Migration characteristics and profile control capabilities of preformed particle gel in porous media

Abstract

Inspired by the viscoelastic displacement theory, a product called preformed particle gel (PPG) is developed as conformance control agent to enhance oil recovery and control excess water production. The migration law of PPG suspension in porous media is related to its deep profile control and displacement capability. Laboratory experiments indicate that PPG suspension has good viscosity increasing, and the apparent viscosity decreases with the increase of shear rate. PPG suspension is mainly elastic, and its network structure makes it have certain shear stability. PPG particles realize migration in porous media in the way of “accumulation and blockage→pressure increase→deformation and migration”. When the ratio of the PPG particle size to the pore throat diameter δ ranges from 35.52 to 53.38, the particles can match through the porous medium. When the permeability difference of the parallel model is 5, PPG suspension has the highest profile improvement rate, 69.10%. PPG suspension can adjust the planar heterogeneity, and increase the oil recovery rate by 20.75%. The PPG suspension can effectively start “cluster''、 “film” and “blind end residual oil”, and has a high oil washing efficiency. The core NMR T2 spectrum shows that PPG suspension mainly reduces oil saturation in mesopores and macropores. After PPG flooding, the EOR capacity of small pores is the highest, 39.11%.

Keywords

• Preformed particle gel (PPG)
• Migration law
• Profile control
• Flow characteristics
• Microscopic oil displacement