Colloid Polym Sci (2003) 281: 1046–1054

DOI 10.1007/s00396-003-0873-6 ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTION

Wei Wang
Yuzhang Liu
Application of a Novel Polymer System in
Yongan Gu Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR)

Received: 18 July 2002

Accepted: 20 January 2003
Published online: 7 March 2003
Ó Springer-Verlag 2003
W. Wang Æ Y. Gu (&)
Petroleum Technology Research
Center (PTRC), Faculty of Engineering,
University of Regina, Regina,
Saskatchewan, S4S 0A2, Canada
E-mail: Peter.Gu@Uregina.Ca
Tel.: 1-306-585-4630
Fax: 1-306-585-4855
Y. Liu
Research Institute of Petroleum
Exploration and Development (RIPED),
100083 Beijing, P. R. China
Abstract Water breakthrough is a
common technical problem during
the course of water flooding in an oil
field. Polymer solution is widely ap-
plied to resolve the water-channeling
problem in a deep formation. In
practice, polymer is used in deep
formation treatment either to form a
gel blockage and plug high perme-
ability zones in situ, or to act as a
mobility control agent and increase
the viscosity of injected fluids.
However, for an in-depth profile
modification operation, a polymer
solution has to be injected at a rel-
atively high concentration so as to
maximize its penetration. Thus such
a treatment may be uneconomical.
On the other hand, a traditional
polymer flooding may become inef-
fective mainly due to the viscosity
loss caused by mechanical and
chemical degradations. This paper
presents a novel polymer solution,
which is classified as a weak gel
system and can be used in chemical
enhanced oil recovery (EOR) as an
in-depth profile modification agent,
and as an oil displacement agent si-
multaneously in a heterogeneous
reservoir. The weak gel system has
relatively low strength but can still
be cross-linked in the reservoir for-
mation. In comparison with a con-
ventional conformance control
agent, this weak gel can form a
blockage in a deeper formation due
to its mobile feature. The EOR
mechanisms of the weak gel system
are described in detail. In addition to
the effects of temperature, concen-
tration, and pH value on gelation
time, the rheological property, gela-
tion range, and gel strength are ex-
amined. The core-flood test results
not only provide experimental evi-
dence that the weak gel improves
injection profile and increases sweep
efficiency but also show enhanced oil
recovery. Furthermore, the pilot
tests have been performed in Gu-
dong and Gudao oil fields in China
since 1992. It has been found that
this weak gel system can significantly
enhance oil recovery and effectively
reduce water-cut. By the end of
2001, the cumulative incremental oil
production had been over
58 000 tons.
Keywords Polymer solution Æ Weak
gel system Æ Polymer flooding Æ
Conformance control Æ Chemical
EOR

Introduction water breakthrough is a common technical problem en-

countered in almost every water-flooded oil field. Severe
Water flooding is the most successfully and widely used water channeling can result in low water displacement
technology for improving oil recovery. However, early efficiency and sometimes can even make water-flooding

