Abstract
A significant amount of oil resides in deep reservoirs characterized by relatively high temperature and high salinity. In such reservoirs, most available chemicals fluids for EOR have limited applicability. Even though recent effort has been dedicated to the development of high temperature polymers, there is no clear understanding of what would work best in those harsh environments. In addition, the oil and gas community is also evaluating potential applications of chemical EOR to offshore assets where similar conditions are often found. Field applications in harsh reservoirs have shown limited success in the use of polymers for improved oil recovery. Detail analysis reveals that screening of the fluids was done under ‘model’ laboratory conditions, using non-reservoir core samples and non-representative fluids. These facts have motivated research and development work towards understanding the type of polymers that may be suitable for use in high temperature and high salinity reservoirs and to determine the type of tests to use to assess their performance in a field application for use as lab screening criteria. In this paper, we provide a critical review of the available polymers for application in high temperature and high salinity reservoirs and summarize best practices for their laboratory screening though a recommended workflow.
Highlights
The increasing global energy demand relies heavily on the use of hydrocarbons; the discovery of oil and gas deposits is becoming increasingly difficult with findings in complex and challenging environments
Benefits of polymer flooding reported in the literature (Abidin, Puspasari & Nugroho, 2012) refer to the use of Xanthan Gum, PAM, Hydrolyzed Polyacrylamide (HPAM), and sodium acrylate as co-polymer, for applications where the in-situ reservoir temperature was below 70°C
We provide a critical review of the available polymers for application in high temperature and high salinity reservoirs and summarize aspects to consider for their laboratory screening through a recommended workflow
Summary
The increasing global energy demand relies heavily on the use of hydrocarbons; the discovery of oil and gas deposits is becoming increasingly difficult with findings in complex and challenging environments. More new polymers were created in the last 10 years than in the previous 30 years for other oil production applications Such a development has enabled the industry to consider the use of such chemicals for EOR with incremental recovery in the range of 20-30%; the range of application is quite limited based on the reservoir characteristics, in-situ temperature and brine salinity, and for the high cost involved. Benefits of polymer flooding reported in the literature (Abidin, Puspasari & Nugroho, 2012) refer to the use of Xanthan Gum, PAM (polyacrylamide), HPAM (partially hydrolysed polyacrylamide), and sodium acrylate as co-polymer, for applications where the in-situ reservoir temperature was below 70°C These polymers enhance the rheological properties of the displacing fluid since the water-soluble polymers can improve the water-oil mobility ratio (Pinto, Herrera & Angarita, 2018), leading to enhanced oil recovery. We provide a critical review of the available polymers for application in high temperature and high salinity reservoirs and summarize aspects to consider for their laboratory screening through a recommended workflow
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