Mitigating permeability contrasts in heterogenous reservoirs using advanced preformed particle gels
by Paul Tongwa; Baojun Bai
International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology (IJOGCT), Vol. 13, No. 2, 2016

Abstract: The present work presents a nanocomposite preformed particle gel for conformance control in mature oilfields. This product was observed to have a better performance than conventional hydrogels without nanomaterials. Preformed particle hydrogel was designed by the reaction of monomer, initiator, cross-linker, additives, and sodium montmorillonite nanomaterial, whereas conventional hydrogel is designed from just monomer, initiator, cross-linker and additives. The presence of nanomaterial in hydrogel design affords it tremendous improvement in nanocomposite gel properties and behaviour compared to conventional hydrogels without any nanomaterial. Additionally, swelling performance, post-degraded gel viscosity, and long-term thermal resistance of nanocomposite gel increased by several orders of magnitude compared to hydrogels with no nanomaterial. Environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) revealed the presence of a very dense 3D network compared to hydrogels with no nanomaterial. On incorporation of nanomaterial, increase in gel strength of up to 600% was observed. Thus, they are potential replacements for existing preformed particle gels in mitigating permeability variations in mature reservoirs. [Received: March 14, 2014; Accepted: March 2, 2015]

Online publication date: Fri, 02-Sep-2016

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