The results of single well chemical tracer tests to assess the effectiveness of surfactant-polymer exposure at the Kholmogorskoye field

Abstract

Methods of enhanced oil recovery in general and surfactant-polymer flooding in particular are considered as tertiary methods for the development of mature oil fields in Western Siberia, with the potential to increase oil recovery to 60-70% of the initial geological reserves.
 To select an effective mixture of surfactants and polymer for surfactantpolymer flooding, laboratory tests were carried out in which the thermal stability, phase behaviour, interfacial tension and rheology of the formulations were tested. Filtration experiments were also carried out to optimize the volumes of injected fringes and the concentrations of reagents in them. At the final stage, single well chemical tracer tests (SWCTT) were carried out to assess the effectiveness of surfactant-polymer flooding on two wells of the Kholmogorskoye field. In order to investigate different technical and economic models of surfactant-polymer exposure, SWCTT tests were conducted with the same surfactant, but with a different design. The results of the SWCTT tests showed that the residual oil saturation in the affected area after injection of the surfactant-polymer solution decreased by about 11% compared to water flooding, which is about a third of the residual oil after flooding. The tested surfactant showed acceptable efficiency under suboptimal temperature conditions, which is favorable for the use of the selected surfactant-polymer composition for neighboring deposits and formations with different reservoir temperatures, but similar water composition.
 In general, the results of the conducted field tests correlate with the results of the main laboratory experiments for the selected surfactant.