Study of Profile Reversion in Early Stage Polymer Injection for Heavy Oil Recovery in China Bohai Bay

Volume 4, Issue 2, April 2019     |     PP. 19-43      |     PDF (2338 K)    |     Pub. Date: August 5, 2019
DOI:    241 Downloads     6542 Views  

Author(s)

Minggui Chen, College of Petroleum Engineering, Yangtze University, Wuhan,430100, China
Ailing Zheng, College of Petroleum Engineering, Yangtze University, Wuhan,430100, China
Dehua Liu, College of Petroleum Engineering, Yangtze University, Wuhan,430100, China
Guang Yang, State Key Laboratory of Offshore Oil Exploration , CNOOC,Beijing,100027,China
Xiaodong Kang, State Key Laboratory of Offshore Oil Exploration , CNOOC,Beijing,100027,China
Yongan Gu, Petroleum Technology Research Centre (PTRC), Petroleum Systems Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan S4S 0A2, Canada

Abstract
Polymer flooding of heavy oil proves successful in China offshore heterogeneous reservoir, how to improve polymer flooding efficiency is a critical challenge in economically field application of heavy oil polymer flooding. Field results show that single slug polymer injection can lead to profile reversion, excessive polymer flow most to high permeability reservoir, results in poor recovery efficiency in the low permeability reservoir. Parallel core physical simulation was used to study effect of permeability ratio、polymer concentration、water cut of polymer injection on profile reversion in heavy oil polymer flooding.“Profile reversion” in Bohai Bay heavy oil reservoir have much difference than Daqing light oil reservoir. First, effect of permeability ratio/injection timing/polymer concentration on “profile reversion” was studied by laboratory core flooding tests and simulation. It was found that injection of polymers at low water cut(<80%)、small permeability ratio(<3) and suitable polymer concentration(balance of polymer injectivity and profile modification) have vital importance on heavy oil recovery efficiency; different alternative injection methods and cycles was compared, results show that alternative injection of weak gel and polymer solution have less than 6.6% original oil in place(OOIP)recovery efficiency than single slug polymer injection, which means weak gel injection have detrimental effect on reservoir permeability; while alternative injection of 2250mg/L and 1750mg/L polymer in two cycle has more than 4.3%OOIP recovery efficiency than single slug polymer injection at the same dosage, increase alternative injection cycles have detrimental effect on recovery efficiency due to small slug size for mobility control. Another important finding show that “profile reversion ” mechanism can be successfully simulated using CMG stars reservoir simulation software by assuming different polymer retention, inaccessible pore volume and residual resistant factor for different permeability layers. Finally, a single well block reservoir simulation show that alternative injection of polymer slug can decrease negative effect of profile reversion and improve heavy oil recovery.

Keywords
polymer flooding of heavy oil ,profile reversion,alternative injection

Cite this paper
Minggui Chen, Ailing Zheng, Dehua Liu, Guang Yang, Xiaodong Kang, Yongan Gu, Study of Profile Reversion in Early Stage Polymer Injection for Heavy Oil Recovery in China Bohai Bay , SCIREA Journal of Energy. Volume 4, Issue 2, April 2019 | PP. 19-43.

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