Revista de Petróleo y Biotecnología Ambiental

Abstracto

Experimental Investigation of Polymer Adsorption-Induced Permeability Reduction in Low Permeability Reservoirs

Hyemin Park, Jinju Han, Minkyu Lee, Youngho Jang and Wonmo Sung

The polymer retention during polymer flooding causes reduction in pore throat size which can be detrimental to oil recovery. Especially, in low permeability reservoir unlikely in high permeability system, EOR effect of polymer flooding would not excel comparing to water flooding because of the polymer adsorption onto grain surface. This phenomenon is more significant as higher concentration of polymer solution is injected. In this study, we investigated oil recovery process during polymer flooding for a quarter of 2D 5-spot pattern of low permeability sandstone slab, in which the injected polymer solution flows in different shear rates corresponding to streamlines. The results showed that the ultimate recovery was 1.9 times higher in concentration of 1,000 ppm case than 0 ppm. The polymer adsorption layer formed during the flooding reduced the effective permeability of 1,000 ppm polymer solution. Therefore, it facilitated the oil flow and the stage of water-cut reaching 99% was slackened off.