Abstract

The present work presents a nanocomposite preformed particle gel for conformance control in mature oilfields. This product was observed to have a better performance than conventional hydrogels without nanomaterials. Preformed particle hydrogel was designed by the reaction of monomer, initiator, crosslinker, additives, and calcium montmorillonite nanomaterial, whereas conventional hydrogel is designed from just monomer, initiator, crosslinker and additives. The presence of nanomaterial in hydrogel design affords it tremendous improvement in nanocomposite gel properties and behavior compared to conventional hydrogels without any nanomaterial. Additionally, swelling performance, post-degraded gel viscosity, and long-term thermal resistance of nanocomposite gel increased by several orders of magnitude compared to hydrogels with no nanomaterial. Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy (ESEM) revealed the presence of a very dense 3-D network compared to hydrogels with no nanomaterial. On incorporation of nanomaterial, increase in gel strength of up to 2,150 % was observed. Thus, they are potential replacements for existing preformed particle gels in mitigating permeability variations in mature reservoirs.

Department(s)

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering

Publication Status

Full / Open Access

Keywords and Phrases

Conformance control; Enhanced oil recovery; Mature oilfields; Nanocomposite gels; Permeability variations; Polymer flooding

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

2190-0566; 2190-0558

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Final Version

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2024 The Authors, All rights reserved.

Creative Commons Licensing

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Publication Date

01 Jun 2015

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