Optimization of a Large Polymer Flood With Full-Field Streamline Simulation

Choudhuri, Biswajit; Thakuria, Chandan; Belushi, Abdul Aziz; Nurzaman, Zamzam; Hashmi, Khalid Al; Batycky, Rod P.

doi:10.2118/169746-pa

Cited by 21 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…The Utility Factor (UF = kg polymer injected/incremental bbl. oil produced) is an important metric to assess the performance of individual polymer patterns (e.g., Clemens et al [40], Choudhuri et al [41]). In addition to the incremental recovery, retention on polymers is determining the UF.…”

Section: Polymer Selectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Selecting EOR Polymers through Combined Approaches—A Case for Flooding in a Heterogenous Reservoir

et al. 2022

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This work uses micromodel, core floods and Field-Flow Fractionation (FFF) evaluations to estimate the behaviour and key elements for selecting polymers to address heterogenous reservoirs. One of the approaches was to construct two-layered micromodels differing six times in permeability and based on the physical characteristics of a Bentheimer sandstone. Further, the impacts of injectivity and displacement efficiency of the chosen polymers were then assessed using single- and two-phase core tests. Moreover, FFF was also used to assess the polymers’ conformity, gyration radii, and molecular weight distribution. For the polymer selection for field application, we weighted on the good laboratory performance in terms of sweep efficiency improvement, injectivity, and propagation. Based on the results, polymer B (highest MWD) performed the poorest. Full spectrum MWD measurement using Field-Flow Fractionation is a key in understanding polymer behavior. Heterogenous micromodel evaluations provided consistent data to subsequent core flood evaluations and were in alignment with FFF indications. Single-phase core floods performed higher injection velocities (5 m/d) in combination of FFF showed that narrower MWD distribution polymers (polymers A and C) have less retention and better injectivity. Two-phase core floods performed at low, reservoir representative velocities (1 ft/d) showed that Polymer B could not be injected, with pressure response staying at high values even when chase brine is injected. Adsorption values for all tested polymers at these conditions were high, however highest were observed in the case of polymer B. Overall, for the polymer selection for field application, we weighted on the good laboratory performance in terms of sweep efficiency improvement, injectivity, polymer retention, and propagation; all accounted in this work.

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Section: Polymer Selectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Selecting EOR Polymers through Combined Approaches—A Case for Flooding in a Heterogenous Reservoir

et al. 2022

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“…Vicente et al 58 developed a SL simulator to model 2D, heterogeneous or homogenous medium, twophase oil displacement by polymer slugs, by considering adsorption with the Henry or Langmuir isotherm, in which analytical solutions of the transport equation along SLs were used. A publication by Choudhuri et al 59 presented a full field SL simulation model of a large polymer flooding project in the Sultanate of Oman to facilitate the reservoir management decision-making and optimization of the polymer flood strategy. Chen et al 60 used a heuristic method with a SLbased rate allocation approach to maximize oil recovery in an ongoing polymer flood in the Mangala field in India; they applied a SL flow diagnostic for rate allocation and optimization of the polymer flood at field-scale and also developed a framework to incorporate dynamic field development schemes and operational constraints.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Compositional Streamline-Based Modeling of Polymer Flooding Including Rheology, Retention, and Salinity Variation

