Experimental Investigation of Microscopic/Macroscopic Efficiency of Polymer Flooding in Fractured Heavy Oil Five-Spot Systems

2013 ◽  
Vol 135 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Hossein Sedaghat ◽  
Mohammad Hossein Ghazanfari ◽  
Mohammad Parvazdavani ◽  
Saeid Morshedi
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Investigation ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Polymer Concentration ◽  
Synthetic Polymers ◽  
Polymer Flooding ◽  
Water Flooding ◽  
Recovery Efficiency ◽  
Recovery Method ◽  
Geometrical Properties ◽  
Glass Type

This paper concerns on experimental investigation of biopolymer/polymer flooding in fractured five-spot systems. In this study, a series of polymer injection processes were performed on five-spot glass type micromodels saturated with heavy crude oil. Seven fractured glass type micromodels were used to illustrate the effects of polymer type/concentration on oil recovery efficiency in presence of fractures with different geometrical properties (i.e., fractures orientation, length and number of fractures). Four synthetic polymers as well as a biopolymer at different levels of concentration were tested. Also a micromodel constituted from dead-end pores with various geometrical properties was designed to investigate microscopic displacement mechanisms during polymer/water flooding. The results showed that polymer flooding is more efficient by using hydrolyzed synthetic polymers with high molecular weight as well as locating injection well in a proper position respect to the fracture geometrical properties. In addition, by monitoring of microscopic efficiency, pulling, stripping, and oil thread flow mechanisms were detected and discussed. The results showed that flow rate, fluid type, polymer concentration, and geometrical properties of pores influence the efficiency of mentioned mechanisms. Furthermore, it was detected that polymer's velocity profile play a significant role on oil recovery efficiency by influencing both macroscopic and microscopic mechanisms. This study demonstrates different physical and chemical conditions that affect the efficiency of this enhanced oil recovery method.

Experimental Study of Polymer Flooding in Fractured Systems Using Five-Spot Glass Micromodel: The Role of Fracture Geometrical Properties

2012 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 689-705 ◽  
Author(s):  
Behbood Abedi ◽  
Mohammad Hossein Ghazanfari ◽  
Riyaz Kharrat
Keyword(s):  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Polymer Flooding ◽  
Recovery Factor ◽  
Reservoir Rock ◽  
Water Flooding ◽  
Recovery Method ◽  
Geometrical Properties ◽  
Fracture Orientation ◽  
Glass Micromodel

Water flooding is being widely used in the petroleum industry and has been considered as a simple inexpensive secondary recovery method. But in fractured formations, existence of fracture system in reservoir rock induces an adverse effect on oil recovery by water flooding. Polymer flooding has been successfully applied as an alternative enhanced oil recovery method in fractured formations. But, the role of fracture geometrical properties on macroscopic efficiency of polymer flooding is not yet well-understood, especially in fractured five-spot systems. In this work five-spot glass micromodel, because of micro-visibility, ease of multiple experimentations and also presence of the unexplored issues, was used to experimentally investigate the influence of fracture geometrical characteristics such as fracture orientation, fracture spacing, fracture overlap and etc on the macroscopic efficiency of polymer flooding. The tests were performed on the fractured models which are initially saturated with the crude oil at fixed flow rate conditions and in a horizontally mounting. The results revealed that the macroscopic efficiency of polymer flooding depends on fracture geometrical properties. Fracture orientation showed more imposing effect than other fracture geometrical properties, and fracture with 45 degree inclination to the mean flow direction, gives greatest oil recovery factor. Large spacing fractures give more recovery than small spacing ones and in case of overlapping, fractures with less overlapping help polymer to better propagate which could be related to their greater effective fracture length. This pre-called effect could be responsible to show how continuity and width to length ratio of fractures affect recovery factor, less fracture discontinuity as well as more length to width ratio of fracture give more swept zone. Also, increasing number of fractures decreases oil recovery factor. The results of this work can be helpful to better understanding the role of fracture geometrical properties on macroscopic efficiency of polymer flooding in five-spot fractured systems.

scholarly journals The Key Parameter Effect Analysis Of Polymer Flooding On Oil Recovery Using Reservoir Simulation

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Tomi Erfando ◽  
Novia Rita ◽  
Romal Ramadhan
Keyword(s):  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Reservoir Simulation ◽  
Polymer Concentration ◽  
Polymer Flooding ◽  
Recovery Factor ◽  
Water Flooding ◽  
Base Case ◽  
Driving Mechanism ◽  
Geological Condition ◽  
Recovery Method

As time goes by, there will be decreasing of production rates of a field along with decreasing pressure. This led to the necessity for further efforts to increase oil production. Therefore, pressure support is required to improve the recovery factor. Supportable pressure that can be used can be either water flooding and polymer flooding. This study aims to compare recovery factor to scenarios carried out, such as polymer flooding with different concentrations modeled in the same reservoir model to see the most favorable scenario. The method used in this research is reservoir simulation method with Computer Modeling Group (CMG) STARS simulator. The study was carried out by observing at the pressure, injection rate, and polymer concentration on increasing field recovery factor. This study used cartesian grid with the assumption of homogeneous reservoir, there are no faults or other geological condition in the reservoir, and driving mechanism is only solution gas drive. This reservoir, oil type is light oil with API gravity 40.3˚API and layer of conglomerate rock. The simulation result performed with various scenarios provides a good result. Where the conditions case base case field recovery factor of 6.7%, and after water flooding produced 25.5% of oil, whereas with tertiary recovery method is polymer flooding was carried out with four concentrations of 640 ppm, 1,500 ppm, 3,000 ppm, and 4,000 ppm obtained optimum values at 4,000 ppm polymer concentration with recovery factor 28.9%, SOR reduction final value 0,5255, polymer adsorption of 818,700 ppm, reservoir final pressure 1,707 psi, and an increase in water viscosity to 0.94 cP.

