Записки Горного института (Feb 2024)
Analysis of experience in the use of preformed particle polymer gels in the development of high-water-cut production facilities in low-temperature oil reservoirs
Abstract
Foreign practice of oil production in high-water-cut conditions suggests using the technology of injection of preformed particle gel (PPG) suspension into injection wells. After swelling, the polymer particles become elastic and are able to penetrate through highly permeable watered intervals into the remote reservoir zone, forming a polymer “plug”. Thus far, the domestic experience of application of this technology boiled down to testing foreign compounds. We have looked into the possibilities of PPG technology application in geological and technological conditions of high-water-cut fields of Perm Krai. The paper proposes PPG reagents effective in low-temperature reservoirs (20-35 °С) and at relatively high salinity of formation water (more than 200 g/l). The world experience of PPG technology application was analyzed to identify the principal scheme of reagent injection, to establish variants of sequence of injection of PPG particles of different sizes, as well as the possibility of regulating the morphological characteristics of polymer gel particles during synthesis depending on the porosity and permeability of the reservoir. A prerequisite for the technology is the ability to remove PPG particles after treatment from the bottom-hole zone of the formation; for this purpose, tests were carried out on a breaker compound based on sodium persulfate with synergizing additives. PPG technology is effective in reservoirs with high permeability heterogeneity. Two types of high-water-cut production facilities potentially promising for PPG realization have been identified for oil fields of Perm Krai. The first type includes carbonate Tournaisian-Famennian reservoirs with pronounced macrofracturing, in which the PPGs are used for colmatation of flushed large fractures. The second type is terrigenous Visean deposits with increased oil viscosity from 5 to 100 mPa∙s and high permeability of reservoirs (> 0.5 μm2). For both types of reservoirs, areas have been selected that are promising for the implementation of PPG technology.