bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Is Polymer Retention Different Under Anaerobic vs. Aerobic Conditions?
Authors: Wan Hao , Seright R. S.
Published: March 2016

This paper examines whether retention of partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) is different under anaerobic versus aerobic conditions. Both static (mixing with loose sand) and dynamic methods (core floods) were used to determine HPAM retention. There are both advantages and disadvantages associated with determining polymer retention using static tests versus dynamic tests and using aerobic versus anaerobic conditions. From static retention measurements, polymer adsorption values on pure silica sand or Berea sandstone were small, and they showed little difference between experiments conducted aerobically or anaerobically. For both aerobic and anaerobic conditions, HPAM retention increased significantly with increased pyrite or siderite content. Static retention under anaerobic conditions ranged from 45-75 µg/g with 1% of either pyrite or siderite to 137-174 µg/g for 10% pyrite or siderite to 1161-1249 µg/g for 100% pyrite or siderite.

If iron minerals are present, the most representative polymer retention results are obtained (for both static and dynamic tests) if conditions are anaerobic. Retention values (from static measurements) under aerobic conditions were commonly twice those determined under anaerobic conditions. If iron minerals are present and retention tests are performed under aerobic conditions, TOC or some similar method should be used for polymer detection. Viscosity detection of polymer may provide retention values that are too high (because oxidative degradation can be misinterpreted as polymer retention). For a broad range of siderite content, retention from static tests did not depend on whether dissolved oxygen was present. However, for a broad range of pyrite content, HPAM retention was significantly lower in the absence of dissolved oxygen than under aerobic conditions. Theses results may be tied to iron solubility. When polymer solutions were mixed with 100% pyrite over the course of 12 hours, 360–480-ppm iron dissolved into polymer solutions under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions, whereas with 100% siderite, only 0–0.6-ppm iron dissolved. If dynamic methods (i.e., corefloods) are used to determine polymer retention under aerobic conditions, flow rates should be representative of the field application. Rates that are too high lead to underestimation of polymer retention. With 10% pyrite, dynamic retention was 211 μg/g at 6 ft/d versus 43.2 μg/g at 30 ft/d. In contrast, retention values were fairly consistent (40.6 – 47.8 μg/g) between 6 ft/d and 33 ft/d under anaerobic conditions.
Optimizing Water Chemistry to Improve Oil Recovery from the Middle Bakken Formation
Authors: Wang D. , Dawson M. , Butler R. , Li H. , Zhang J. , Olatunji K.
Published: March 2016

With the recent dramatic drop in oil price, production from ultra-tight resources, like the Bakken formation, may drop substantially. Since expenditures for drilling, completion, and fracking have already been made, existing wells will continue to flow, but oil rates will decline—rapidly in many cases. In a low oil-price environment, what can be done to sustain oil production from these tight formations?

We are testing a surfactant imbibition process to recovery oil from shales. We measured surfactant imbibition rates and oil recovery values in laboratory cores from the Bakken shale. After optimizing surfactant formulations at reservoir conditions, we observed oil recovery values up to 10–20% OOIP incremental over brine imbibition. However, whether or not surfactant imbibition will be a viable recovery process depends on achieving sufficiently high oil production rates in a field setting—which requires that we identify conditions that will maximize imbibition rate, as well as total oil recovery. In this paper, we describe laboratory evaluations of oil recovery using different core plugs. These recovery studies involved

(1) surfactant formulation optimization on concentration, salinity and pH, (2) characterization of phase behavior, (3) spontaneous imbibition, and (4) forced imbibition (flooding) with gravity drainage assistance.

In preserved cores, we observed: (1) Formulations using 0.1% surfactant concentration at 4% TDS salinity showed favorable oil recoveries (up to 40% OOIP). (2) Generally, surfactant formulations at optimal concentration and salinity were stable at high temperature (115°C). (3) Injectivity/permeability enhancements up to 75 percent occurred after acidification using acetic acid or HCl. (4) Wettability alteration is the dominant mechanism for surfactant imbibition. Of course, actions that increase fracture width will aid gravity drainage and oil recovery. This information is being used to design and implement a field application of the surfactant imbibition process in an ultra-tight resource.
Forecasting Incremental Oil Production of a Polymer Pilot Extension in the Matzen Field Including Quantitative Uncertainty Assessment
Authors: Chiotoroiu Maria-Magdalena , Peisker Joerg , Clemens Torsten , Thiele Marco R.
Published: March 2016

The polymer pilot project performed in the 8 TH reservoir of the Matzen field showed encouraging incremental oil production. To further improve the understanding of recovery effects resulting from polymer injection, an extension of the pilot is planned by adding a second polymer injector.

Forecasting of the incremental oil production needs to take the uncertainty of the geological models and dynamic parameters into account. We propose a workflow which comprises a geological sensitivity and clustering step followed by a dynamic calibration step for decreasing the objective function to improve the reliability of a probabilistic forecast of the incremental oil recovery.