Rosado-Vázquez,

Rodríguez-De la Garza,

López-Ramírez

2023

ACS Omega

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The chemical enhanced oil recovery (CEOR) technology that is most used worldwide is polymer flooding due to its proven commercial success at field scale, maturity, and versatility to combine with other technologies. So, there has been an increasing interest in expanding its applicability to more unfavorable mobility ratio conditions and adverse environments (such as high-temperature, high-salinity carbonate reservoirs, pH-sensitive polymers, and formations with active clays). Therefore, a requirement for successful field application is to find the design parameters of the process that balance material requirements and oil recovery benefits in a cost-effective manner, which is usually done through reservoir modeling. Polymer flooding predictive tools normally require detailed information and are based on time-consuming field reservoir simulations. Thus, for effective project management, a quick and sound tool is needed to screen for polymer flooding applications without giving up key physical–chemical phenomena that govern the oil recovery. In this research, we developed a two-dimensional polymer flooding model based on the streamlines approach. This is an alternative to having a multidimensional practical tool thoroughly representing the physical and chemical behavior of polymer flooding by considering key phenomena such as rheology behavior (shear thinning and shear thickening), salinity variations, permeability reduction, and polymer adsorption. Previously published streamline multidimensional models for polymer flooding lack the integrated modeling of the above-mentioned key phenomena. Additionally, the models to represent rheology and retention phenomena in the proposed tool consider a more complete description than the present streamline-based simulators. For the construction of streamlines, we considered a black oil formulation to estimate the pressure and saturation 2D distribution by applying the implicit in pressure and explicit in saturation method, coupled with an explicit formulation for the 2D composition computation. For saturation-composition along the streamlines, the 1D practical tool incorporated represents the polymer flooding key phenomena. The numerical algorithm used by the streamline-based tool is supported by laboratory experiments for waterflooding in homogenous porous media, analytical results for waterflooding in heterogeneous media, polymer flooding field scale simulation cases, and a CMG-STARS model built as a reference for waterflooding in both media (homogenous and heterogeneous) and for polymer flooding. The practical tool developed contributes to simplifying the upscaling from laboratory observations to field applications with better fitted numerical simulation models and to determining favorable scenarios; thus, it could assist in understanding how key parameters affect oil recovery without performing time-consuming CEOR simulations.

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“…Another important measure to enhance oil recovery is well pattern adjustment (WPA) (Sayyafzadeh et al 2010;Zhu et al 2018;Guo et al 2019;Wu et al 2020). WPA technology can adjust change streamline distribution and reduce the streamline density in the original main streamline areas, which can improve the sweep efficiency and achieve the purpose of improving development performance (Choudhuri et al 2015;Jia and Deng 2018). A field test of WPA technology has been implemented in WH5-917 and WH7-117 well groups of Shuanghe oilfield.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Synergistic mechanism of well pattern adjustment and heterogeneous phase combined flooding on enhancing oil recovery in mature fault-block reservoirs

Liu

Chen³

et al. 2022

J Petrol Explor Prod Technol

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With the maturity of fault-block reservoirs, the water percolation channels are formed after long-term waterflooding, which leads to large amounts remaining oil unrecovered and low recovery efficiency. Thus, it is imperative to seek for enhancing oil recovery methods to improve the development performance of mature fault-block reservoirs. Well pattern adjustment and heterogeneous phase combined flooding are both feasible technologies for enhancing oil recovery in mature fault-block reservoirs. Nevertheless, both technologies have their limitations. Thus, a hybrid approach combining WPA and HPCF was proposed. In this study, the large-scale plate sand-pack model flooding experiments were conducted to investigate whether hybrid strategy has better EOR ability than the single WPA or HPCF. Thereafter, on the basis of incremental oil recovery and distribution of remaining oil, the mechanism of the synergistic effect of WPA and HPCF was illustrated. Finally, the influence of reservoir inclination on development performance was proposed. The results show that EOR of hybrid strategy is the highest, followed by single HPCF, and single WPA is the least. The HPCF mainly recovers remaining oil on both sides of main streamline after water flooding, and it prolongs the period of EOR validity. WPA can change the fluid flow direction and force the subsequent liquid enters the un-swept non-main streamline areas in the water flooding stage. Furthermore, by combining WPA and HPCF, the HPCF can enter the non-main streamline areas to expand sweep volume and improve oil displacement efficiency under the induction of WPA. Besides, the reservoir inclination has an obvious influence on the development performance of fault-block reservoir. With the increase of reservoir inclination, the incremental oil recovery of the single strategy or hybrid strategy decreases. Thus, these findings of this study can help for better understanding the synergetic effect of HPCF and WPA, which can provide a hybrid strategy for enhancing oil recovery in mature fault-block reservoir.

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Optimization of a Large Polymer Flood With Full-Field Streamline Simulation

Cited by 21 publications

References 13 publications

Selecting EOR Polymers through Combined Approaches—A Case for Flooding in a Heterogenous Reservoir

Selecting EOR Polymers through Combined Approaches—A Case for Flooding in a Heterogenous Reservoir

Compositional Streamline-Based Modeling of Polymer Flooding Including Rheology, Retention, and Salinity Variation

Synergistic mechanism of well pattern adjustment and heterogeneous phase combined flooding on enhancing oil recovery in mature fault-block reservoirs

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