Computer Simulation and Comparison of the Efficiency of Conventional, Polymer and Hydrogel Waterflooding of Inhomogeneous Oil Reservoirs

Abstract

The oil displacement in a layered inhomogeneous reservoir using two types of physical-chemical technologies (polymer flooding and hydrogel flooding) is the subject of this research. In the first case the aqueous polymer solution of the desired concentration is injected into the porous reservoir creating the high-viscous moving fields. Unlike this technology, the hydrogel flooding is characterized by creation and evolution of the moving hydrogel field directly in porous medium in result of chemical reaction between the water solutions of two gel-forming components which one after another are injected into the oil reservoir with given time interruption. The first component is sorbed more intensively and moves slower than the second one, so when it gradually overtakes the first solution, they begin chemically react with creation of hydrogel. Special numerical methods, algorithms and computer software are developed to solve these systems of nonlinear equations, study and compare an efficiency of the oil field development at the different type of waterflooding. It is shown that creations of the moving polymer or hydrogel fields significantly increases the uniformity of oil displacement in all layers of reservoir and improve their basic exploitation parameters due to the cross-flows between layers and creation of the moving structures in the velocity field of two-phase flow. In doing so, hydrogel technology may be much more effectiveness in comparison with polymer flooding.