Study on Mechanism of Viscoelastic Polymer Transient Flow in Porous Media

Zhong, Huiying; Zhang, Weidong; Yin, Hongjun; Liu, Haoyang

doi:10.1155/2017/8763951

Cited by 12 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 24 publications

(21 reference statements)

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“…The polymer effect on displacement efficiency due to the viscoelasticity effect is drawing more and more attention [19][20][21][22][23][24][25], while its mechanism explanation is not satisfactory or even contradictory [19]. Some researchers investigate microscopic residual oil remobilization mechanisms [26][27][28][29][30]. However, the claimed displacement improvement due to polymer viscoelasticity and normal stress difference [25,31] is not inconsistent with other researchers' observation [19].…”

Section: Eor Mechanismsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent Advances of Surfactant-Polymer (SP) Flooding Enhanced Oil Recovery Field Tests in China

Sun

Guo

et al. 2020

Geofluids

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Recently, there are increasing interests in chemical enhanced oil recovery (EOR) especially surfactant-polymer (SP) flooding. Although alkali-surfactant-polymer (ASP) flooding can make an incremental oil recovery factor (IORF) of 18% original oil in place (OOIP) according to large-scale field tests in Daqing, the complex antiscaling and emulsion breaking technology as well as potential environment influence makes some people turn to alkali-free SP flooding. With the benefit of high IORF in laboratory and no scaling issue to worry, SP flooding is theoretically better than ASP flooding when high quality surfactant is available. Many SP flooding field tests have been conducted in China, where the largest chemical flooding application is reported. 10 typical large-scale SP flooding field tests were critically reviewed to help understand the benefit and challenge of SP flooding in low oil price era. Among these 10 field tests, only one is conducted in Daqing Oilfield, although ASP flooding has entered the commercial application stage since 2014. 2 SP tests are conducted in Shengli Oilfield. Both technical and economic parameters are used to evaluate these tests. 2 of these ten tests are very successful; the others were either technically or economically unsuccessful. Although laboratory tests showed that SP flooding can attain IORF of more than 15%, the average predicted IORF for these 10 field tests was 12% OOIP. Only two SP flooding tests in (SP 1 in Liaohe and SP 7 in Shengli) were reported actual IORF higher than 15% OOIP. The field test in Shengli was so successful that many enlarged field tests and industrial applications were carried out, which finally lead to a commercial application of SP flooding in 2008. However, other SP projects are not documented except two (SP7 and SP8). SP flooding tests in low permeability reservoirs were not successful due to high surfactant adsorption. It seems that SP flooding is not cost competitive as polymer flooding and ASP flooding if judged by utility factor (UF) and EOR cost. Even the most technically and economically successful SP1 has a much higher cost than polymer flooding and ASP flooding, SP flooding is thus not cost competitive as previously expected. The cost of SP flooding can be as high as ASP flooding, which indicates the importance of alkali. How to reduce surfactant adsorption in SP flooding is very important to cost reduction. It is high time to reevaluate the potential and suitable reservoir conditions for SP flooding. The necessity of surfactant to get ultra-low interfacial tension for EOR remains further investigation. This paper provides the petroleum industry with hard-to-get valuable information.

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Section: Eor Mechanismsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent Advances of Surfactant-Polymer (SP) Flooding Enhanced Oil Recovery Field Tests in China

Sun

Guo

et al. 2020

Geofluids

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“…The changes of foam flow behavior with temperature can be explained by the interfacial properties of the bubble film [47][48][49][50][51]. The generation of foam is a process that the surface area and the energy of system increase.…”

Section: Effect Of Interfacial Properties Of Foam On Flow Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

Relationship between Blocking Performance and Foam Texture in Porous Media

Wang

Chen

et al. 2019

Geofluids

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Foam is widely used as a selective blocking agent through mobility control in oil field development. Its flow behavior in porous media has been investigated sufficiently, but few studies were carried out to understand the change of foam texture in flow. In this work, sandpack and micromodel experiments were conducted simultaneously to analyze foam flow behavior from the perspective of foam texture. Based on the measured flowing pressure and the observed foam image, the correlation between blocking pressure and foam texture was quantitatively investigated. The blocking pressure has a strong correlation with average diameter (-0.906) and variation coefficient (-0.78) and has a positive correlation with the filling ratio (0.84). These indicate that the blocking performance of foam is influenced by its texture closely. But path analysis shows only that the average diameter and variation coefficient have a significant direct effect on blocking pressure (-0.624 and -0.404). These show that the blocking capacity of foam is mainly influenced by the size and uniformity of bubbles. Tiny, dense, and homogeneous foam has a stronger blocking capacity. This study provides a deep insight of foam flow in porous media.

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“…This resulted in significant advances through the developments of new chemicals in the form of hydrophobically associating polymers, surfactants, and gels (Taylor and Nasr El-Din, 1998;Levitt and Pope, 2008;Wever et al, 2013;Al-Sabagh et al, 2016;Raffa et al, 2016). China remains the largest employer of polymer flooding for EOR (Zhong et al, 2017). The Shengli and Daqing fields in China were effectively produced using polymer flooding (Bai et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrophobically associating polymers for enhanced oil recovery – Part A: A review on the effects of some key reservoir conditions

Afolabi

Oluyemi

Officer

et al. 2019

Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering

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Research advancement in polymer flooding for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) has been growing over the last decade. This growth can be tied to increased funding towards the development of superior polymers such as hydrophobically associating polymers when oil prices were high and increasing concern that "easy oil" has been exploited with the focus now on "difficult to extract" oil. The use of hydrophobically associating polymers for EOR was discussed along with its limitations. In this context, the improved rheological properties of associating polymers cannot only be linked to the molecular structures arising from different synthesis methods. Equally, external parameters similar to conditions of oil reservoirs affect the rheological properties of these polymers. As such, this review placed critical emphasis on the molecular architecture of the polymer and the synthesis route and this was linked to the observed rheological properties. In addition, the influence of some key oilfield parameters such as temperature, salinity, pH, and reservoir heterogeneity on the rheological behaviour of hydrophobically associating polymers were reviewed. In this respect, the various findings garnered in understanding the correlation between polymer rheological properties and oilfield parameters were critically reviewed. For associating polymers, an understanding of the molecular architecture (and hence the synthesis method) is crucial for its successful design. However, this must be theoretically linked to the preferred EOR application requirements (based on oilfield parameters).

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Study on Mechanism of Viscoelastic Polymer Transient Flow in Porous Media

Cited by 12 publications

References 24 publications

Recent Advances of Surfactant-Polymer (SP) Flooding Enhanced Oil Recovery Field Tests in China

Recent Advances of Surfactant-Polymer (SP) Flooding Enhanced Oil Recovery Field Tests in China

Relationship between Blocking Performance and Foam Texture in Porous Media

Hydrophobically associating polymers for enhanced oil recovery – Part A: A review on the effects of some key reservoir conditions

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