For the geological sensitivity, hundreds of geological realizations were generated taking the uncertainty in the correlation of the sand and shale layers, logs, cores and geological facies into account. The simulated tracer response was used as dissimilarity distance to classify the geological realizations. Clustering was then applied to select 70 representative realizations (centroids) from a total of 800 to use in the full-physics dynamic simulation.

In the dynamic simulation, an objective function comprising liquid rate and tracer concentration of the back-produced fluids was introduced.

To further improve the calibration, the P50 value of incremental oil production as derived from simulation was compared with the incremental oil production determined from Decline Curve Analysis from the wells surrounding the polymer injection well. The mismatch between the P50 and the Decline Curve Analysis was improved by adjusting polymer viscosity.

The calibrated models were then used to for a probabilistic forecast of incremental oil due to an additional polymer injector and to estimate the expected polymer concentration at the producing wells.
Experimental Evaluation of Shale Oil Recovery from Eagle Ford Core Samples by Nitrogen Gas Flooding
Authors: Yu Yang , Sheng James J.
Published: March 2016

Production from tight formation resources leads the growth in U.S. crude oil production. Compared with chemical flooding and water flooding, gas injection is a promising EOR approach in shale reservoirs. A limited number of experimental studies concerning gas flooding in the literature focus on unconventional plays. This study is a laboratory investigation of gas flooding to recover light crude oil from nano-permeable shale reservoirs.

In this work, the N2 flooding process was applied to Eagle Ford core plugs saturated with dead oil. To investigate the effects of flooding time and injection pressure on the recovery factor, two groups of core-flood tests were performed. In group one, flooding time ranged from 1 to 5 days in increments of 1 day; in the other group, the injection pressure ranged from 1,000 psi to 5,000 psi in increments of 1,000 psi. The experimental setup was monitored using X-ray CT that helped to visualize phase flow and estimate the recovery efficiency during the test.

The potential of N2 flooding for improving oil recovery from shale core plugs was examined, and the recovery factor (RF) of each case was presented. The results from group one showed that more oil was produced with a longer flooding time. However, the incremental RF decreased with the increase of flooding time. The oil recovery was significant at the initial period of the recovery process, and a longer flooding time had less effect on extracting more oil. With flooding time constant in 1-day, the results from the second group indicated that RF increased with injection pressure, especially rising pressure, from 1,000 psi to 2,000 psi. The gas breakthrough time became shorter with the increase of injection pressure. The analysis of the CT number showed that the oil recovery process mainly occurred before the gas breakthrough. Once a fluid flow path was established, the injected gas flowed through the limited communication channels; thus, no extra oil could be extracted without increasing the injection pressure. This experimental study illustrates that gas flooding has liquid oil production potential in shale reservoirs.
A Reservoir Management Case Study of a Polymer Flood Pilot in Medicine Hat Glauconitic C Pool
Authors: Batonyi Alice , Thorburn Liana , Molnar Sarah
Published: March 2016

The Medicine Hat Glauconitic C Pool is located partially inside the city limits of Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada. This 15-18° API oil pool is under waterflood. Reservoir management strategies in the pool are limited by the reservoir quality, wellbore architecture and business environment. Surface land access due to the expanding Medicine Hat city limits and pre-existing wellbore orientations have constrained the waterflood pattern and infill drilling options. Current estimates indicate 21% of the oil in place will be recovered at the end of the waterflood.

The polymer flood pilot was started in 2012 with a goal to achieve 6% incremental recovery with a one year initial response time. The pilot's designed injection rate was 6,300 bbl/d (1000 m3/d) in 5 injectors, each representing different reservoir conditions and injection patterns. Following injection, pre-existing water channels and high permeability streaks resulted in rapid polymer breakthrough in as little as 48 hours in some cases.

To increase the efficiency of the polymer flood and reduce cycling polymerized water, a new approach to reservoir management had to be considered:

– Each of the 5 patterns inside the pilot was monitored and managed individually, with a fit-for-purpose strategy in mind. – Although 1 year to response was estimated, after four months, oil rates and oil cuts increased unexpectedly. However, after reaching peak production, the expected steep decline was observed. – New reservoir management strategies were implemented in order to slow the decline and attempt to increase the incremental recovery from 6% to 10%: attempts to block water channels in the injectors, producer shut-ins and frequent injection target changes proved beneficial.

The polymer pilot has exceeded expectations to date.

This case study provides an outline of the changes that were made and the results that have been observed.
The Thermal Stability of Polyacrylamides in EOR Applications
Authors: Swiecinski Frederick , Reed Peter , Andrews William
Published: March 2016

The prediction of polymer degradation under reservoir conditions is critical to EOR polymer selection. NMR studies were used to monitor the changes in the anionic content of acrylamide containing polymers. The monomer sequence distribution of hydrolyzed polyacrylamide polymers (HPAM) was monitored during lab test to improve our understanding of HPAM stability. The results suggest that accelerated aging of a polymer at reservoir conditions at elevated temperatures will result in a polymer with structure similar to the polymer resulting from extended aging at lower temperatures.
Ethane-Based EOR: An Innovative and Profitable EOR Opportunity for a Low Price Environment
Authors: McGuire Patrick L. , Okuno Ryosuke , Gould Thomas L. , Lake Larry W.
Published: March 2016

This paper summarizes the current state of the ethane industry in the United States and explores the opportunity for using ethane for enhanced oil recovery. We show both simulation data and field examples to demonstrate that ethane is an excellent EOR injectant.