projects uneconomical. Usually, early water break-
through occurs in three cases. It may happen near well-
bore, such as breakthrough along the casing due to poor
cementing quality. Sometimes it occurs in a deep for-
mation, such as water breakthrough due to heterogeneity
or fractures of a reservoir. Also, because of the mobility
difference between the displacing and displaced phases,
the former tends to bypass the latter, even in a homoge-
neous reservoir. In this case, viscous fingering is inevita-
ble and early water breakthrough leads to high water-cut
[1, 2, 3]. Different technologies have been implemented to
reduce the high water-cut, among which the most widely
used one is polymer injection. In general, polymer is in-
creasingly used in chemical enhanced oil recovery (EOR)
after the secondary recovery in two conventional ways,
either as an in-depth profile modification agent in con-
formance control or as an oil displacement agent in
polymer flooding. Some recent studies, however, show
that a weak gel system consisting of polymer and cross-
linker can widen the application of polymer in chemical
EOR [4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]. For example, a weak gel can func-
tion both as an in-depth profile modification agent and as
an oil displacement agent at the same time. Thus, injec-
tion of this weak gel system combines the advantages of
both conformance control operation and polymer
flooding operation. It not only substantially extends the
effective radius in comparison with a conventional con-
formance control operation but also significantly in-
creases the viscosity of polymer solution.
It is well known that there are some practical limi-
tations associated with conformance control operations
and polymer flooding operations. For conformance
control, polymer and cross-linker are injected into a
formation to reduce the water channeling through
fractures or high permeability zones without damaging
the productivity of hydrocarbon. However, due to the
prompt cross-link reaction, gel is formed near wellbore
soon after application. Thus, the conformance control
operation not only blocks the high permeability zones
but also impairs the productivity near wellbore. Some
efforts were made to increase the amount of polymer
applied in the gel placement so as to maximize gel pen-
etration and permeability reduction in high permeability
and water breakthrough zones [10, 11]. The major
problem of in-depth gel placement is how to keep the
concentration of injected polymer high enough to be
cross-linked in the target zones after the long-distance
transport, adsorption onto the formation rocks, and
absorption in reservoir brines. To achieve this objective,
polymer is usually injected at a higher concentration
(3000–12 000 ppm) in a bulk injection mode. Hence, the
cost and investment risk of the gel placement project will
be definitely increased. On the other hand, significant
viscosity loss due to chemical and mechanical degrada-
tions will seriously affect the oil displacement efficiency
in polymer flooding operations [12, 13, 14].
1047
This paper describes a novel weak gel system that
has been developed and applied in Shengli oil field in
China since 1992. As its name suggests, the weak gel is
a gel system that has a relatively low strength but can
still be cross-linked in reservoir formations. Application
of the weak gel can effectively resolve the interlayer
conflicts caused by permeability contrast and greatly
improve mobility ratio. Instead of using the continuous
injection mode in polymer flooding or the bulk injec-
tion mode in gel placement, the weak gel system is
injected in a slug mode. Once applied, it penetrates
deeper into high permeability zones than it does into
low permeability zones in a heterogeneous reservoir.
After the weak gel system is initially formed in the
vicinity of the wellbore area, it can be gradually pushed
by the subsequent polymer flooding or water flooding
into the deep formations, where it functions both as a
profile modification agent to block high permeability
zones and as a mobility control agent to displace oil. In
this study, a mechanistic study of the physical chem-
istry properties of the weak gel system was conducted.
In addition, core-flood tests were performed to reveal
the transport phenomena of weak gel through the po-
rous media. Furthermore, pilot tests show that suc-
cessful application of the weak gel system can not only
significantly increase oil recovery but also effectively
reduce water-cut in a heterogeneous oil reservoir.
Hence, this novel polymer system can successfully re-
solve early water breakthrough in an oil field.
Experimental
Materials
The weak gel system is composed of polymer and cross-linker. The
polymer used is partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM). The
cross-linker is a chromium (III) complex ion system. The rhe-
ological property of polymer was measured using the RV–20 rhe-
ometer (Haake Company, Germany). The singular sand-pack is
30 cm long and 2.2 cm in inner diameter and its water perme-
ability is 4.29 lm2. The dimensions of two sand-packs used in the
parallel core-flood test are the same as those of the sand-pack used
in the singular core-flood tests. The water permeability of the two
parallel sand-packs is 5.30 lm2 and 0.82 lm2, respectively.
Physical chemistry properties
First, the rheological property of HPAM at different concentra-
tions was measured. Second, screening tests were conducted to
determine the gelation range. Here, the gelation range is defined as
the polymer and cross-linker concentration range in which a weak
gel can be formed. The gelation range for a weak gel was deter-
mined and compared with that for a strong gel that is extensively
used in conformance control operations. Third, several factors,
such as temperature, concentration, and pH value, were studied to
determine their effects on the gelation time. Finally, the mechanical
strength of the weak gel system was measured and its compatibility
with formation brines was studied.
1048
Core-flood tests
The singular sand-pack core-flood tests were performed to examine
the flow behavior of weak gel through the sand-pack. Moreover, the
parallel sand-pack core-flood test was conducted to simulate the
processes of in-depth profile modification and oil displacement in a
heterogeneous formation. In the parallel core-flood test, selective
penetration of weak gel and diversion of subsequent injected fluids
were studied and the ultimate oil recovery rate was determined.
In addition, both singular and parallel sand-pack core-flood tests
revealed some major EOR mechanisms of the weak gel system. The
experimental procedure is described briefly as follows. After being
vacuumed, the sand-packs were saturated first with brine and then
with oil. A typical three-stage core-flood test was performed in the
sequence of conventional water flooding, weak gel injection, and
subsequent water flooding.
Results and discussion
Rheological property
It has been known that the viscosity of a HPAM solu-
tion at a low shear rate is independent of shear rate. In
this case, the solution can be classified as a Newtonian
fluid. However, at a high shear rate, the solution be-
haves as a pseudoplastic fluid and its viscosity decreases
as shear rate increases. Figure 1 shows the rheological
curves of polyacrylamide solutions at different concen-
trations ranging from 2000 ppm to 10 000 ppm. It is
seen from this figure that each polyacrylamide solution
behaves as a non-Newtonian fluid at the tested shear
rates and its viscosity varies with shear rate. For ex-
ample, the viscosity of 3000 ppm polyacrylamide solu-
tion is 40.5 mPa s at the shear rate of 10 s–1 but
decreases to 15.2 mPa s at the shear rate of 1000 s–1. On
the other hand, expectedly, the viscosity of polymer
solution increases as the polymer concentration in-
creases.
Fig. 1 Rheological curves of polyacrylamide solutions
Gelation range
The cross-linker for weak gel is a chromium (III) com-
plex ion system, which can delay the cross-link reaction
with HPAM. It is worthwhile to point out that either a
gel system or a colloidal sol can be formed when HPAM
is mixed with the cross-linker. As indicated by the ver-
tical and horizontal solid lines in Fig. 2, there are two
concentration boundaries between the gel system and
the colloidal sol. Approximately, only when the poly-
acrylamide concentration is above 2000 ppm and the
cross-linker concentration is over 20 ppm will a gel
system be formed. More specifically, the gelation range
for a weak gel is located inside the gel zone but close to
the boundaries. The difference in mechanical strength
between a weak gel and a medium gel will be further
discussed in the subsequent section.
Gelation time
The influence of temperature on gelation time is shown
in Fig. 3. It can be seen from this figure that gelation
time is very sensitive to temperature. The elevated tem-
perature greatly shortens gelation time. The gelation
time required at a practical reservoir temperature can be
interpolated from this curve.
The effects of polymer concentration and cross-linker
concentration on the gelation time were studied and are
shown in Fig. 4. It is found that with the increase in
polymer concentration, the gelation time is reduced. The
major reason is that the cross-link reaction is accelerated
at a higher polymer concentration. Similarly, the higher
the cross-linker concentration is, the shorter the gelation
time is.
The pH value also affects the gelation time to some
extent. Figure 5 shows its effect on gelation time at
Fig. 2 Gelation range of polyacrylamide and cross-linker system

