Polymer Flood at Adverse Mobility Ratio in 2D Flow by X-ray Visualization

Skauge, Tormod; Vik, Bartek; Ormehaug, Per Arne; Jatten, Berit K.; Kippe, Vegard; Skjevrak, Ingun; Standnes, Dag Chun; Uleberg, Knut; Skauge, Arne

doi:10.2118/169740-ms

Cited by 49 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 10 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The efficiency of a polymer flood depends on several factors that should be considered before starting the injection. Skauge et al (2014) and Shashvat and Mohanty (2015) showed the importance of the viscosity ratio between an oil and brine/polymer solution for the development of water channels (viscous fingering) and its effect on water BT (WBT) and oil recovery. Their results show that the number of fingers is reduced with an increase in the polymer viscosity, and consequently the sweep area is also increased.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A New Approach to Polymer Flooding: Effects of Early Polymer Injection and Wettability on Final Oil Recovery

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Summary An experimental study of polymer flooding is presented here, focusing on the influence of initial core wettability and flood maturity (volume of water injected before polymer injection) on final oil recovery. Experiments were performed using homogeneous Bentheimer Sandstone samples of similar properties. The cores were oilflooded using mineral oil for water-wet conditions and crude oil (after an aging period) for intermediate-wet conditions; the viscosity ratio between oil and polymer was kept constant in all experiments. Polymer, which is a partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM), was used at a concentration of 2,500 ppm in a moderate-salinity brine. The polymer solution was injected in the core at different waterflood-maturity times [breakthrough (BT) and 0, 1, 1.75, 2.5, 4, and 6.5 pore volumes (PV)]. Coreflood results show that the maturity of polymer injection plays an important role in final oil recovery, regardless of wettability. The waterflood-maturity time 0 PV (polymer injection without initial waterflooding) leads to the best sweep efficiency, whereas final oil production decreases when the polymer-flood maturity is high (late polymer injection after waterflooding). A difference of 15% in recovery is observed between early polymer flooding (0 PV) and late maturity (6.5 PV). Concerning the effect of wettability, the recovery factor obtained with water-wet cores is always lower (from 10 to 20%, depending on maturity) than the values obtained with intermediate-wet cores, raising the importance of correctly restoring core wettability to obtain representative values of polymer incremental recovery. The influence of wettability can be explained by the oil-phase distribution at the pore scale. Considering that the waterflooding period leads to different values of the oil saturation at which polymer flooding starts, we measured the core dispersivity using a tracer method at different states. The two-phase dispersivity decreases when water saturation increases, which is favorable for polymer sweep. This study shows that in addition to wettability, the maturity of polymer flooding plays a dominant role in oil-displacement efficiency. Final recovery is correlated to the dispersion value at which polymer flooding starts. The highest oil recovery is obtained when the polymer is injected early.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A New Approach to Polymer Flooding: Effects of Early Polymer Injection and Wettability on Final Oil Recovery

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Canadian polymer floods are a good example of this reporting the injection of polymer solutions between 20 and 50 cP in viscous oil (up to 7,500 cP) reservoirs and recovery factors up to 14% of the OOIP (Delamaide, 2014;Renouf, 2014). These observations have been also reported in recent coreflood studies using viscous crude oils (Fabbri et al, 2015;Romero et al, 2013;Skauge et al, 2014).…”