After decades of research and field application, the use of CO2 as an EOR injectant has proven to be very successful. However, there are limited supplies of low cost CO2 available, and there are also significant drawbacks, especially corrosion, involving its use. The rich gasses and volatile oils developed by horizontal drilling and fracturing in the shale reservoirs have brought about an enormous increase in ethane production. Ethane prices have dropped substantially. In the U.S., ethane is no longer priced as a petrochemical feedstock, but is priced as fuel. Also, substantial quantities of ethane are currently being flared.

Ethane-based EOR can supplement the very successful CO2-based EOR industry in the U.S. There simply isn't enough low-cost CO2 available to undertake all of the potential gas EOR projects in the U.S. The current abundance of low-cost ethane presents a significant opportunity to add new gas EOR projects. The ethane-based EOR opportunity can be summarized as follows; CO2-based EOR works well, and is well understood.Ethane is better than CO2 for EOR.Ethane is simpler than CO2 for EOR.Ethane is now inexpensive, and will likely stay inexpensive.Ethane-based EOR has become a viable option in the Lower 48. Large volumes of low-cost ethane are available. Recent additions to the growing ethane infrastructure now deliver ethane to locations where ethane-based EOR targets are plentiful.
Waterflood Sweep Improvement at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska
Authors: Thrasher David , Nottingham Derek , Stechauner Bernhard , Ohms Danielle , Stechauner Gerda , Singh Praveen K. , Angarita Monica Lara
Published: March 2016

Waterflood conformance control due to reservoir heterogeneity is a common challenge to many oilfield developments. This paper describes the application at-scale of a thermally-activated polymer particle system (TAP) for improving waterflood sweep efficiency in the Prudhoe Bay field, Alaska. Since 2004, the technology has been successfully deployed 91 times in Prudhoe Bay Unit on the North Slope of Alaska as part of an approved Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) program. A total of 1.6 million gallons of chemical polymer particles have been injected into approximately half of the available waterflood patterns.

Once the polymer particles activate deep in the reservoir, they provide resistance to water flow in the thief (swept) zones. The treatment design workflow applies a thermal model which accounts for the impact of the temperature distribution in the reservoir on activation of the polymer particles. Challenges associated with performance evaluation of the treatment program in a normal operational setting (as opposed to field trial) have been addressed, particularly in relation to interferences to interpretation resulting from the ongoing application of miscible gas EOR in the waterflood areas.

Of the 44 treatments deployed between 2008 and 2012, 22 were sufficiently mature to have performance data which was not adversely impacted by interferences from well work, changes to operating conditions, or miscible gas breakthrough. So far, only one of the 22 patterns has not indicated an incremental oil response, while in two patterns the response had started too recently to be able to extrapolate the overall response magnitude. The analysis showed overall positive responses from the treatments that are competitive with other well work on cost/bbl and project economics. Results from this study provide insights on key controls on waterflood sweep improvements, and inform future candidate selection and optimization of treatment designs.

The production performance analysis was corroborated by wellhead injectivity, repeat pressure fall-off tests, and reservoir modeling. This paper documents a good case history of waterflood sweep improvement.
Comprehensive Guidelines for the Application of In-Situ Polymer Gels for Injection Well Conformance Improvement Based on Field Projects
Authors: Aldhaheri Munqith N. , Wei Mingzhen , Bai Baojun
Published: March 2016

Polymer gels are increasingly applied to improve sweep efficiency of different IOR/EOR recovery processes. Three in-situ polymer gel systems including bulk gels, colloidal dispersion gels, and weak gels are often used to mitigate water production caused by reservoir heterogeneity and unfavorable mobility ratio of oil and injected fluids. Selecting the most appropriate gel system is a key component for a successful conformance improvement treatment. Screening criteria in terms of reservoir and fluid characteristics have been widely used to identify potential technologies for a specific reservoir. Despite the large number of polymer gel projects, only five, limited-parameters, single-agent criteria or surveys have been sporadically accomplished that suffer from many deficiencies and drawbacks.

This paper presents the first complete applicability guidelines for gel technologies based on their field implementations in injection wells from 1978 to 2015. The data set includes 111 cases histories compiled mainly from SPE papers and U.S. Department of Energy reports. We extracted missing data from some public EOR databases and detected potential outliers by two approaches to ensure data quality. Finally, for each parameter, we evaluated project and treatment frequency distributions and applicability ranges based on successful projects. Extensive comparisons of the developed applicability criteria with the previous surveillance studies are provided and differences are discussed in details as well.