Experimental Investigation of the Heterogeneity Limit for the Application of Polymer Flooding in Reservoirs

2020 ◽  
Vol 143 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mingchen Ding ◽  
Yugui Han ◽  
Yefei Wang ◽  
Yigang Liu ◽  
Dexin Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Investigation ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Polymer Concentration ◽  
Experimental Information ◽  
Polymer Flooding ◽  
Polymer Injection ◽  
Low Concentration ◽  
Visual Models ◽  
Combined Use

Abstract It is generally accepted that polymer flooding gets less effective as the heterogeneity of a reservoir increases. However, very little experimental information or evidence has been collated to indicate which levels of heterogeneity correspond to reservoirs that can (and cannot) be efficiently developed using polymer flooding. Therefore, to experimentally determine a heterogeneity limit for the application of polymer flooding to reservoirs, a series of flow tests and oil displacements were conducted using parallel sand packs and visual models possessing different heterogeneities. For low-concentration polymer flooding (1.0 g/l), the limit determined corresponds to permeability contrasts (PCs) of 10.8 and 10.2, according to the parallel and visual tests, respectively. A significant increase in oil recovery can be achieved by polymer injection within these limits. Increasing the polymer concentration to 2.0 g/l increased these limiting PCs to 52.8 and 50.0, respectively. Additionally, within or beyond these limits, the combined use of polymer and gel may be the best.

scholarly journals Experimental Study of Chemical Flooding of Suizhong 36-1 Oilfield

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 392-397 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pi Yanfu ◽  
Guo Xiaosai ◽  
Pi Yanming ◽  
Wu Peng
Keyword(s):  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Pore Volume ◽  
Polymer Flooding ◽  
Oil Field ◽  
Water Flooding ◽  
Chemical Flooding ◽  
Recovery Efficiency ◽  
Displacement Efficiency ◽  
Displacement Effect ◽  
Binary Combination

Aim at the reservoir characteristics of Suizhong 36-1 Oil Field, this paper has developed typical two-dimensional physical model in parallel between the layers and studied the macroscopic displacement effect of polymer flooding and binary compound flooding, and studied the interlayer spread law and oil displacement efficiency of polymer flooding and binary combination flooding by using saturation monitoring system deeply. The results show that: when the multiples of pore volume injected for polymer was 0.3 after water flooding, the recovery efficiency increased by 10.3%, and when the multiples of pore volume injected for binary combination flooding was 0.3 after polymer flooding and the recovery efficiency could also increase by 19.3%, and the effect of enhanced oil recovery was obvious during the binary combination flooding and polymer flooding; Saturation monitoring data showed that there formed oil wall and increased the flow resistance and expanded the swept volume during the stage of polymer flooding and binary combination flooding, effective use of low-permeability layer was the key to improve oil recovery.

scholarly journals Improving Oil Recovery Efficiency in Niger Delta Reservoirs Using Corn Starch as a Local Polymer

2021 ◽  
Vol 04 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Imad Biboye Eseimokumoh ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Niger Delta ◽  
Adsorption Mechanism ◽  
Corn Starch ◽  
Molecular Size ◽  
Polymer Flooding ◽  
Water Flooding ◽  
Residual Oil ◽  
Adsorption Effect ◽  
Recovery Method

Polymer flooding is a chemical enhanced oil recovery method that improves the recovery of oil by controlling the mobility of water to oil phase. It uses polymer solutions to increase the viscosity of the displacing water thereby decreasing water/oil mobility ratio (Speight, 2013). The volumetric and displacement sweep efficiencies are positively affected by polymer flooding. The viscosity of the aqueous phase is increased due to the molecular size and structure of the polymer used. The main objective of this research was to study the ability of cornstarch (local polymer) to recover additional oil after conventional water flooding. The objective was successfully achieved by injecting four different unconsolidated samples (sand pack) with cornstarch solution at varying concentration of 500ppm, 1000ppm, 3000ppm, and 9000ppm. From the results of the experiment conducted, it was deduced that Cornstarch has the ability to recover an additional volume of oil about half the volume of oil recovered during conventional water flooding (i.e. if 50% of oil initially in place was recovered during water flooding, cornstarch can recover an additional 25% of the residual oil after water flooding). Also, higher concentrations of cornstarch reduce the recovery factor due to polymer adsorption on the rock surfaces which alters the rock wettability. To reduce the adsorption effect of Cornstarch, it is recommended that the concentration of Cornstarch be measured after the flooding experiments for a better understanding of the adsorption mechanism of cornstarch.

