Field-Application Results of HMWSP in Western Siberia: Design Optimization, Conclusions, and Recommendations

Jaripatke, Omkar A.; Dalrymple, Eldon Dwyann; Prokhorov, A. V.; Gaponov, Mikhail; Fakhreeva, Alla

doi:10.2523/13230-ms

Cited by 3 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…On the other hand, the adsorption and physical gel properties of HMWSPs have been proved to be industrially useful when applied to water-shutoff, conformance-control, and acid-diversion well-treatment operations. Detailed reports can be found, in particular, in the works of Eoff et al (2005), Jaripatke et al (2009), Shahan et al (2005), and Torres et al (2006), but also in Al-Taq et al (2007) and Zhao et al (2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Flow of Hydrophobically Modified Water-Soluble-Polymer Solutions in Porous Media: New Experimental Insights in the Diluted Regime

et al. 2010

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The specific molecular structure of hydrophobically modified water-soluble polymers (HMWSPs), also called hydrophobically associative polymers, gives them interesting thickening and surface-adsorption abilities compared with classical water-soluble polymers (WSPs), which could be useful in polymer-flooding and well-treatment operations. However, their strong adsorption obviously can impair their injectivity, and, conversely, the shear sensitivity of their gels can be detrimental to well treatments. Determining for which improved-oil-recovery (IOR) application HMWSPs are best suited, therefore, remains difficult. The aim of this work is to bring new insight regarding the interaction mechanisms between HMWSPs and rock matrix and the consequences concerning their propagation in reservoirs.A consistent set of HMWSPs with sulfonated polyacrylamide backbones and alkyl hydrophobic side chains together with an equivalent WSP was synthesized and fully characterized. HMWSP and WSP solutions were then injected in model granular packs. As expected, with HMWSPs, high resistance factors (or mobility reductions, R m ) were observed. Yet, within the limit of the injected volumes, the effluent showed the same viscosity and polymer concentration as the injected solutions.A first significant outcome concerns the specificities of the R m curves during HMWSP injections. R m increases took place in two steps. The first corresponded to the propagation of the viscous front, as observed with WSP, whereas the second was markedly delayed, occurring several pore volumes (PV) after the breakthrough. This result is not compatible with the classical picture of multilayer adsorption of HMWSPs but suggests that injectivity is controlled solely by the adsorption of minor polymeric species. This hypothesis was confirmed by reinjecting the collected effluents into fresh cores; no second-step R m increases were observed.Brine injections in HMWSP-treated cores revealed high residual resistance factors (or irreversible permeability reductions, R k ), which can be attributed to the presence of thick polymer-adsorbed layers on the pore surface. Nevertheless, R k values strongly decreased when increasing the brine-flow rate. This second significant outcome shows that the adsorbed-layer thickness is shear-controlled.These new results should lead to proposing new adapted filtration and injection procedures for HMWSPs, aimed, in particular, at improving their injectivity. IntroductionSpecific attention currently is devoted to the development of innovative polymeric systems for IOR applications. The corresponding goals are, in particular, to lower the costs by reducing the quantities of chemicals needed; to broaden the range of suitable application cases (wells or reservoirs) for polymer technologies and, specifically,

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Flow of Hydrophobically Modified Water-Soluble-Polymer Solutions in Porous Media: New Experimental Insights in the Diluted Regime

et al. 2010

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“…Studies on multiphase flow in porous media generally agree that preferred pathways for wetting and nonwetting fluids are dominated by pore wettability, pore size, and capillary entrance pressure. − ,,− In addition, Anderson proposed that the wetting fluid preferentially fills the smallest pores and is in contact with the rock surface; while the nonwetting fluid typically inhabits the centers of the larger pores and extends continuously from pore to pore (see Figure a). Furthermore, due to capillary effects, the nonwetting phase needs to exceed a threshold pressure (or entrance pressure) to flow through the pores filled with the wetting phase.…”

Section: Postadsorption Mechanismsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nevertheless, as the water (i.e., wetting fluid) flows close to the water−wet pore surface and oil/gas (i.e., nonwetting fluid) flows preferentially through the center of these pores, which is free of polymer, the water permeability is selectively reduced with minimal effects on the nonwetting fluid flow (see Figure 6b). 24,41,44,152,153,157 Similarly, these roles would reverse if the pore surface was oil/ gas wet. 24,44 Elsewhere in the literature, this mechanism is referred to as segregated pathways, 24,28,29,44,46,152,153,157,162,163 fl u i d p a r t i t i o n i n g , 4 1 , 1 6 0 a n d fl u i d d i s t r i b ution.…”

Section: Polymer Adsorptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…24,41,44,152,153,157 Similarly, these roles would reverse if the pore surface was oil/ gas wet. 24,44 Elsewhere in the literature, this mechanism is referred to as segregated pathways, 24,28,29,44,46,152,153,157,162,163 fl u i d p a r t i t i o n i n g , 4 1 , 1 6 0 a n d fl u i d d i s t r i b ution. 22,23,110,111,119,151,164 For consistency, the term "fluid segregated pathways" is used in this review.…”