In addition to the parameters that are considered for other EOR technologies, we identified that the applicability evaluations of polymer gels should incorporate the parameters that depict roots and characteristics of conformance issues. The present applicability criteria comprise 16 quantitative parameters including permeability variation, mobility ratio, and three production-related aspects. Application guidelines were established for organically crosslinked bulk gels for the first time, and many experts' opinions in the previous criteria were replaced by detailed property evaluations. In addition, we identified that the applicability criteria of some parameters are considerably influenced by lithology and formation types, and thus, their data were analyzed according to these characteristics. Besides their comprehensiveness of all necessary screening parameters, the novelty of the new criteria lies in their ability to self-check the established validity limits for the screening parameters which resulted from the inclusion and simultaneous evaluation of the project and treatment frequencies.
Efficient Removal of EOR Polymer from Produced Water Using Magnetic Nanoparticles and Regeneration/Re-Use of Spent Particles
Authors: Ko Saebom , Lee Hyunjae , Huh Chun
Published: March 2016

Polymer flooding is a proven technology to improve sweep efficiency, while being one of the most economical enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes. Partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) has been widely used for polymer flooding. As the HPAM usage for EOR increases, the challenge of produced water management is also raised because residual HPAM in produced water could increase total chemical oxygen demand and unwanted viscosity in discharging or re-injecting the water. As the environmental standards and regulations get more stringent, it is difficult for the conventional methods to meet the requirement for discharging. Use of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) to remove contaminants from produced water is a promising way to treat produced water in an environmentally green way with minimal use of chemicals. The main attraction for MNPs is their quick response to move in a desired direction with application of external magnetic field. Another attraction of MNPs is versatile and efficient surface modification through suitable polymer coating, depending on the characteristics of target contaminants. In this study, we investigate the feasibility of polymer removal using surface-modified MNPs and regeneration of spent MNPs for multiple re-use.

MNPs, in-house synthesized with prescribed surface coating, were superparamagnetic with an average individual particle size of ~10 nm. The removal efficiency of HPAM from water using the MNPs depended on the type and concentration of brines, concentration of amine-functionalized MNPs, surface coating of MNPs, molecular weight of polymer, and how many times the MNPs are regenerated and re-used. Virtually 100% removal of HPAM from water was feasible, depending on the reaction conditions. The regeneration of spent MNPs, using pH adjustment to recover the reactive sites, maintained above 90% removal efficiency for three-time repeatitive usages.

The electrostatic attraction between negatively charged HPAM polymer and positively charged MNPs controls the attachment of MNPs to HPAM molecular chain; and the subsequent aggregation of the now neutralized MNP-attached HPAM plays a critical role for accelerated and efficient magnetic separation.
Injection of Nitrogen Foam for Improved Oil Recovery in Viscous Oil Reservoirs Offshore Bohai Bay China
Authors: Liu Y. M. , Zhang L. , Ren S. R. , Ren B. , Wang S. T. , Xu G. R.
Published: March 2016

Foam injection is a proven technique for improved oil recovery in both light and heavy oil reservoirs, especially for those with high heterogeneity, in which foam can improve the displacement and sweeping efficiency effectively. In this study, the feasibility of nitrogen foam injection for IOR from viscous oil reservoirs are investigated via laboratory experiments and field pilot analysis. The targeted oilfield is located offshore Bohai Bay (China), featured with high oil viscosity (up to 924 mPa.s) and severe heterogeneity of pay-zones. Water flooding has been applied in the oilfield, but the recovery factor is less than 20% and high water cut (over 85%) has been observed. Nitrogen foam injection was proposed in order to solve the problems and improve oil recovery. In this study, laboratory evaluation of nitrogen foam was conducted via foam testing and sandpack flooding. The results indicate that polymer enhanced foaming agents can greatly increase foam's performance. High blocking capability and displacement efficiency were observed in enhanced foam flooding experiments, indicating that nitrogen foam injection can mitigate the problems of heterogeneity and increase oil recovery in low permeability zones. A field pilot with 2 injectors and 13 producers involved has been conducted to verify the feasibility of the foam technique. The wellhead injection pressure was effectively increased after foam injection, and nearly all producers exhibited good response with incremental oil recovery and the average water cut dropped by 6.3% over 8 months of the field operation. The field pilot demonstrates the effectiveness of the nitrogen foam injection technique as an effective IOR method for the targeted oilfield and other similar oil reservoirs.
Timing of ASP Injection for Viscous Oil Recovery
Authors: Aitkulov Almas , Mohanty Kishore K.
Published: March 2016

Alkaline-surfactant-polymer (ASP) flooding of a viscous oil (100 cp) is studied here in a two-dimensional (2D) sand pack. An ASP formulation was developed by studying the phase behavior of the oil with several alkaline-surfactant formulations. The effectiveness of the ASP formulation was validated in a 1D sand pack by conducting a water flood followed by a stable ASP flood. Reservoir sand was then packed into a 2D square steel cell similar to a quarter five-spot pattern. Several ASP floods were then conducted in this 2D cell to study both the displacement and sweep efficiency of ASP floods. First, the polymer concentration was varied to find an optimum polymer concentration. Then the waterflood extent was varied (0–1 PV) after which the ASP flood was initiated. The oil recovery, oil cut, effluent concentration and pressure drop were monitored during the floods. The tertiary ASP flood was very effective in 1D and validated the ASP formulation. The 2D tertiary ASP flood also recovered most of the oil (~98% of OOIP) when the ASP slug viscosity exceeded the oil viscosity, but the pressure gradients were high at ~ 1ft/d injection. When the ASP slug viscosity was lowered to ~1/3 of oil viscosity, oil recovery dropped slightly to 90% OOIP. However, it also decreased the pressure gradient 5 times, which would give good flow rates in the field conditions. As the extent of waterflood preceding ASP got shorter, the oil was recovered faster (for the same pore volumes injected), but the pressure gradient was higher for the ASP flood than the water flood. The ultimate recovery was independent of the extent of waterflood.
A Study of Factors Influencing Polymer Hydrodynamic Retention in Porous Media
Authors: Chen Zhao , Du Cheng , Kurnia Ivan , Lou Junjie , Zhang Guoyin , Yu Jianjia , Lee Robert L.
Published: March 2016