scholarly journals Experimental investigation of the displacement flow mechanism and oil recovery in primary polymer flood operations

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruissein Mahon ◽  
Gbenga Oluyemi ◽  
Babs Oyeneyin ◽  
Yakubu Balogun
Keyword(s):  
Relative Permeability ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Polymer Flooding ◽  
Mobility Control ◽  
List Type ◽  
Motor Oil ◽  
Flow Mechanism ◽  
Fractional Flow ◽  
Recovery Method ◽  
Polymer Flood

Abstract Polymer flooding is a mature chemical enhanced oil recovery method employed in oilfields at pilot testing and field scales. Although results from these applications empirically demonstrate the higher displacement efficiency of polymer flooding over waterflooding operations, the fact remains that not all the oil will be recovered. Thus, continued research attention is needed to further understand the displacement flow mechanism of the immiscible process and the rock–fluid interaction propagated by the multiphase flow during polymer flooding operations. In this study, displacement sequence experiments were conducted to investigate the viscosifying effect of polymer solutions on oil recovery in sandpack systems. The history matching technique was employed to estimate relative permeability, fractional flow and saturation profile through the implementation of a Corey-type function. Experimental results showed that in the case of the motor oil being the displaced fluid, the XG 2500 ppm polymer achieved a 47.0% increase in oil recovery compared with the waterflood case, while the XG 1000 ppm polymer achieved a 38.6% increase in oil recovery compared with the waterflood case. Testing with the motor oil being the displaced fluid, the viscosity ratio was 136 for the waterflood case, 18 for the polymer flood case with XG 1000 ppm polymer and 9 for the polymer flood case with XG 2500 ppm polymer. Findings also revealed that for the waterflood cases, the porous media exhibited oil-wet characteristics, while the polymer flood cases demonstrated water-wet characteristics. This paper provides theoretical support for the application of polymer to improve oil recovery by providing insights into the mechanism behind oil displacement. Graphic abstract Highlights The difference in shape of relative permeability curves are indicative of the effect of mobility control of each polymer concentration. The water-oil systems exhibited oil-wet characteristics, while the polymer-oil systems demonstrated water-wet characteristics. A large contrast in displacing and displaced fluid viscosities led to viscous fingering and early water breakthrough.

An Easy Calculation Method on Sweep Efficiency of Chemical Flooding

2013 ◽  
Vol 275-277 ◽  
pp. 496-501
Author(s):  
Fu Qing Yuan ◽  
Zhen Quan Li
Keyword(s):  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Orthogonal Design ◽  
Polymer Flooding ◽  
Water Flooding ◽  
Solution Viscosity ◽  
Chemical Flooding ◽  
Oil Viscosity ◽  
Sweep Efficiency ◽  
Easy Calculation ◽  
Polymer Compound

According to the geological parameters of Shengli Oilfield, sweep efficiency of chemical flooding was analyzed according to injection volume, injection-production parameters of polymer flooding or surfactant-polymer compound flooding. The orthogonal design method was employed to select the important factors influencing on expanding sweep efficiency by chemical flooding. Numerical simulation method was utilized to analyze oil recovery and sweep efficiency of different flooding methods, such as water flooding, polymer flooding and surfactant-polymer compound flooding. Finally, two easy calculation models were established to calculate the expanding degree of sweep efficiency by polymer flooding or SP compound flooding than water flooding. The models were presented as the relationships between geological parameters, such as effective thickness, oil viscosity, porosity and permeability, and fluid parameters, such as polymer-solution viscosity and oil-water interfacial tension. The precision of the two models was high enough to predict sweep efficiency of polymer flooding or SP compound flooding.

scholarly journals SURFACTANT-POLYMER FLOODING PERFORMANCE IN HETEROGENEOUS TWO-LAYERED POROUS MEDIA

2011 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Taufiq Fathaddin ◽  
Asri Nugrahanti ◽  
Putri Nurizatulshira Buang ◽  
Khaled Abdalla Elraies
Keyword(s):  
Porous Media ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Polymer Flooding ◽  
Water Flooding ◽  
Residual Oil ◽  
Oil Saturation ◽  
Reservoir Heterogeneity ◽  
Residual Oil Saturation ◽  
Layered Porous Media ◽  
Multiple Porosity

In this paper, simulation study was conducted to investigate the effect of spatial heterogeneity of multiple porosity fields on oil recovery, residual oil and microemulsion saturation. The generated porosity fields were applied into UTCHEM for simulating surfactant-polymer flooding in heterogeneous two-layered porous media. From the analysis, surfactant-polymer flooding was more sensitive than water flooding to the spatial distribution of multiple porosity fields. Residual oil saturation in upper and lower layers after water and polymer flooding was about the same with the reservoir heterogeneity. On the other hand, residual oil saturation in the two layers after surfactant-polymer flooding became more unequal as surfactant concentration increased. Surfactant-polymer flooding had higher oil recovery than water and polymer flooding within the range studied. The variation of oil recovery due to the reservoir heterogeneity was under 9.2%.

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