Fig. 3 Effect of temperature on gelation time
Fig. 4 Effects of polymer concentration and cross-linker concen-
tration on gelation time
70 °C. This figure clearly indicates that the gelation time
decreases as pH value increases. For instance, the gela-
tion time is 76 h at pH 5.0 and becomes 36 h at pH 8.0.
Gel strength
The viscosity measurement is probably the most widely
used method for measuring gel strength. However, this
method has some obvious drawbacks. For example, the
measured results are inaccurate and their repeatability is
poor due to the breakage and slipperiness of gel during
the measurement. This method is especially unsuitable
for a weak gel system because it can be broken easily and
slides on the rotator. Alternatively, the mechanical
1049
Fig. 5 Effect of pH on gelation time
Fig. 6 Variation of elastic module (G’) and viscous module (G’’)
of medium gel with angular frequency (Polymer concentration
10 000 ppm, cross-linker concentration 50 ppm)
strength of a weak gel system can be represented by its
viscous-elastic properties, which can be determined by
measuring the variations of elastic module (G’) and
viscous module (G’’) with the angular frequency. The
distinct advantages of the second method are that the gel
structure will not be damaged during the measurement
and that the data repeatability is satisfactory.
Two polyacrylamide solutions were prepared, whose
polymer concentrations were 10 000 ppm and 3000 ppm
(cross-linker concentration was 50 ppm), respectively.
Variations of their elastic module (G’) and viscous
module (G’’) with the angular frequency are plotted in
Fig. 6 for 10 000 ppm polymer concentration and Fig. 7
for 3000 ppm polymer concentration, respectively. As
shown in Fig. 6, a medium gel is formed at a polymer
1050