Hydrodynamic retention is one of the contributors to polymer loss in porous media. In this study, effects of flow rate, polymer molecular weight, and core permeability on hydrodynamic retention were investigated. To quantify hydrodynamic retention, injection of two identical polymer banks at different rates separated by 100 pore volumes of brine flushing was performed. Three HPAM polymers with molecular weights of 6–8 million, 12 million, and 20 million Daltons were tested in a 135 mD sandstone core and xanthan polymer with molecular weight of 2–2.5 million Daltons was tested in an 87 mD sandstone core. The retention of 6–8 million Daltons HPAM in a 1,650 mD sandstone core was also measured. Polymer retention in a fresh core was first measured at low injection rate of 3.11 ft/day. Then, 100 PV of 2% NaCl brine was injected to displace all the mobile polymer molecules in the core till pressure drop across the core became stable. Hydrodynamic retention at elevated flow rates was determined after the completion of retention at lower rates and comparisons with the initial polymer retention were made.

Retention of 96.1 μg/g in the 135 mD core was detected for the 6–8 million HPAM at a flow rate of 3.11 ft/day. Increase of flow rate from 3.11 ft/day to 6.22 ft/day and 12.4 ft/day resulted in incremental retention of 2.27 μg/g and 5.38 μg/g, respectively. The injection of a higher molecular weight polymer at the same rate was performed after retention was satisfied with a lower molecular weight polymer. It was found the degree of hydrodynamic retention was greater when higher molecular weight polymers were injected. When core permeability was changed from 135 mD to 1,650 mD, both the initial and hydrodynamic retention were dramatically decreased. The initial retention of xanthan was 66.7 μg/g in an 87 mD sandstone core, which was smaller compared to the retention of HPAM in the similar core. However, hydrodynamic retention measurements of xanthan gives 3.26 μg/g and 6.38 μg/g increments with the increase of flow rate from 3.11 ft/day to 6.22 ft/day and 12.4 ft/day, which suggested that the retention of xanthan is slightly more sensitive to the change of injection rate than HPAM. This study also implied that measurement of residual resistance factor after polymer injection should be completed after sufficient brine flushing (around 100 PV), otherwise, an overestimated residual resistance factor might be provided.
Pore Scale Displacement Mechanism of Bitumen Extraction with High Molecular Weight Hydrocarbon Solvents
Authors: Stape Philip , Ovalles Cesar , Hascakir Berna
Published: March 2016

Solvent Aided-Steam Flooding (SA-SF) focuses on maximizing the oil production by reducing the economic and environmental challenges created by steam generation. However, the solvent selection is vital due to the interaction of solvents with asphaltenes. Moreover, the polar nature of asphaltenes also enables asphaltene-steam interaction which may result in emulsion formation. This study investigates solvent-asphaltene-steam interaction during SA-SF with low and high molecular weight asphaltene insoluble solvents.

Two different solvents were tested; n-hexane (E1 and E4) and a commercial solvent (CS) (E2 and E5) with four flooding experiments; two miscible flooding (E1 and E2) and two SA-SF (E4 and E5) experiments. Results were compared with steam flooding (E3) experiment. The performance evaluation of different enhanced oil recovery methods was accomplished by comparing the oil recovery rates. The asphaltene content of produced oil samples was determined by standard methods. The asphaltene-steam interaction was analyzed with microscopic images, and the water content of produced oil samples was measured by Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA).

Even though similar cumulative oil productions were obtained by the end of E1 (n-hexane-flooding) and E2 (CS-flooding), the produced oil quality varied due to asphaltene and clay contents. While higher clay content was measured for E1, E2 had a lower quality, due to higher asphaltene contents. This finding is due to the heavy dearomatized hydrocarbons composition of the CS which ranges from C11 up to C16 and enables more asphaltene production. Even though, E5 yielded the highest liquid production among all experiments; the produced liquid was composed of emulsified oil. The solvent aided-steam flooding (SA-SF) experimental results, which have been conducted with n-hexane/steam (E4) and CS/steam (E5) injections, suggest that as the asphaltene content increases in produced oil samples, more hard-to-break emulsions are formed. The unusual stability of these emulsions can be attributed to the nature of the asphaltene present in the produced oil.

