A horizontal hot deep gas well was not on production due to high water cut. The well had a bottom hole temperature of 300°F (149°C) and a bottom hole pressure of 7,000 psi. The well was completed into a carbonate reservoir with an average permeability ranging from 2 to 3 mD. It was completed with a 7 in liner at a measured depth (MD) of 13,611 ft. The open-hole section extends from 13,611 to 16,456 ft. After the well completion operation, water was observed entering the open-hole section at the toe at a depth of 14, 677 ft. The exact water producing zone was identified by the resistivity log run on the subject well. Therefore, a mechanical packer was set in the open-hole section at 14,677 ft to isolate the water producing interval. The packer did not solve the problem. The water production continued to occur. Due to their versatility, polymer gels were considered for remediating this problem and to revive the well. A gel system based on a low molecular weight polymer crosslinked with an organic crosslinker was considered. A serious challenge was the high temperature of the reservoir. The high temperature conditions imposed the use of a retarder to elongate the onset gelation time during the polymer gel placement. The available mixing waters in this field contained significant amounts of salts (a total dissolved solids content of 1,188 ppm). These solids caused compatibility problems upon contact with the commercially available retarder. Therefore, a new retarder was developed. The retarder was cost-effective, efficient and compatible with the available saline mixing water. The retarder's placement was examined in porous media under conditions similar to those encountered in the field (55 minutes placement time). The gel did not show any injectivity problems indicating the efficient nature of the retarder. The initial recommended recipe of the gel showed syneresis due to the extra amount of the crosslinker suggested. This was addressed by reducing the crosslinker concentrations in the gel recipe. The treatment utilized a pre-flush to displace the reservoir fluids around the wellbore and to cool down the near wellbore area. This helped reduce the near wellbore area temperature from 300 to 240°F according to the temperature simulations. The gelant contained 250 gal/1000 gal of polymer with a 10 gal/1000 gal of crosslinker. After the gelant placement, the well was shut-in for three days. Once opened, the well showed an increase in gas production by a factor of 7.7 with a water cut reduction of 42 %.

We have investigated the siting and distribution of Al atoms in the zeolite clinoptilolite using periodic lattice simulation techniques. A novel procedure is presented for the study of the unresolved problem concerning the Al atoms siting in heulandite-structured materials. The resulting structural models are in excellent agreement with experimental studies and show preferential aluminum siting at T2 and minimal aluminum occupancy of T5. We show how Al−Al and Al−Na interactions are important in the siting of Al atoms in low Si/Al regimes. We also show the importance of lattice relaxation in finding the lowest energy aluminum distribution and the failure of standard Monte Carlo techniques in this context.

The reactions of ethylene, propene, and acetylene with two different zeolite models are computationally characterized using both semiempirical and ab initio methods. The MP2/6-31G* level calculations give activation energies which appear too high in comparison with the estimated experimental values. The DFT values seem more reasonable. The AM1 and PM3 transition state structures appear dubious with respect to both ab initio results and generally accepted intuitive descriptions.