Experimental Investigation of Polymer Injection in High Permeability Conduits for Material Sustainability and Behavior in Oil Reservoirs

Abstract

Polymers are one of the most widely used chemicals in the oil and gas industry. They are used for mobility control in enhanced oil recovery, in conformance control as a cross-linked plugging agent, as a fracking fluid for fracture propagation and proppant transportation, and in drilling fluids as an additive for drilling mud enhancement. This research characterizes the polymer injectivity in different pore sizes under different conditions and evaluates the polymer conditions after injection. Based on this, the ability to reinject the polymer in the porous media is discussed. The factors studied include the pore size, the polymer concentration, the polymer injection flowrate, and polymer injectivity. When the porous media size was reduced to 1.59 mm (1/16th of an inch), the injectivity value reduced significantly, reaching less than 0.2 mL/min/psi and the polymer degradation increased primarily due to shearing. Results also showed that the polymers underwent four main degradations during injection including dehydration, syneresis, shearing, and excessive hydrolysis. In continuous fractures, the degradation is a strong function of the fracture size, length, and the polymer structure. The experimental results showed that one or more of the polymer degradations resulted in the inability to reinject the polymer in most cases.

Evaluating Factors Impacting Polymer Flooding in Hydrocarbon Reservoirs: Laboratory and Field-Scale Applications

“…Characteristics of polymers as water mobility control agents have been reported in many studies [13,14,[51][52][53][54][55][56][57]. Based on the principle and methodological description, polymer flooding does not significantly reduce the residual oil saturation.…”

“…As per field applications, the measured viscosity of low-concentration polymer solutions is only 1 to 1.5 cp. [ 35 , 53 , 54 ]. The viscosity of the polymer solution flowing in the reservoir is 5 to 25 times higher than the lab viscosity of the same polymer solution when calculated indirectly using Darcy’s equation (apparent viscosity), assuming the same effective permeability ( Figure 2 ).…”

“…An example of such a polymer is partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM), which is obtained by the polymerization reaction of acrylamide monomer [53][54][55][56][57]. Dissolving the obtained long molecular chain of HPAM in fresh water makes the fluid flow through tortuous porous media with ease.…”

Carbon Dioxide Capture under Low-Pressure Low-Temperature Conditions Using Shaped Recycled Fly Ash Particles

“…There are many methods by which CO2 can be stored, including reacting the CO2 with other substances, directly utilizing the CO2, and direct storage in underground reservoirs. The main parameter when designing the storage operation is the ability to re-access the stored CO2 for future utilization to abide by the carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) initiative [6]. When storing the CO2 in depleted underground reservoirs, the long-term stability of the CO2 is highly questionable.…”

Evaluating a Novel Fly Ash Resin-Reinforced Cement’s Interactions under Acidic, Basic, High-Salinity, and High-Temperature Conditions

“…Cement serves many functions, including zonal isolation to prevent reservoir fluids’ uncontrollable influx into the wellbore, the preservation of freshwater zones, and the regulation of high-pressure differentials. Based on this, the cement should be able to withstand harsh and severe conditions, including acid attacks, high pressure fluctuations, high temperatures, and erosion and corrosion due to chemicals or solids [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ]. Several types of conventional cement have been developed for different applications based on the conditions mentioned; however, even with the high-performance cement available, cement failures are still a major problem in the oil and gas industry [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ].…”