From the results presented, it is recommended the use of lower carbon number solvents to leave the larger amounts of asphaltenes in the reservoirs. The solvents differed in their interactions with the asphaltenes present in the oil and with the steam that has a direct impact not only on the quantity of oil produced but the quality as well. Hence, the wise selection of the appropriate solvent cannot be ignored during solvent aided-steam flooding processes.
Rheology of Supercritical CO2 Foam Stabilized by Nanoparticles
Authors: Xiao Chongwei , Balasubramanian Suriya N. , Clapp Lee W.
Published: March 2016

Foamed fluids with the gas phase of carbon dioxide (CO2) have been applied as fracturing fluids to develop unconventional resources. This type of fracturing fluids meets the waterless requirements by unconventional reservoirs, which are prone to damage by clay swelling and blocking pore throat in water environment. Conventional CO2 foams with surfactants have low durability under high temperature and high salinity, which limit their application. Nanoparticles provide a new technique to stabilize CO2 foams under harsh reservoir conditions. It's essential to determine in-situ rheology of CO2 foams stabilized by nanoparticles in order to predict proppant transport in reservoir fractures and improve oil production.

The shear viscosity and foam texture of non-Newtonian fluids under reservoir conditions are critical to transport proppant and generate effective micro-channels. This study determined the in-situ shear viscosity of supercritical CO2 foams stabilized by nano-SiO2 in the Flow Loop apparatus with shear rates of 5950~17850 s−1 at the pressure of 1140±20 psig and the temperature of 40 °C. Supercritical CO2 with the density of 0.2~0.4 g/ml and the viscosity of 0.02~0.04 cp under typical reservoir conditions were applied to generate foams. The foams were tested with high foam quality up to 80% to minimize the usage of water. The effects of shear rates, salinity, surfactant, and nanoparticle sizes and on the rheology of gas foams with different foam qualities were experimentally investigated. The foam texture and stability were observed through an in-line sapphire tube. Further, proppant transport by CO2 foams and the placement in fractures were analyzed by considering the rheology of non-Newtonian fluids and the mechanisms of gravity driven settling and hindered settling/slurry flow.

The conditions of nanoparticle foaming systems were optimized through orthogonal experimental design. The dense and stable foams were generated and observed under high pressure and elevated temperature conditions. It was observed that CO2 foams with high quality of 80% demonstrated the highest viscosity and stability under optimal conditions. The foams with nanoparticles demonstrated both shear- thinning and shear-thickening behaviors depending on foam quality and components. The salinity and nanoparticle size affect foam rheology in two ways depending on components, foam quality, and shear rates.

While the viscosities of CO2 foam stabilized by nanoparticles have been widely studied recently, no work has been done to observe the stability and texture of supercritical CO2 foam after shearing under high pressure and high temperature, not to mention proppant transport by CO2 foam. This study provided a pioneering insight to the proppant transport by viscous supercritical CO2 foam stabilized by nanoparticles.
Low Salinity Waterflooding: From Single Well Chemical Tracer Test Interpretation to Sector Model Forecast Scenarios
Authors: Spagnuolo Marco , Callegaro Chiara , Masserano Franco , Nobili Marianna , Sabatino Riccardo , Blunt Martin J.
Published: March 2016

We study Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) through Low Salinity (LS) waterflooding in a brown oil field. LS waterflooding is an emerging EOR technique in which water with reduced salinity is injected into a reservoir to improve oil recovery, as compared with conventional waterflooding, in which High Salinity (HS) brine or seawater are commonly used. The efficiency of this technique can be quantified at the well-scale by a Single Well Chemical Tracer Test (SWCTT), which is an in-situ method for measuring the Remaining Oil Saturation (ROS) after flooding the near-wellbore region with a displacing agent. Two SWCTTs were executed on a sandstone North African field. The tests were realized in sequence with seawater and LS water to evaluate the EOR potential at the well-scale.

Here, we propose the interpretation of these two SWCTTs. They were modeled through numerical simulations because of the presence of several non-idealities in the complex scenario considered. A recently-developed tracer simulator was employed to solve the reactive transport problem. This was used as a fast post-processing tool coupled with a conventional reservoir simulator. Model parameters were estimated within an inverse modeling framework, on the basis of an assisted history matching procedure that exploits the Metropolis Hastings Algorithm (MHA). Results were scaled up on a sector model of the field, and forecast scenarios that consider a field-scale implementation of this technique were defined.

The well-scale displacement efficiency gain associated with LS water, as compared with seawater, was evaluated. It was quantified as a ROS reduction of 8 saturation unit (s.u.), with a P10–P90 range of 3–15 s.u. Reservoir-scale simulations suggest that the associated ultimate oil recovery of the EOR pilot may be increased by 2% with LS water, with a P10–P90 range of 0.7–4.3%.

