Mitigating Permeability Contrasts in Heterogenous Reservoirs Using Advanced Preformed Particle Gels

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, cross-linker, additives, and sodium montmorillonite nanomaterial, whereas conventional hydrogel is designed from just monomer, initiator, cross-linker and additives. The presence of nanomaterial in hydrogel design affords it tremendous improvement in nanocomposite gel properties and behaviour 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 3D network compared to hydrogels with no nanomaterial. On incorporation of nanomaterial, increase in gel strength of up to 600% 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

Keywords and Phrases

Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery; Conformance Contr; Enhanced Oil Recovery; EOR; Nanocomposite Gels; Polymer Flooding; Crosslinking; Monomers; Nanostructured Materials; Oil Fields; Oil Well Flooding; Petroleum Reservoir Engineering; Scanning Electron Microscopy

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

1753-3317

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2016 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd., All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jan 2016

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