Some Aspects of Polymer Floods
Authors: Mungan N. , Smith F.W. , Thompson J.L. 
Published: December 2007

Adsorption of polymers and transport, rheology and oil recovery efficiency of their solutions were studied in the laboratory to evaluate the use of polymers in waterflooding. While a tenfold mobility reduction was obtained with polymer concentrations as low as 0.05 per cent by weight, the mobility reduction depended on the type of polymer, molecular weight, salinity and pH of water, crude oil and capillary properties of the porous media. Choice of a suitable polymer and a workable concentration will have to be tailored for each application. Little reduction in the residual oil saturation can be expected from polymer flooding. Improvement in the volumetric sweep efficiency is possible but the extent of the improvement can best be evaluated by properly designed field testing. Some aspects of the field use of polymer floods are discussed.

Introduction

Waterflooding is a simple, inexpensive secondary recovery method and is being used widely. Innumerable laboratory studies have been made to unravel the fundamentals of the displacement of oil by water and to find the ways of most efficient oil recovery. These studies and a great many field case histories have revealed that the prime cause of poor oil recovery is the inefficient and incomplete sweep of reservoir volume by the injected water. Sweep efficiency is affected by many factors of which the mobility ratio is an important one. Mobility ratio M is defined here as the ratio of water to oil mobilities:

.....................(1)

In Eq. 1, the permeabilities are the effective permeabilities and depend on fluid saturations and, hence, change during the different depletion stages in a flood. A wide practice is to use the effective water permeability at residual oil saturation and the effective oil permeability at interstitial water saturation in Eq. 1. If the mobility ratio is greater than one, the mobility ratio is unfavorable and water, being more mobile than oil, would finger through the oil zone resulting in poor oil recovery efficiency. If the mobility ratio is favorable (one or less) the displacement of oil by water occurs more or less in a pistonlike fashion, in some waterfloods, the mobility ratio is unfavorable and any additives by which the mobility of water can be decreased would favor more efficient oil recovery. The thing to bear in mind, however, is whether or not the improvement in oil recovery is sufficient to more than pay out the cost of the additives needed. For example, materials like sugars, alcohols and glycerine reduce water mobility by thickening the water, but the cost of material requirement precludes any field application. For an additive to be useful in waterflooding, it must bring about a large reduction in water mobility at low concentrations; it must be adsorbed only negligibly: and it must not completely plug up the formation. Some synthetic organic polymers have shown promise of meeting these requirements and have been used in the field. However, no in-depth studies of the rheological, adsorption and oil displacement characteristics of polymer solutions have been reported. The present work is a study of these properties.

EXPERIMENTAL

In this work, concentrations are given on a weight per volume basis; 0.5 per cent concentration means 0.5 gm of polymer is dissolved in enough water (or NaCl solution) to make 100 ml. A bactericide, usually 0.1 to 0.2 per cent by volume of 38 per cent formaldehyde solution, was used in the polymer solutions. The NaCl solution was 30,000 ppm. Some properties of the polymers studied are given in Table 1. Physical properties of all cores used are in Table 2. Flow behavior of polymer solutions was studied by three consecutive flow tests in cores. First, water (or brine) was injected at constant rate of about 1 ft/D to obtain the water mobility. Then, filtered polymer solution (prepared in water or brine) was flowed through the core. Since the rate was constant, increase in the pressure drop across the core reflects decrease in the mobility. Finally, the core was flooded with water (or brine) to study recovery of mobility.

TABLE 1 - DESCRIPTION OF POLYMERS STUDIED

APPROXIMATE TRADE NAME TYPE MOLECULAR WEIGHT

Union Carbide"Polyox" WSR 35 Polyethelyene oxide 200,000 Union Carbide"Polyox" WSR-205 Polyethelyene oxide 600,000 Union Carbide "Polyox" WSR-301 Polyethelyene oxide 4,000,000 Union Carbide"Polyox"Coagulant Polyethelyene oxide 6 to 10 million Dow "Separan" NP-10 Polyacrylamide 1,000,000

Dow "Separan" NP-20 Polyacrylamide 2,000,000

Dow "Separan" AP-30 Polyacrylamide 2 to 3 million(approximately 25per cent hydrolyzed)

JPT