Polyacrylamides Can Restrict Water, Oil and Gas Production - It's Your Choice

Abstract

Abstract Production of water from oil wells is becoming an increasingly serious problem each year. As oil reservoirs are produced, increasing water production results from water coning, from rising water-oil contacts, from channeling behind the casing or through high permeability streaks. Increased costs of producing and handling unwanted water are minor compared to the loss of oil production rate or loss of oil because of early abandonment of wells resulting from excessive water production. Many good water shutoff techniques are available to the industry, but most of them shut off all production from the portion of the wellbore where they are used. Products such as cement, sodium silicate, and plastics are capable of completely sealing a well; thus, they should be selectively placed. Before such materials are used, the exact source of water production must be located and isolated so that only the water is shut off. If this is not done properly, oil production may be reduced permanently. production may be reduced permanently Introduction In recent years the most promising water control materials have been polyacrylamides. These water soluble polyacrylamides. These water soluble polymers are capable of greatly polymers are capable of greatly reducing the permeability of a water producing formation without significantly producing formation without significantly altering the permeability to oil in the oil zone. They do this without the need to locate the source of the water or of isolating the water source. This can result in large increases of oil production rates and reduction of water production rates and reduction of water production simply by injecting the polymer production simply by injecting the polymer solution into the well, then returning the well to production. It is postulated that the accelerated oil production that often results from this type of treatment is due to a reduced head in the wellbore as less water is being produced. It is also possible that permeabilities of portions possible that permeabilities of portions of watered out formation are reduced enough by the polyacrylamides that the natural sweep pattern into the wellbore is affected. Thus, additional oil is recovered.