Overall, the LS EOR potential for a selected field was quantified through a robust and original workflow, based on SWCTT interpretation. This state-of-the-art procedure is now available for further applications. The simulated oil recovery improvement with LS water is promising, and leads the way to the implementation of an inter-well field trial.
Microemulsion Formation and its Effects on in Situ Rheology During ASP Corefloods: Scouting Study
Authors: Unsal Evren , Oedai Sjaam , van Wunnik John
Published: March 2016

During an Alkaline-Surfactant-Polymer (ASP) flood in reservoir rock, often an in situ microemulsion phase forms upon contact of the injected ASP fluid with the residing oil. These microemulsions form as a result of the required ultra-low interfacial tensions (IFT) for oil mobilization and displacement of the residual oil, but they can have a high viscosity. The success of an ASP flood on oil recovery depends on the complex flow of the injected ASP solution, the mobilized oil and the in situ microemulsion phase, which the latter often has a higher shear-dependent viscosity than the other two.

In this study, steady-state (SS) corefloods have been performed to investigate the in situ microemulsion formation and rheology during the multiphase flow. The aqueous phase, namely brine, AS or ASP, was co-injected with n-decane or reservoir ‘dead’ crude in Berea outcrop cores for a range of fractional flow ratios. The pressure differential was continuously recorded, and was then converted in an apparent, in situ, viscosity value. For this stage of the project the water and oil phase saturations in the plugs were not yet measured.

For brine/oil systems some dependence of apparent viscosity on rock permeability was observed; for systems with surfactants no such trend was noticable. The addition of surfactants substantially reduced the apparent viscosities; the viscosity reducing impact of surfactants could be balanced by the addition of polymer. Fractional flow analysis showed that the addition of surfactants reduces the impact of capillary forces resulting in straightened relative permeability curves and higher aqueous phase relative permeability end points.

It is anticipated that this study leads to a fast and fit for purpose characterization method of ASP-crude oil systems that provides data in a form, such as relative permeability data and residual oil saturation that can be applied directly in reservoir simulators.
Tradeoffs Between Emulsion and Powder Polymers for EOR
Authors: Jouenne S. , Klimenko A. , Levitt D.
Published: March 2016

Polymer transport and preparation can present a key challenge in chemical EOR project implementation.

Hydrolyzed polyacrylamide in emulsion form presents some advantages, including an easier transportation and a simplification of the injection process. The trade off is a lower active concentration (~30% - 50%), which increases the volumes to be transported, as well as the presence of oil and emulsifiers, which may have unintended effects in the reservoir.

In this article, we compare two industrial and commercially-available polymers, one in powder form from the gel process, and the other in an inverse emulsion, with similar viscosifying power.

Properties of both polymers are investigated through rheological and screen factor measurements, filterability tests on bulk solutions, shear thickening behavior and resistance to shear degradation in porous medium. The likely origin of the observed differences is discussed in light of the two polymerization methods (bulk vs. emulsion) that lead to differences in polydispersity. Mobility reduction and residual resistance factor measurements during propagation tests at low velocity give some insight on the propagation of the stabilized oil droplets coming from the injected emulsion. Finally, oil recovery efficiency is investigated through secondary polymer injections on sandpacks. No significant difference was observed between the polymers in term of oil recovery or pressure behavior.

These results are relevant to oil companies planning polymer or surfactant-polymer pilots and considering the tradeoffs between emulsion and powder polymers.
CO2 Foam Pilot in Salt Creek Field, Natrona County, WY: Phase III: Analysis of Pilot Performance
Authors: Mukherjee Joydeep , Nguyen Quoc P. , Scherlin John , Vanderwal Paul , Rozowski Peter
Published: March 2016

A supercritical CO2 foam pilot, comprised of a central injection well in an inverted 5-spot pattern, was implemented in September 2013 in Salt Creek field, Natrona County WY. In this paper we present a thorough analysis of the pilot performance data that has been collected to date from the field. A monitoring plan was developed to analyze the performance of the pilot area wells before and after the start of the foam pilot. The injection well tubing head pressure was controlled to maintain a constant bottom hole pressure and the fluid injection rates were monitored to capture the effect of foam generation on injectivity. Inter-well tracer studies were performed to analyze the change in CO2 flow patterns in the reservoir. Production response was monitored by performing frequent well tests. The CO2 injection rate profile monitored over several WAG cycles during the course of the implementation clearly indicates the formation and propagation of foam deep into the reservoir. CO2 soluble tracer studies performed before and after the start of the foam pilot indicate significant areal diversion of CO2. The production characteristics of the four producing wells in the pilot area indicate significant mobilization of reservoir fluids attributable to CO2 diversion in the pattern. The produced gas-liquid ratio has decreased in all four of the producing wells in the pattern. Analysis of the oil production rates shows a favorable slope change with respect to pore volumes of CO2 injected. Segregation of CO2 and water close to the injection well seems to be the primary factor adversely affecting CO2 sweep efficiency in the pilot area. Foam generation leads to a gradual expansion of the gas override zone. The gradual expansion of the gas override zone seems to be the principal mechanism behind the production responses observed from the pilot area wells.
Permeability Reduction Due to use of Liquid Polymers and Development of Remediation Options
Authors: Dwarakanath Varadarajan , Dean Robert M. , Slaughter Will , Alexis Dennis , Espinosa David , Kim Do Hoon , Lee Vincent , Malik Taimur , Winslow Greg , Jackson Adam C. , Thach Sophany
Published: March 2016