Section: Polymer Adsorptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, fluid segregation has been identified as a crucial mechanism to achieve DPR with water and oil/gas flowing in separate pathways of a porous media or defined parts of a pore and water-based DPR fluid only affects the water network. ,− ,,,− ,,,,− For example, if the injected RPM agent is hydrophilic (i.e., a water-based DPR agent), it flows preferentially in the water-wet paths avoiding nonwetting paths. Therefore, a water-based DPR fluid settles onto a water-wet surface through electrostatic interactions, and this is referred to as a “segregation mechanism”.…”

Section: Postadsorption Mechanismsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Rock/Fluid/Polymer Interaction Mechanisms: Implications for Water Shut-off Treatment

et al. 2021

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Several disproportionate permeability reduction (DPR) mechanisms have been proposed in the literature for water shutoff treatment using polymer relative permeability modifiers (RPM). However, none appear to be universally accepted. The lack of agreement may be because no single factor determines the success of DPR treatment. Moreover, there is still a lack of understanding of DPR mechanisms and the order of how these mechanisms work together. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the mechanisms behind the RPMs. We identify that sufficient polymer adsorption onto the rock surface is a primary condition for water shutoff treatment, while rock surface initial wettability and fluid−polymer−rock interaction/attraction plays a significant role in polymer adsorption. Furthermore, polymer concentration, polymer molecular weight, aging time, polymer injection volume, polymer injection rate, and reservoir temperature are also vital for polymer adsorption. After polymer adsorption, the mechanisms such as fluid segregation and wall effect help accomplish the required DPR. We also find that there is a more consistent agreement among the published studies on the order of DPR mechanisms e.g. initial rock wettability effect comes first, followed by initial segregation, adsorption wall effect (i.e., steric, lubrication, wettability alteration, and swelling/shrinkage), and then the final segregation. Depending on the RPM implementation, which depends on pore size, the polymer layer thickness can be adjusted after the placement permanently or temporarily by controlling swelling/shrinkage. The subject matter investigated in this review helps us understand the factors responsible for optimal performance of polymer solutions in controlling excess water production from hydrocarbon reservoirsthus assisting in more efficient oil/gas production.

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Flow of Hydrophobically Modified Water-Soluble Polymers in Porous Media: Controlled Resistance Factors vs. Flow-Induced Gelation in the Semidilute Regime

et al. 2012

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Summary The associative properties of hydrophobically modified water soluble polymers (HMWSPs) are attractive for improved oil recovery (IOR) because of both their enhanced thickening capability, compared with classical water-soluble polymers (for mobility-control applications), and their permeability-reduction, or plugging, ability (for well-treatment applications). In previous works, we have studied the injectivity of HMWSP made of sulfonated polyacrylamide backbones and alkyl side chains in the dilute regime and have shown, in particular, that it was largely governed by adsorption. In this paper, we report new experimental data on the injectivity of the same class of HMWSP solutions in the semidilute regime. From membrane filtration tests at imposed flow rate, we have first observed the formation of a filter cake made of HMWSP physical gel, which remained largely permeable to polymers. Our observations are compatible with the creation of channels within the gel. This leads to a gel-filtration process, entailing modifications of the solution's viscosimetric properties, which can be explained by a rearrangement of the intra- and interchain hydrophobic bonds in the solution. The second part of our work consisted of injectivity tests in model granular packs. We have performed comparative experiments in porous media with variable permeabilities, but at the same shear rate in the pore throats. Results show that, above a critical permeability kC, or a critical pore-throat radius rpC, HMWSP injection led to stable resistance factors, with values close to the solution's viscosity, and that, at less than kC or rpC the very high resistance factors observed suggest that flow-induced gelation of the HMWSP takes place. Furthermore, resistance factors measured over the core internal sections are compatible with an in-depth formation of the gel. These insights could be of use for designing HMWSP better suited to mobility-control operations and for tuning HMWSP-injection conditions for profile/conformance-control operations.

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Field-Application Results of HMWSP in Western Siberia: Design Optimization, Conclusions, and Recommendations

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

Flow of Hydrophobically Modified Water-Soluble-Polymer Solutions in Porous Media: New Experimental Insights in the Diluted Regime

Flow of Hydrophobically Modified Water-Soluble-Polymer Solutions in Porous Media: New Experimental Insights in the Diluted Regime

Rock/Fluid/Polymer Interaction Mechanisms: Implications for Water Shut-off Treatment

Flow of Hydrophobically Modified Water-Soluble Polymers in Porous Media: Controlled Resistance Factors vs. Flow-Induced Gelation in the Semidilute Regime

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