Section: Summary Discussionmentioning

confidence: 67%

Historical and recent observations in polymer floods: An update review

Manrique¹,

Ahmadi²,

Samani³

2017

CT&F Cienc. Tecnol. Futuro

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Polymer flooding has been the most widely used chemical enhanced oil recovery (EOR) method. The experience gained over the past decades from laboratory studies to project design and field implementation has been well documented in the literature. The main objectives of this paper are to evaluate recent observations of polymer floods that report injection rates leading to pressure values above the formation fracture pressure (FFP), high polymer production, formation of tight emulsions and/or productivity losses.Based on this review, it can be concluded that no direct evidence exists to support that injecting polymer above the FFP will lead to more polymer production. However, uncertainties associated with the estimation of fracture propagation/dimensions using pressure Fall-Off Tests (FOT) still remain. High polymer production, other than severe channeling, is generally reported in large scale/commercial projects. The impact of oil geochemistry/ composition and water salinity on oil-water-polymer emulsions is commonly overlooked in polymer flood studies. The formation of in-situ emulsions can also explain the injectivity and/or productivity reduction and well test interpretation (i.e. FOT) reported in polymer floods. It was also identified that the OPEX (Operational Expenditures) associated with oil-water separation in the presence of polymer and productivity losses (i.e. workovers, stimulation costs) are generally underestimated. Finally, this review is expected to contribute with the planning, design and implementation of future polymer flood pilots and field expansions. OBSERVACIONES HISTÓRICAS Y RECIENTES EN INYECCIÓN DEPOLÍMEROS: REVISIÓN ACTUALIZADA. OBSERVAÇÕES HISTÓRICAS E RECENTES DE INJEÇÃO DE POLÍMEROS:REVISÃO ACTUALIZADA. EDUARDO MANRIQUE et. al. 18 L a inyección de polímeros es el método químico de recobro mejorado con mayor número de implementaciones a escala de campo. La experiencia adquirida en las últimas décadas desde estudios de laboratorio hasta el diseño e implementación de campo ha sido bien documentada en la literatura. El objetivo principal de este trabajo es evaluar observaciones recientes de proyectos de inyección de polímero reportando tasas de inyección por encima de la presión de fractura de la formación, alta producción de polímero, formación de emulsiones viscosas y/o pérdidas de productividad.Basados en esta revisión, se puede concluir de que no existen evidencias directas de que la inyección de polímero a tasas que impliquen superar la presión de fractura induzcan a una mayor producción de polímeros. Sin embargo, existen incertidumbres relacionadas con la estimación de las dimensiones y propagación de fracturas utilizando pruebas de caídas de presión (FOT). La alta producción de polímero, por razones diferentes a canalizaciones severas, generalmente se reportan en proyectos a escala comercial. Por otra parte, el impacto de la composición y geoquímica del crudo y de la salinidad del agua en la formación de emulsiones agua:petróleo:polímero ha sido subestimado en estudios de in...

show abstract

“…Figure 7 compares the viscous fingering pattern of water flood experiments at the water breakthrough time, at approximately 0.04 pore volume of water injected. Experiments T4b X-ray image is compared with images for experiments T2v, T3b, T6g, and T7g, already presented in the literature (de Loubens et al, 2018;Skauge et al, 2014). T2v is the only experiment carried with 7000 cP oil.…”

Section: Viscous Fingering Pattern Observed During Water Floodingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of initial water flooding on the performance of polymer flooding for heavy oil production

Fabbri

de-Loubens

Skauge

et al. 2020

Oil Gas Sci. Technol. – Rev. IFP Energies nouvelles

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In the domain of heavy to extra heavy oil production, viscous polymer may be injected after water injection (tertiary mode), or as an alternative (secondary mode) to improve the sweep efficiency and increase oil recovery. To prepare field implementation, nine polymer injection experiments in heavy oil have been performed at core scale, to assess key modelling parameters in both situations. Among this consistent set of experiments, two have been performed on reconstituted cylindrical sandpacks in field-like conditions, and seven on consolidated Bentheimer sandstone in laboratory conditions. All experiments target the same oil viscosity, between 2000 cP and 7000 cP, and the viscosity of Partially Hydrolyzed Polyacrylamide solutions (HPAM 3630) ranges from 60 cP to 80 cP. Water and polymer front propagation are studied using X-ray and tracer measurements. The new experimental results presented here for water flood and polymer flood experiments are compared with experiments described in previous papers. The effects of geometry, viscosity ratio, injection sequence on recoveries, and history match parameters are investigated. Relative permeabilities of the water flood experiment are in line with previous experiments in linear geometry. Initial water floods led to recoveries of 15–30% after one Pore Volume Injected (PVI), a variation influenced by boundary conditions, viscosity, and velocities. The secondary polymer flood in consolidated sandstone confirms less stable displacement than tertiary floods in same conditions. Comparison of secondary and tertiary polymer floods history matching parameters suggests two mechanisms. First, hysteresis effect during oil bank mobilization stabilizes the tertiary polymer front; secondly, the propagation of polymer at higher oil saturation leads to lower adsorption during secondary experiment, generating a lower Residual Resistance Factor (RRF), close to unity. Finally, this paper discusses the use of the relative permeabilities and polymer properties estimated using Darcy equation for field simulation, depending on water distribution at polymer injection start-up.

show abstract

Polymer Flood at Adverse Mobility Ratio in 2D Flow by X-ray Visualization

Cited by 49 publications

References 10 publications

A New Approach to Polymer Flooding: Effects of Early Polymer Injection and Wettability on Final Oil Recovery

A New Approach to Polymer Flooding: Effects of Early Polymer Injection and Wettability on Final Oil Recovery

Historical and recent observations in polymer floods: An update review

Effect of initial water flooding on the performance of polymer flooding for heavy oil production

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About