Title: Mitigating permeability contrasts in heterogenous reservoirs using advanced preformed particle gels

Authors: Paul Tongwa; Baojun Bai

Addresses: Department of Petroleum Engineering, Missouri University of Science and Technology, 1870 Miner Circle, Rolla MO, 65409, USA ' Department of Petroleum Engineering, Missouri University of Science and Technology, 1870 Miner Circle, Rolla MO, 65409, USA

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]

Keywords: enhanced oil recovery; chemical EOR; polymer flooding; nanocomposite gels; conformance control; permeability contrasts; heterogenous reservoirs; preformed particle hydrogels; nanotechnology; mature oilfields; nanomaterials; hydrogel design; swelling performance; gel viscosity; thermal resistance; gel strength.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOGCT.2016.078748

International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology, 2016 Vol.13 No.2, pp.103 - 118

Received: 18 Mar 2014
Accepted: 02 Mar 2015

Published online: 02 Sep 2016 *

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