around 0.1 Pa and the differences between G’ and G’’

values for a weak gel are relatively small. In addition,
the effect of polymer concentration on gel strength was
also studied. Figure 8 shows the gel strengths of the gel
systems prepared at four different polymer concentra-
tions. It should be noted that the elastic module must be
approximately in the range of 0.01 Pa<G’<1 Pa in
order to form a weak gel. Therefore, Fig. 8 indicates
that a weak gel with the elastic module (G’) less than
1 Pa can be formed as long as the polymer concentration
is below 5000 ppm. The minimum polymer concentra-
tion required to form a weak gel with the elastic module
(G’) greater than 0.01 Pa is around 2000 ppm. This
polymer concentration is consistent with the critical
value found in the preceding study on gelation range.

Fig. 7 Variation of elastic module (G’) and viscous module (G’’)

of weak gel with angular frequency (Polymer concentration
3000 ppm, cross-linker concentration 50 ppm)
Compatibility with formation brines
Formation brines from two oil fields were chosen to
conduct compatibility tests. Table 1 shows the analytical
components of both brines, the gelation times, and gel
strengths of the weak gel systems prepared with these
two brine samples. The total dissolved solid (TDS) of
these two brines are over 5000 mg/L. Given the pH
values of 7.5 and 8.5 for these two brine samples, re-
spectively, pH value has to be adjusted to 7.0 to ensure a
proper cross-link reaction. During the compatibility
tests, no flocculation, separation, precipitation, or cloud
phenomena were observed. The overall properties of
these weak gels prepared with the brines were quite
similar.

Flow behavior of weak gel through the sand-pack

Weak gel system was sealed in a container and placed

Fig. 8 Effect of polymer concentration on elastic module (G’) of
the weak gel system
concentration of 10 000 ppm. The elastic module G’ of a
medium gel is greater than 1 Pa and the differences be-
tween G’ and G’’ values are almost constant, irrespective
of the polymer concentration. On the other hand, as
depicted in Fig. 7, a weak gel is formed at a polymer
concentration of 3000 ppm. Its elastic module G’ is
inside an oven set at 70 °C. It was removed from the
container after 5 h, 10 h, and 24 h to conduct displace-
ment tests. The flow behavior of weak gel systems in the
sand-pack is rather different from that of a non-cross-
linked sample. The relationships between the pressure
drop and the injection rate for different cross-link du-
rations are shown in Fig. 9. In accordance with the
Darcy’s Law, the displacement pressure drop of the non-
cross-linked polymer solution has an expected linear

Table 1 Effects of brines on gelation time and gel strength

Brines Cations Anions TDS pH Gelation Elastic

(mg/L) time module G’
Na+, K+ Ca2+ Mg2+ Cl– SO42– HCO3– CO32– (h) (Pa)
(mg/L) (mg/L) (mg/L) (mg/L) (mg/L) (mg/L) (mg/L)

A 1909.00 20.04 3.04 1878.85 300.19 1159.38 180.06 5450.56 7.5 33 0.58
B 1696.25 15.03 10.94 1382.55 283.38 1556.01 150.05 5094.21 8.5 34 0.59