Polymer flooding by liquid polymers is an attractive technology for rapid deployment in remote locations. Liquid polymers are typically oil external emulsions with included surfactant inversion packages to allow for rapid polymer hydration. During polymer injection, a small amount of oil is typically co-injected with the polymer. The accumulation of the emulsion oil near the wellbore during continuous polymer injection will reduce near wellbore permeability. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the long-term effect of liquid polymer use on polymer injectivity. We also present a method to remediate the near well damage induced by the emulsion oil using a remediation surfactant that selectively solubilizes and removes the near wellbore oil accumulation. We evaluated several liquid polymers using a combination of rheology measurement, filtration ratio testing and long-term injection coreflood experiments. The change in polymer injectivity was quantified in surrogate core after multiple pore volumes of liquid polymer injection. Promising polymers were further evaluated in both clean and oil-saturated cores. In addition, phase behavior experiments and corefloods were conducted to develop a surfactant solution to remediate the damage induced by oil accumulation. Permeability reduction due to long term liquid polymer injection was quantified in cores with varying permeabilities. The critical permeability where no damage was observed was identified for promising liquid polymers. A surfactant formulation tailored for one of the liquid polymers improved injectivity three- to five-fold and confirms our hypothesis of permeability reduction due to emulsion oil accumulation. Such information can be used to better select appropriate polymers for EOR in areas where powder polymer use may not be feasible.
Modeling Dynamic Wettability Alteration Effect Based on Contact Angle
Authors: Lashgari Hamid R. , Xu Yifei , Sepehrnoori Kamy
Published: March 2016

This paper presents a dynamic wettability alteration model based on the Gibbs adsorption isotherm equation. The model is conceptually and thermodynamically developed for ideal surfactant solutions (i.e anionic surfactants) that reduce the surface tension between oil phase and rock formation based on the contact angle in a preferentially oil-wet formation. We assume that interfacial tension (IFT) between oil/water and oil/gas remain unchanged in the presence of surfactants. In order to apply the effect of contact angle on multiphase fluid flow in porous media, existing relative permeability and capillary pressure models are modified to become a function of contact angle to mimic the influence of wettability alteration.

The developed models can be tuned with experimental data including the contact angle, relative permeability, and capillary pressure parameters then they can be used to predict the efficiency of surfactant injection processes in naturally fractured reservoirs accordingly.
Viscosity and Stability of Dry CO2 Foams for Improved Oil Recovery
Authors: Da Chang , Xue Zheng , Worthen Andrew J. , Qajar Ali , Huh Chun , Prodanovic Maša , Johnston Keith P.
Published: March 2016

CO2/water foams are of interest for mobility control in CO2 EOR and as energized fracture fluids, or hybrid processes that combine aspects of both processes. In fracturing applications, it would be desirable to lower the water level as much as possible to minimize the production of wastewater and formation damage. It is challenging to stabilize ultra dry foams with extremely high internal phase gas fraction given the high capillary pressure and the rapid drainage rate of the lamellae between the gas bubbles. However, we demonstrate that these ultra dry CO2-in-water foams may be stabilized with surfactants that form viscoelastic wormlike micelles in the aqueous phase. These wormlike micelles are formed by tuning the surfactant packing parameter with electrolytes or a second oppositely-charged surfactant to stabilize ultradry CO2-in-water foams with foam qualities as high as 0.98 and apparent viscosities more than 100 cP up to 90 °C. Applicability of these foams for improved oil recovery is evaluated by running multiphase flow injection simulations in a case-study oil reservoir.
Improving Recovery of a Viscous Oil Using Optimized Emulsion Viscosity
Authors: Aminzadeh Behdad , Hoang Viet , Inouye Art , Izgec Omer , Walker Dustin , Chung Doo , Nizamidin Nabijan , Tang Tom , Lolley Chris , Dwarakanath Varadarajan
Published: March 2016

Alkali flooding in heavy oil reservoirs is known to stabilize emulsion in-situ and improve the recovery beyond that of conventional waterflood under certain boundary and initial conditions. The overarching goal of this study is to develop a systematic approach to optimize this process and capture underlying recovery mechanisms. Therefore, we experimentally evaluated the performance of alkali flood as a function of emulsion type and viscosity. Phase behavior and viscosity of the microemulsion are modified by introducing seven different surfactants. Microscope imaging techniques are employed to measure the droplet size distribution for type I and II emulsions. Viscosities of generated emulsions are measured with a rotational rheometer at low temperatures and with an electromagnetic viscometer at reservoir conditions. Finally, corefloods are conducted at different conditions to evaluate the performance of displacement as a function of emulsion type and viscosity. Enhanced alkali floods showed an incremental recovery of 8 – 50% beyond that of waterflood. Formation of higher viscosity emulsion has a large contribution on the sweep efficiency and therefore improved oil recovery during alkali flood; however, other mechanisms (e.g. entrainment and entrapment) also have contribute to the incremental recovery. Results of our experiments indicated that the incremental recovery is a strong function of emulsion type, emulsion viscosity, and the droplet size distribution.