Development of a Tool to Predict Technical Success of Polymer Flooding Applications

Abstract

Abstract Quick qualitative comparison between different fields is often necessary in early phases of Chemical EOR studies when there is limited data. The tool described in this paper helps to bridge the gap between pass/fail screening techniques and more sophisticated simulation techniques, to facilitate the screening and ranking of potential candidates for polymer EOR flooding. Several studies have examined screening models for polymer flooding (PF). The models that exist in literature only assign a pass/fail response for suitability of reservoirs to polymer flooding and are insufficient for the purposes of comparative ranking. The analytical tool presented here is capable of quickly producing qualitative estimates of ‘Probability Of Technical Success’ (POTS) for polymer flooding for a set of candidate fields. This tool is useful for identifying candidates most likely to be successful polymer floods in a portfolio. POTS number is solely a property of the reservoir characteristics and is based on parameters inherent to the field. Project design or execution parameters (such as polymer type, concentration, slug size, etc) and field implementation issues have not been taken into consideration. POTS for polymer flood was developed using the following approach: Important non-controllable parameters for PF were identified. A database was created with field and pilot successes and failures. The weight of parameters from step 1 was calculated based on their coefficient of variation value in the database. The weights of the parameter and parameter values are combined to give the POTS value for the field. The results from the tool have been validated with past polymer flooded fields.