Polymer Flooding is one of the most economic attractive EOR techniques which are used to improve the sweep efficiency, and in turn extract large fraction of the residual oil after primary recovery. The selection of the optimum polymer concentration should be considered as a main step in designing a polymer flooding project since it affects both the technical and economic feasibility of the project. There are several factors such as shearing, temperature, salinity and adsorption influencing the polymer concentration and viscosity required for achieving favorable mobility ratio. Thus, the impact of these factors should be considered while selecting the optimum concentration. The objectives of this research are to investigate the effect of polymer types, concentration, and adsorption and slug sizes on oil recovery at low and extremely high salinity. Rheological behavior of two types of polymer: Xanthan gum and PAM were measured in high salinity high temperature (HSHT). The effect of polymer adsorption was measured to determine the optimum polymer concentration. Results showed that the optimum polymer concentration was 500 ppm based on the relative permeability data and shear rate of 10s −1 .in porous media. In addition, the effects of polymer concentration and slug size on cumulative oil recovery were investigated showing that the recovery factor increases with increasing the polymer concentration with an optimum slug size 0.6 PV. These extensive laboratory tests conducted will help in selecting the optimum polymer slug, concentration at reservoir conditions that will provide the favorable mobility ratio. The economic evaluation of the project based on the simulation study and polymer properties measured in the lab showed that the polymer flooding is economically feasible, since the project earned much higher NPV than water flooding. . A new correlation will be developed to be used to calculate the resistance factor at different shear rates. Finally, The economic feasibility of the selected concentration and slug size are determined.
The main seek for the whole oil industry is to find a way to prolong the economic life of the existing mature fields, as a result of the difficulty of finding new big assets. The waterflooding efficiency can be dramatically enhanced by the application of new technologies with the target of sweeping higher amounts of unswept oil. IOR/EOR methods are investigated to improve the oil production from the giant Belayim Onshore mature field located in Gulf of Suez, Egypt. The field was previously developed by using sea water peripheral injection. The existing water injection strategy is found not be the optimum strategy to increase the sweep efficiency and the recovery factor as a result of the huge lateral heterogeneity and different mobility ratio. This paper describes the work done to improve the efficiency of water injection by the application of different IOR/EOR technologies specifically Low Salinity water. First, Coreflooding experiments on porous medium have been performed in the tertiary mood to detect the effect of IOR compared to the sea water injection. It was found that LS can increase oil recovery nearly to 7% more. After finishing the lab phase, simulation runs have been performed to predict the enhancement on field scale. The coreflooding experiments have been simulated using a wettability alteration model to determine the LS parameters and the new relative permeability curves. These parameter were the input into a sector model of fine gridding. The model was history matched using the wells production and injection data for the LS pilot area under study. Different forecast scenarios have been run and the incremental increase in oil recovery was reported against the current water injection scheme A number of Single Well Tracer Tests have been performed to detect the effect of Low Salinity water flooding on well scale. The test was designed to incorporate a number of injection, production and shut in cycles in the pilot well with the aim determining the residual oil saturation with the current scheme of sea water injection and after switching into low salinity water. It was found that Low salinity water has achieved very promising results that produced a remarkable reduction in Sor at the range of (5-11) saturation units. In order to estimate the full-field effect of the LS waterflooding as a promising EOR method, all the major aspects have been taken into account including the expected reduction in residual oil saturation, permeability alteration as a result of possible fine migration or clay swell and the possible change in the sweeping efficiency. Finally, all the produced results from the experimental and simulation work have been incorporated into an economic study to determine the feasibility of constructing a desalination plant for the full-field application phase
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.