shize Yin ◽  
Randall S. Seright ◽  
Samson Ning ◽  
Yin Zhang ◽  
...  

Summary Combining low-salinity-water (LSW) and polymer flooding was proposed to unlock the tremendous heavy-oil resources on the Alaska North Slope (ANS). The synergy of LSW and polymer flooding was demonstrated through coreflooding experiments at various conditions. The results indicate that the high-salinity polymer (HSP) (salinity = 27,500 ppm) requires nearly two-thirds more polymer than the low-salinity polymer (LSP) (salinity = 2,500 ppm) to achieve the target viscosity at the condition of this study. Additional oil was recovered from LSW flooding after extensive high-salinity-water (HSW) flooding [3 to 9% of original oil in place (OOIP)]. LSW flooding performed in secondary mode achieved higher recovery than that in tertiary mode. Also, the occurrence of water breakthrough can be delayed in the LSW flooding compared with the HSW flooding. Strikingly, after extensive LSW flooding and HSP flooding, incremental oil recovery (approximately 8% of OOIP) was still achieved by LSP flooding with the same viscosity as the HSP. The pH increase of the effluent during LSW/LSP flooding was significantly greater than that during HSW/HSP flooding, indicating the presence of the low-salinity effect (LSE). The residual-oil-saturation (Sor) reduction induced by the LSE in the area unswept during the LSW flooding (mainly smaller pores) would contribute to the increased oil recovery. LSP flooding performed directly after waterflooding recovered more incremental oil (approximately 10% of OOIP) compared with HSP flooding performed in the same scheme. Apart from the improved sweep efficiency by polymer, the low-salinity-induced Sor reduction also would contribute to the increased oil recovery by the LSP. A nearly 2-year pilot test in the Milne Point Field on the ANS has shown impressive success of the proposed hybrid enhanced-oil-recovery (EOR) process: water-cut reduction (70 to less than 15%), increasing oil rate, and no polymer breakthrough so far. This work has demonstrated the remarkable economical and technical benefits of combining LSW and polymer flooding in enhancing heavy-oil recovery.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaoping Song ◽  
Ning Sun ◽  
Yanfu Pi

Background: Polymer flooding is the most commonly applied chemical enhanced-oil-recovery technique in offshore oilfields. However, there are challenges and risks in applying the technology of polymer flooding to offshore heavy oil development. Objective: This paper compared the spread law and the displacement effect of different injection modes and validated the feasibility of enhancing oil recovery by variable concentrations polymer flooding. Method: Two types of laboratory experiments were designed by using micro etching glass models and heterogeneous artificial cores. Furthermore, in order to determine a better polymer flooding mode, the displacement results, displacement characteristic curves and oil saturation distribution of heterogeneous artificial cores were also compared, respectively. Results: The experimental results showed that the recovery of variable concentrations polymer flooding was higher than that of constant concentration polymer flooding, under conditions of same total amount of polymer and similar water flooding recovery. Its sweep efficiency and displacement efficiency were also significantly higher than those of constant concentration polymer flooding. Moreover, variable concentrations polymer flooding had lower peak pressure and was at lower risk for reaching the formation fracture pressure. Conclusion: As a consequence, variable concentrations polymer flooding has certain feasibility for heterogeneous reservoir in offshore oilfields, and can improve interlayer heterogeneity to further tapping remaining oil in medium and low permeability layer. Conclusions of this paper can provide reference for the field application of polymer flooding in offshore oilfields.


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