Disproportionate Permeability Reduction of Water-Soluble Silicate Gelants - Importance of Formation Wettability
Authors: Askarinezhad Reza , Hatzignatiou Dimitrios G. , Stavland Arne 
Published: March 2016

Disproportionate permeability reduction (DPR) may provide field solutions to address high volumes of water production and efficiency of oil recovery in non-communicating layered reservoirs. This work evaluates the lab-scale DPR effectiveness at different formation wettability conditions using an environmentally friendly, water-soluble, silicate gelant. A robust, time/temperature stable and easy-to-design water-soluble silicate gelant system is utilized to conduct DPR treatments in oil- and water-wet cores using a newly established steady-state, two-phase chemical system placement. The experimental procedure is applied to ensure the presence of moveable oil saturation at which the injected DPR fluid (gelant) gels in the treated zone and to quantitatively control the placement saturation conditions in the formation. DPR treatments are conducted using a steady-state, two-phase (oil/gelant) placement to better control the water/oil saturation at which the silicate gel sets. The performance of water-soluble, silicate-based DPR treatments are evaluated using pre- and post-treatment two-phase (brine/oil) steady-state and unsteady state permeability measurements.

Strongly water-wet Berea cores are chemically treated to alter their wettability to oil wet and measured phase effective permeability curves are used to characterize the newly established core wettability. Treatment design should include filterability/injectivity and rheological studies of the DPR fluid to evaluate gelant interaction with the formation as well as gelation time and kinetics. Single-phase DPR fluid injectivity through Berea cores is excellent. At relatively high watercuts in water-wet cores, two-phase DPR-fluid/oil injectivity is good and even better in oil-wet cores regardless the watrecut. At relatively low watercuts in water-wet cores, the injectivity is not as good as in higher watercuts and the mobility reduction keeps increasing with the co-injection of the DPR-fluid/oil.

DPR-fluid/oil placement experiments conducted at the same saturation conditions and water/oil ratio (WOR) showed that the ultimate oil residual resistance factor in oil-wet cores is significantly lower than the one in water-wet cores. This is mainly due to more favorable oil-phase continuity and distribution in oil-wet media compared to the corresponding ones in water-wet formations. In water-wet cores, encapsulation of oil by gel may cause oil-phase discontinuities and porous medium conductivity reduction. Wettability tests have shown that silicate gel is strongly water-wet. Therefore, in oil-wet DPR treatments, formed gel in porous media yields a mixed-wet formation and a lower trapped oil saturation compared to the water-wet formation.

In either wetting state, relative permeability hysteresis was insignificant during the post-DPR treatment imbibition/drainage cycles. This also reflects stable gels during post-DPR treatment floods. DPR treatments conducted at high WOR in oil-wet cores have shown a minor gel "erosion" during the post-treatment two- and single-phase (water) injection; gel "erosion" ceased during oil injection. DPR treatments conducted at high WOR caused an increase in residual resistance factor (RRF) of both water and oil phases regardless the core's wetting conditions; the DPR effectiveness was more pronounced in oil-wet cores than in water-wet ones.