Fig. 9 Pressure drop vs. injection rate of weak gel in sand-pack for
different cross-link durations
relationship with the injection flow rate. Nevertheless, if
a cross-linker is used and a weak gel is formed, a tran-
sition point exists. The injection flow rates for weak gel
are rather small at low displacement pressure drops.
Once the pressure drop reaches a certain value where the
transition point is located, flow rate increases dramati-
cally and the flow resumes the same behavior as that for
the non-cross-linked polymer solution. The slopes of
these lines after the transition points are essentially the
same. Moreover, with the increase in the cross-link du-
ration, the gel strength increases and, accordingly, the
pressure drop at which the transition point occurs in-
creases.
Mobile feature of weak gel
The polymer and cross-linker solution was injected into
the sand-pack at the end of conventional water flooding.
Then the sand-pack was sealed in an oven set at 70 °C
until the weak gel was formed. Once the weak gel was
formed in the sand-pack, the subsequent water flooding
was performed at the same flow rate as that used in the
conventional water flooding to observe the variation of
pressure drop with injected volume in pore volume (PV).
Figure 10 shows that the water injection pressure is
about 0.05 MPa prior to the injection of polymer and
cross-linker solution. After the weak gel was formed and
the subsequent water flooding was performed, the in-
jection pressure increased gradually with the injected
volume. The pressure increase indicates that certain
blockage has formed in the sand-pack. In particular, at
29 PV, the injection pressure reached its maximum value
of 1.9 MPa. Afterwards, an abrupt decrease in injection
pressure occurred, and finally the pressure was decreased
to 0.1 MPa. Such a sudden decrease in injection pressure
1051
Fig. 10 Variation of injection pressure with the injected volume
before and after the weak gel was applied
was because most of the weak gel was pushed out of the
sand-pack when the injected volume reached 29 PV. At
this time, a large number of gel particles were observed
at the sand-pack outlet. This observation provides ex-
perimental evidence that weak gel is mobile, while it may
cause some blockage in the sand-pack. Hence, weak gel
can be used both as an oil displacement agent that
moves forward in the formation and as a blocking agent
that causes a higher threshold pressure in the subsequent
water flooding.
Parallel sand-pack core-flood test
A parallel sand-pack system was used to simulate the
heterogeneity of a reservoir formation. A total of
0.81 PV (pore volume of the entire system) of weak gel
was injected. For sand-pack No. 1 (high permeability,
K=5.30 lm2), 1.53 PV (pore volume of sand-pack No.
1) of produced fluids was collected, whereas for sand-
pack No. 2 (low permeability, K=0.82 lm2), only
0.12 PV (pore volume of sand-pack No. 2) of produced
fluids was obtained. Apparently, most weak gel selec-
tively entered the high permeability sand-pack. Fig-
ure 11 shows the production performance curves of the
entire parallel sand-pack system at three production
stages. During the conventional water flooding, the
variation of the fluid production rate with the injected
PV was not appreciable. The initial oil production rate
was rather high but declined quickly. Meanwhile, the
water-cut increased up to 98.0% and then remained
essentially the same afterwards. The oil recovery rate at
the end of water flooding was 39.7%. During the in-
jection of the weak gel system, the fluid production rate
decreased to its lowest point, whereas the oil produc-
tion rate began to increase. Correspondingly, the
1052

Fig. 11 Production performance curves of the entire parallel sand- Fig. 12 Production performance curves of high permeability sand-
pack system pack

water-cut decreased from 98.0% to 75.0%. The oil

recovery rate at the end of this stage was 50.3%. In the
subsequent water flooding period, the fluid production
rate slowly increased. The oil production rate first re-
mained at a relatively high rate for a certain period and
then declined slightly. Correspondingly, the water-cut
first remained at 76.0% and then gradually reached
98.0% again. The ultimate oil recovery rate is 86.0%.
As a result, the injection of the weak gel system and the
subsequent water flooding have enhanced oil recovery
rates by 46.3%.
The production performance curves for the high
permeability and low permeability sand-packs at each
production stage are further depicted in Fig. 12 and
Fig. 13, respectively. The detailed production perfor-
mance data for these two sand-packs are compared in Fig. 13 Production performance curves of low permeability sand-
Table 2. During the conventional water flooding, as pack
shown in these two figures, the higher oil production rate
for sand-pack No. 1 was solely attributed to its high
permeability. The water-cut of sand-pack No. 1 quickly apparently increased. The increase in oil production
increased to 98.6% and the oil recovery rate was as high rate in the high permeability sand-pack is because some
as 71.2%. However, for low permeability sand-pack mobile weak gel kept moving forward and displaced
No. 2, only 8.2% of oil was recovered and no water the residual oil in the high permeability sand-pack. If
breakthrough occurred. Once a weak gel system was the weak gel system functioned as a blocking agent
applied, the water-cut decreased from 98.6% to 86.2% only, then no such an incremental oil could be recovered
in sand-pack No. 1 and its oil production rate was from the high permeability sand-pack. This again

