Screening of Polymers for EOR in High Temperature, High Salinity and Carbonate Reservoir Conditions

Abstract

Abstract Polymer flooding is one of the most attractive chemical EOR techniques for sandstone reservoirs however due to complex geological heterogeneity and harsh reservoir conditions its full potential has not been explored in carbonate reservoirs. The main reason behind this limitation is the inability of conventional EOR polymers like HPAM and Xanthan to withstand these conditions. Candidate polymers must provide the required rheology at minimal polymer concentration, be thermally and mechanically stable, and result in a manageable adsorption on the reservoir formation. A polymer screening study has been conducted on a series of polymers, to identify the most suitable candidate that can tolerate the harsh reservoir conditions. Initially, rheological measurements are conducted on a series of polymers followed by filterability, injectivity, static and dynamic adsorption, mechanical and thermal stability testing as a screening criterion for polymers in EOR operations. Amongst the tested polymers polyacrylamide based co- and ter-polymers showed reasonable temperature stability with low salinity tolerance. Whereas, biopolymer Schizophyllan a polysaccharide showed shear thinning behavior with positive thermal stability and salt tolerance. Long-term thermal stability of biopolymer is also conducted at a temperature of 120 °C and salinity up to 220 g/L under anaerobic conditions for over eight months and no viscosity loss is observed. Biopolymer showed acceptable injectivity on cores of permeability more than 30 mD. Core flood effluents viscosity reached 40% compared to injected sample. In addition the mechanical stability and filterability of biopolymer are also discussed. Static as well as dynamic adsorptions of biopolymer have also been studied. The static adsorption on four natural minerals (Calcite, Dolomite, Kaolin, and Silica) as well as formation rocks is reported. Out of these four minerals, maximum and minimum adsorption is observed on Dolomite and Kaolin respectively. The adsorption of biopolymer decreases with salinity and temperature. Adsorption on carbonate reservoir rocks is found to be low when compared to pure calcite and dolomite minerals. Dynamic adsorption on cores with different permeabilites (3 to 165 mD) is measured to be low in magnitude (47.5 to 0.53 µg/g).