disposal and handling concerns, and corrosion of tubulars and surface equipment.Current literature describes RPM treatments that use various types of chemical treatments in essentially all lithologies. If these treatments were successful in all cases, RPM technology would be applied more frequently than is currently indicated. Despite claims of success, none of the materials or techniques used in RPM processes have performed consistently well in field operations. Although the literature contains several theories on RPM mechanisms, 1-3 none appear to be universally accepted. This lack of consensus may exist because no single factor determines the success of an RPM. Rather, an RPM's success depends on several well and reservoir characteristics, including chemistry, lithology, problem type, permeability, saturation, and many others.Because all of these factors affect the outcome of an RPM treatment, developing a single RPM for all well situations is unlikely. Instead, a better solution may be to focus on specific reservoir conditions and to design a treatment process that fits those circumstances. A polymeric RPM was developed recently that allows such customization when used with a systematic approach of proper preflushes and post-flushes. 4 Conventional Water-Reduction SystemsTwo categories of chemical systems are available for reducing unwanted water production in a porous medium: (1) nonsealing systems that allow the flow of fluids, and (2) sealing systems that completely block the flow of fluids.Nonsealing Systems. Nonsealing systems are typically diluted solutions of water-soluble polymers that adsorb onto the formation. These polymers most likely reduce effective water permeability through a wall effect, 1 where the polymer adsorbs onto the formation and creates a layer of hydrated polymer along the pore throat, which inhibits water flow.Sealing Systems. Sealing systems are porosity-fill materials, which can be valuable when a water-producing zone can be mechanically or chemically isolated. However, in many situations a target zone cannot be isolated and the sealing system sometimes penetrates zones that should not be treated. Although claims that sealing systems will reduce water permeability more than they reduce oil permeability have been made, pumping such Abstract For many years, relative permeability modifiers (RPM's) have received a great deal of attention from the oil and gas industry. Because of the completion techniques used in many wells, protecting the hydrocarbon interval properly during a watershutoff treatment is not always practical or cost effective. RPM's offer the option of bullheading a treatment without zonal isolation, which is designed to decrease water production with little or no decrease in oil or gas production. This paper describes the laboratory development and optimization of a polymeric RPM. The resulting material can best be described as a brush polymer consisting of a polymeric backbone grafted with methoxypolyethylene glycol (MPEG). Various phases of the development are discu...
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