Table 2 Production data at each development stage

Development stage High permeability sand-pack No. 1 Low permeability sand-pack No. 2

Q1 Qo1 fw1 Recovery Q2 Qo2 fw2 Recovery

(mL/min) (mL/min) (%) (%) (mL/min) (mL/min) (%) (%)

Conventional water flooding 1.60 0.75–0.03 0–98.6 71.2 0.02 0.02 0 8.2
Weak gel injection 1.47–0.92 0.03–0.18 98.6–86.2 82.8 0.02–0.18 0.02–0.18 0 21.0
Subsequent water flooding 1.18–0.28 0.18–0.01 88.8–98.0 92.8 0.18–1.22 0.33–0 0–97.9 82.8

experimentally verified the oil displacement function of
the weak gel system. Simultaneously, the residual oil in
the low permeability sand-pack was mobilized and an
abrupt increase in oil production rate can be seen in
Fig. 13. Nevertheless, there was still no water produced
in the low permeability sand-pack. It was speculated that
the injected weak gel had formed a certain blockage in
the high permeability sand-pack so that it modified the
injection profile and forced the injected fluid to flow
through the low permeability sand-pack. In the subse-
quent water flooding, the oil production rate in the high
permeability sand-pack declined as most oil was de-
pleted. On the contrary, the oil production rate in the
low permeability sand-pack still remained high until the
water-cut reached 97.9%. The ultimate oil recovery rate
of the low permeability sand-pack was up to 82.8%.
Obviously, the weak gel system remained effective not
only at the stage of weak gel injection but at the sub-
sequent water flooding stage as well. These facts confirm
that the weak gel system acts both as an in-depth profile
modification agent and as an oil displacement agent in a
heterogeneous formation.
EOR mechanisms of weak gel
The above-mentioned core-flood tests reveal some en-
hanced oil recovery mechanisms of the weak gel in
chemical EOR operation. When the polymer and cross-
linker solution is injected into a heterogeneous reservoir,
a weak gel is formed in situ. The weak gel system se-
lectively penetrates more into the high permeability
zones than it does into the low permeability zones. In the
subsequent water flooding or polymer flooding, with the
increase of injection pressure, the weak gel system can be
gradually pushed into a deeper formation. During this
process, weak gel is pushed or squeezed into fine parti-
cles through the porous formations. When these parti-
cles migrate to pore throats, some of them can squeeze,
deform and pass through the throats and then keep
moving forward, while the others are trapped at the pore
throats so that a blockage in the high permeability zones
is established. This blockage can plug the large channels
for water breakthrough and divert the subsequent water
flooding into those untouched low permeability zones.
Thus, successful application of the weak gel system im-
proves the injection profile and resolves the unbalanced
fluid distribution caused by the interlayer conflicts of a
heterogeneous reservoir. Accordingly, both the areal
sweep efficiency and the vertical sweep efficiency are
improved. On the other hand, when the weak gel mi-
grates slowly through the high permeability zones, it
pushes the oil droplets forward such that the accumu-
lated oil droplets form an oil bank at the displacing
front. Hence, the residual oil in the high permeability
zones can be displaced and recovered.
1053
Application
A pilot test has been conducted on Ng 63 layer of
Northwest of 7th Area in Gudong oil field in China since
1992. The oil-bearing area of the pilot test is 0.58 km2
with the payzone thickness of 5.5 m. The original oil in
place is 670 000 tons and the pore volume is
1 140 000 m3. There are a total of 14 wells in this pilot
test area, among which are 7 producers, 5 injectors, and
2 observation wells. The well distance between an in-
jector and a producer is in the range 150–300 m and the
well pattern is an irregular area well pattern.
Before September 1992, the pilot test area had been
water flooded for 5 years. The stage oil recovery rate was
15.2%. In addition, the oil production rate was 69.0 tons/
day and the production water-cut was 85.4%. The fluid
production rate was 470.0 tons/day and water injection
rate was 407 m3/day. The formation pressure was
11 MPa and reservoir temperature was 63 °C. The TDS
of the produced water was 5496 mg/L and the TDS of the
injected water was 5823 mg/L. By the end of June 1995, a
three-stage pilot test had been carried out and a total of
85 071 m3 polymer solution had been injected, which is
equivalent to 0.075 PV of the pilot test formation.
In comparison with the data prior to the pilot test, the
injection pressure and threshold pressure were apparently
increased. However, they did not affect injectivity ap-
preciably. The injected weak gel functioned as an in-depth
profile modification agent and thus the water injection
profile for each injector was significantly improved. The
original non-uniform injection profiles became uniform
after the pilot test. At the first stage of pilot test, the re-
sponding time of producers was 11 days. The production
water-cut was reduced from 85.4% to 80.9% by the end of
November 1992. Meanwhile, oil production rate was in-
creased from 69.0 tons/day to 114.0 tons/day. The effects
of the weak gel injection on the oil production rate and
water-cut lasted over 154 days. The cumulative incre-
mental oil production at this stage was 12 141.7 tons,
with the incremental oil production being 419 tons/ton of
polymer. At the second stage, the responding time of
producers was 19 days. The production water-cut was
reduced from 91.0% to 87.9% by the end of March 1994.
During this period, oil production rate was increased
from 46.0 tons/day to 89.0 tons/day. The influence of the
weak gel injection on the oil production rate and water-
cut remained for 193 days. The cumulative incremental
oil production at this stage was 9373.6 tons, with the in-
cremental oil production being 329 tons/ton of polymer.
At the third stage, the responding time of producers was
20 days. The production water-cut was reduced from
93.3% to 91.5% by the end of December 1994. Corre-
spondingly, oil production rate was increased from
42.0 tons/day to 62.0 tons/day. The effects of the weak
gel injection on the oil production rate and water-cut
remained pronounced over 185 days. The cumulative
1054

