The Use of Oil-Soluble Polymers to Enhance Oil Recovery in Hard to Recover Hydrocarbons Reserves

Abstract

Currently, the share of new fields in many places over the world, which are at the initial stage of development, is constantly growing.Fields often have a complex heterogeneous structure with hard-to-recover reserves, therefore, for their effective development, it is necessary to use completely new approaches, including improving existing methodsof enhanced oil recovery.In this work, experimental verification of a new technology using oil-soluble polymers and comparing it with technology based on the use of water-soluble polymers has been performed. In laboratory conditions, a newtechnology for polymer flooding at an early stage of development using oil-soluble polymers was developed and experimentally confirmed. The new technology has made it possible to increase the degree of reservesrecovery by an average of 30% compared to existing methods of enhanced oil recovery and to solve a number of problems arising from the use of water-soluble polymers. Such problems are the freezing of aqueouspolymer solutions in winter and the poor solubility of polymers in formation waters with a high salt content. The use of new technology can also reduce energy costs by 25%.

Changes in the Physical Properties of Hydrocarbon Reservoir as a Result of an Increase in the Effective Pressure During the Development of the Field

“…The energy resources of the reservoir at each stage of its development are characterized by the value of the reservoir pressure (P r ). It is known that the development of oil and gas fields, as a rule, is accompanied by a decrease in reservoir pressure [1] [2]. Subsequently, depending on the mode of operation of the hydrocarbon field, annual production volumes, etc.…”