Abstract
Every year, billions of dollars are spent on the oil and gas industry to treat the produced water before re-injection or discharge. Polymer gels are one such technology being used to combat production of water from reservoirs. Although water shutoff treatments and other conformance control measures are implemented, there are challenges to be overcome. The polymer gels face instability and degradation issues in the high temperature and high salinity reservoirs requiring water shutoff treatments. Nanomaterials have been used to enhance properties of polymer gels for various applications. This paper attempts to review the mechanisms to control the polymer gel sensitivity to the downhole environment and gives an overview of the nanomaterial-based polymer gels developed for water shutoff treatments. In the field of water shutoff, metal oxide nanoparticles integrated with polymer gels offers a solution to the current issues faced. Polymer—graphene hydrogels are other candidates for thermally stable, salt tolerant and mechanically robust gels for water shutoff treatment. Ternary composites, incorporating both metal oxide nanoparticles and graphene in the polymer gels, are a solution for robust water shutoff gels and need to be investigated for their practicability.
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