Fundamental Study of Pore Morphology Effect in Low Tension Polymer Flooding or Polymer–Assisted Dilute Surfactant Flooding

Abstract

Low Tension Polymer Flooding or Polymer Assisted Dilute Surfactant Flooding is generally deployed as a method to produce additional oil trapped in oil reservoirs after waterflooding. Fundamental study of microscopic mechanisms and pore-level phenomena in Polymer Assisted Dilute Surfactant Flooding needs more investigation. Of particular concern and interest is to probe into and document the effect of pore morphology and structure on microscopic phenomena occurring at pore level. No previous works on the effect of pore morphology in Polymer Assisted Dilute Surfactant Flooding has been reported in the literature. In this study, one-quarter five-spot glass micromodels were deployed to examine the effect of porous media morphology and structure on microscopic mechanisms as well as macroscopic behavior of Polymer Assisted Dilute Surfactant Flooding. Four types of pore morphologies were employed to study this factor. Results show that the pore geometric properties in a porous medium will dictate the degree of displacement front instability, capillary imbalance, viscous fingering, wetting characteristics and its distribution, and finally magnitude of ultimate oil recovery. We also found that the formation of flow scheme is dramatically influenced by the pre-designed injection scheme.