incremental oil production at this stage was 8917.1 tons,
with the incremental oil production being 65 tons/ton of
polymer. By the end of June 1995, the cumulative incre-
mental oil production was 30 432.4 tons and the oil re-
covery rate was enhanced by 4.5%. Specifically, the oil
production rate of well No. 7-25-5386 was 20.7 tons/day
and water-cut was 75.1% prior to the pilot test. During
the three-stage pilot test, its oil production rate was in-
creased by 43.5 tons/day, 7.3 tons/day and 5.3 tons/day,
respectively. Simultaneously, the water-cut was reduced
by 18.0%, 10.1% and 6.7%, respectively. A total of
11 296.0 tons of incremental oil was produced from this
single well. Pilot tests at different scales had been imple-
mented in Gudong and Gudao oil fields since then. By the
end of 2001, a total of 58 000 tons of cumulative incre-
mental oil had been recovered.
Conclusions
In this paper, the detailed experimental data for a novel
weak gel system consisting of polymer and cross-linker
are presented and discussed. The EOR mechanisms of
the weak gel system are analyzed. As a sought-after
chemical EOR technology in the past decade, the
weak gel injection has some distinct advantages over an
in-depth profile modification operation and a conven-
tional polymer flooding. In fact, as an in-depth profile
modification agent, this weak gel system can resolve the
problem of the permeability contrast in a heterogeneous
reservoir and improve the injection profile. Thus, it in-
creases the areal sweep efficiency and the vertical sweep
efficiency as well. On the other hand, due to its slow
movement in high permeability zones, this weak gel
system can be used as an oil displacement agent to im-
prove the water-oil mobility ratio and minimize viscous
fingering. Pilot tests in Shengli oil field starting from
September 1992 show that successful application of the
weak gel system can not only significantly increase the
oil production but also effectively reduce the water-cut.
By the end of 2001, the cumulative incremental oil re-
covery had been over 58 000 tons.
Acknowledgments This research project was funded by the Oil
Production Technology Research Institute (OPTRI) of Shengli
Petroleum Administrative Bureau in China. The authors want to
thank Mr. Ximing Li, Xihui Lu, Yanjun Guo, Xiaowei Zhang and
Shan Xu in OPTRI for their technical assistance in this research.
The authors also wish to acknowledge the Innovation Fund from
the Petroleum Technology Research Center (PTRC) at the Uni-
versity of Regina and the research grant from the Natural Sciences
and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada to Y. Gu.

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