Summary Water-based polymers are often used to improve oil recovery by increasing sweep efficiency. However, recent laboratory and field work have suggested these polymers, which are often viscoelastic, may also reduce residual oil saturation (ROS). The objective of this work is to investigate the effect of viscoelastic polymers on ROS in Bentheimer sandstones and identify conditions and mechanisms for the improved recovery. Bentheimer sandstones were saturated with a heavy oil (120 cp) and then waterflooded to ROS with brine followed by an inelastic Newtonian fluid (diluted glycerin). These floods were followed by injection of a viscoelastic polymer, hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM). Significant reduction in residual oil was observed for all corefloods performed at constant pressure drop when the polymer had significant elasticity (determined by the dimensionless Deborah number, NDe). An average residual-oil reduction of 5% original oil in place (OOIP) was found during HPAM polymer floods for NDe of 0.6 to 25. HPAM floods with very-low elasticity (NDe < 0.6) did not result in observable reduction in ROS; however, another 10% OOIP residual oil was reduced when the flow rate was increased (NDe > 25). All experiments at constant pressure drop indicate that polymer viscoelasticity reduces the ROS. Results from computed-tomography (CT) scans further support these observations. A correlation between Deborah number and ROS is also presented.
New polymers that are stable in harsh environments (high salinity/hardness and high temperature) are in high demand because of the need for chemical EOR in oil reservoirs with these conditions. Commonly used partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamides (HPAM) have been successfully used in the field for decades, but they hydrolyze at high temperature and eventually precipitate in the presence of high concentrations of divalent cations. This paper mainly focuses on rheology and transport behavior of scleroglucan (non-ionic polysaccharide) and N-vinylpyrrolidone (NVP)-polyacrylamide (AM) co-polymer. The rigid, rod-like, triple helical structure of scleroglucan imparts exceptional stability and its non-ionic functionality makes it insensitivity to salinity and hardness. By a different mechanism, NVP in modified HPAM protects the polymer's amide group against thermal hydrolysis, i.e., by sterically hindering the amide group. This allows maintaining high viscosity even in high salinity brines at high temperature. Both scleroglucan and NVP co- or ter-polymers show good filterability and transport properties in sandstone and carbonate cores at high temperature and in brine with high salinity and hardness. Therefore, both polymers are promising candidates for polymer flooding, surfactant-polymer flooding and alkali-surfactant-polymer flooding in hard brine at high temperature, but must be evaluated under specific reservoir conditions.
Summary Polymer flooding is a widely used commercial process with a low cost per barrel of produced oil, and hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) polymers are the most widely used type of polymer. The objective of this research was to better understand and predict the behavior of HPAM polymers and their effect on residual oil saturation (ROS), to improve the capability of optimizing field design and performance. The corefloods were performed under typical field conditions of low pressure gradients and low capillary numbers. The polymer floods of the viscous oils recovered much more oil than the waterfloods, with up to 24% lower oil saturation after the polymer flood than after the waterflood. The experimental data are in good agreement with the fractional-flow analysis by use of the assumptions that the true ROSs and endpoint relative permeabilities are the same for both water and polymer. This suggests that, for more-viscous oils, the oil saturation at the end of a waterflood (i.e., at greater than 99% water cut) is better described as “remaining” oil saturation rather than the true “residual” oil saturation. This was true for all the corefloods, regardless of the core permeability and without the need for assuming a permeability-reduction factor in the fractional-flow analysis.
We have found that the addition of low concentrations of certain inexpensive light cosolvents to alkaline/polymer (AP) solutions dramatically improves the performance of AP corefloods in two important ways. First, the addition of cosolvent promotes the formation of low-viscosity microemulsions rather than viscous macroemulsions. Second, these light cosolvents greatly improve the phase behavior in a way that can be tailored to a particular oil, temperature, and salinity. This new chemical enhanced-oil-recovery (EOR) technology uses polymer for mobility control and has been termed alkali/cosolvent/polymer (ACP) flooding. ACP corefloods perform as well as alkaline/surfactant/polymer (ASP) corefloods while being simpler and more robust. We report 12 successful ACP corefloods using four different crude oils ranging from 12 to 24 API. The ACP process shows special promise for heavy oils, which tend to have large fractions of soap-forming acidic components, but is applicable across a wide range of oil gravity.
Polymer flooding is a widely used commercial process with a low cost per barrel of produced oil, For this application, hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) polymers are the most widely used type of polymer. In an era of low cost oil, it is becoming even more essential to optimize the polymer flooding design under realistic reservoir conditions. The objective of this research was to better understand and predict the behavior of HPAM polymers and their effect on residual oil saturation, in order to improve the capability of optimizing field design and performance. The corefloods were performed under typical field conditions of low pressure gradients and low capillary numbers. The polymer floods of the viscous oils recovered much more oil than the water floods, with up to 24% lower oil saturation after the polymer flood than the water flood. The experimental data are in good agreement with the fractional flow analysis using the assumptions that the true residual oil saturations and end point relative permeabilities are the same for both water and polymer. This suggests that for more viscous oils, the oil saturation at the end of water flood (i.e. at greater than 99% water cut) is better described as ‘emaining’ oil saturation rather than the true ‘esidual’ oil saturation. This was true for all of the corefloods regardless of the core permeability and without the need for assuming a permeability reduction factor in the fractional flow analysis.
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