Daqing Oil Field: The Success of Two Pilots Initiates First Extension of Polymer Injection in a Giant Oil Field

Abstract

Two highly successful polymer pilot experiments were carried out between 1987 and 1993 on the Daqing oil field (People Republic of China) after favorable laboratory results and preliminary reservoir studies. The Daqing oil field is a fluvio-deltaic formation with several sand beds and great heterogeneities. The oil is slightly viscous (9.5 cp), water is fresh and the temperature is 45°C, making the conditions favorable for polymer injection. Each pilot consisted of 4 injectors and 9 producers. One pilot was devoted to one reservoir, whereas simultaneous injection into two reservoirs was performed in the second pilot. Polymer injection was started in 1990 with a 915-ppm-solution of Polyacrylamide. Approximately 0.6 PV of solution was injected in each pilot, yielding a significant decrease in the water-cut and a respective oil production of 73 120 m3 and 1 1 8 950 m3 in April 1993. The results of the pilots were matched with a numerical simulator and interpreted in terms of reservoir description. The injection parameters were optimized in terms of viscosity and slug size, in order to extend the process to the whole field. The sensitivity of the process to the reservoir heterogeneity was also considered.

Assessing Productivity Impairment of Surfactant-Polymer EOR Using Laboratory and Field Data

“…Total active projects peaked in 1986 with polymer flooding being the most often chosen method of chemical EOR (Figure 2.1). However, since the 1990s oil production using chemical EOR methods has been negligible around the world except for China (Chang et al 2006a;Delamaide et al 1994;Han et al 1999;Li et al 2009a andWang et al 2002;Wang et al 2009a andXiaoqin et al 2009). Furthermore, chemical flooding has been shown to be sensitive to volatility of oil markets despite recent advances (i.e., low surfactant concentrations) and lower costs of chemical additives.…”

Sensitivity Tests of Parameters in Laboratory Polymer Flood Analysis

“…Because chemical flood is sensitive to volatility of oil market, and despite the improvements and new discoveries in related technologies, since 1990 the most chemical and polymer flood has been performed when sustainable field development strategy is applied [9][10][11][12][13].…”

Polymer Flooding of Heavy Oil - From Screening to Full-Field Extension

“…One potential way of dealing with the issue is to build a separate, radial model to test the relation between injection rate and pressure separately (Delamaide et al 1994). Another solution is to use local grid refinement around the injection wells.…”