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SPE 113396 Polymer Flooding in Saline Heavy Oil Environments
SPE 113396 Polymer Flooding in Saline Heavy Oil Environments
This paper was prepared for presentation at the 2008 SPE/DOE Improved Oil Recovery Symposium held in Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S.A., 19–23 April 2008.
This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper have not been
reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect any position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its
officers, or members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper without the written consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is prohibited. Permission to
reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of SPE copyright.
Abstract
Most previous commercial polymer flooding successes have used salt-sensitive synthetic polyacrylamides. Because of
viscosity loss when the polyacrylamide contacts high salinity brines, applicability of this conventional polymer flooding
process can be impaired in environments that lack a relatively fresh water resource. The problem is more serious with more
viscous oils, where the increased polymer requirement using high TDS water as injectant can make otherwise attractive
projects uneconomical. In this paper, we propose a new process for using either sea water or other high TDS brine, which
permits high viscosity to be reached, while at the same time reducing the amount of polymer required to achieve a given
flood performance. Adoption of the proposed process in a typical field application will reduce both capital and operating
costs, and will also mitigate the detrimental effects of saline formation water on polymer flood performance. Potential
polymer savings, process flow and polymer-mixing schemes, as well as flood performance improvements, associated with the
new process will be discussed. The new process can potentially extend polymer flooding to cost-challenged saline heavy oil
environments by turning difficult primary or waterflood projects into cost-effective polymer injection projects.
1. Introduction
Nearly two-thirds of original oil in place remains unrecovered in crude oil reservoirs even after the application of
conventional primary depletion and secondary waterflood technologies. This is mainly due to inefficient macroscopic
volumetric sweep efficiencies caused by the poor conformance control of waterfloods and low pore scale microscopic
displacement efficiencies resulting from the capillary trapping of oil, attributed mainly to various interfacial and surface
forces. Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes using chemicals are presently considered as one of the most important
technologies for improving the oil recovery from such reservoirs.
Chemical flooding processes involve the injection of polymer (P), alkaline-polymer (AP), surfactant-polymer (SP), and
alkaline-surfactant-polymer (ASP) into the subsurface reservoirs to recover the large amounts of unswept oil. All these
chemical EOR processes, especially the polymer injection processes, were widely used in the field until the mid 80’s, with
the crude oil prices fluctuating at around $30/bbl. However the sharp decline in oil prices since 1986 resulted in a spectacular
drop in the number of field projects as well as in chemical EOR oil production. This changing scenario of chemical EOR in
the United States is clearly depicted in Figures 1 and 2, where the number of chemical EOR projects and chemical EOR
production are plotted over years, respectively, for the past two decades. The published data on US EOR from Moritis (2006)
has been used for this comparison. As can be seen in Figures 1 and 2, both the number of chemical EOR projects and
production in the US have been gradually declining over the years to become almost extinct by the year 2002. The
distribution of chemical EOR projects among countries worldwide is shown in Figure 3 for the year 2004. From Figure 3, the
dominance of China in worldwide chemical EOR can be clearly seen with nearly 75% of total chemical EOR projects
reported in China.
The oil industry in the US is presently showing renewed interests in chemical EOR for application in several onshore and
offshore reservoirs due to the growing energy demand. The recent high oil prices of about $90/bbl also show a profitable
economic climate in favor of implementing chemical EOR field projects. Furthermore, there have been some heavy oil
offshore discoveries worldwide where oil production and recoverable reserves are limited by the crude oil viscosity.
Implementation of a suitable improved oil recovery process early in reservoir life is critical for economic development of
these reservoirs. Steam injection thermal EOR processes in offshore environments are restricted by high capital costs, and
extreme complexity of the subsurface process. Implementation of chemical injection EOR processes, especially polymer
injection, may be considered as one option to enhance the economic viability of these offshore heavy oil projects.
Advancements in polymer mixing and injection technology and experience gained from several of the past onshore field
2 SPE 113396
projects also favor the implementation of polymer injection processes in offshore environments.
to the desired concentration was carried out at mixing stations and then distributed to the injection wells through injection
lines. Based on this discussion, it can be concluded that polyacrymides have long been used in the oil industry with relatively
fresh injection water for both successful and economic field applications. This has resulted in the conventional wisdom that
polyacrylamide injection is likely to be noneconomic when seawater/other high TDS water is the only aqueous injectant
available, which therefore calls for development of newer processes/technologies to extend the use of polyacrylamides to
difficult environments that lack fresh water resource.
Hence, in this paper, we propose a new process for treatment of either sea water or other high TDS brine, which permits
high viscosity to be reached with conventional polyacrylamides, while at the same time reducing the amount of polymer
required to achieve a given flood performance. This new process is called the “designer water process” and it uses
nanofiltration and reverse osmosis membranes to alter seawater chemistry for providing a water of lower salinity or lower
hardness or both for polymer flooding. Adoption of the proposed process in a typical field application thereby can reduce
both capital and operating costs due to reduced polymer requirements. This designer water process has possible applicability
in other improved oil recovery processes, such as alkaline-surfactant-polymer (ASP) flooding and thermal floods (boiler feed
water for steam).
In addition to the polymer, a preservation package designated as ITW (isopropyl alcohol and thiourea in water) may be
added to mitigate degradation of the polymer due to oxygen and other ions such as iron. Efforts are under way to minimize
the ITW package as it requires significant weight and space and can increase the operating costs considerably.
The low TDS water obtained from designer water process can also be used in other EOR methods: ASP (alkaline-
surfactant-polymer) floods, and thermal floods. For ASP floods, the low salinity water not only reduces the amount of
required polymer, but also reduces the amount of alkaline agent required as adverse reactions with hardness are eliminated. In
thermal floods, the low hardness water can be used as boiler feed water.
The efficiency data, again normalized to seawater = 1, is in Table 5. In this case, there is little benefit to only performing
nanofiltration, but adding the reverse osmosis step doubles the efficiency of polymer usage. Note that in this example the
polymer concentration is always 1000 ppm. Note also that the relative gains from the designer water are less as compared to a
seawater-based flood than they were in the ideal first example. This reflects the greater difficulty of conditioning the reservoir
to an appropriate salinity with all of the 'real world' problems turned on. Nevertheless, all simulations we have run to date
suggest a significant advantage for fluids based on the full designer water approach.
Acknowledgements
We sincerely thank Shell International Exploration and Production Inc. for providing us permission to publish this paper and
we also acknowledge several of our collegues for their kind cooperation during this project.
References
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Chang, H.L., Zhang, Z.Q., Wang, Q.M., Xu, Z.S., Guo, Z.D., Sun, H.Q., Cao, X.L. and Qiao, Q. 2006. Advances in Polymer Flooding and
Alkaline/Surfactant/Polymer Processes as Developed and Applied in the People’s Republic of China. JPT (Feb.) 84-89.
Christopher, C.A., Clark, T.J. and Gibson, D.H. 1988. Performance and Operation of a Successful Polymer Flood in the Sleepy Hollow
Reagan Unit. SPE Paper No. 17395.
de Melo, M.A., de Holleben, C.R.C., da Silva, I.P.G., de Barros Correia, A., da Silva, G.A., Rosa, A.J., Lins, A.G., and de Lima, J.C. 2005.
Evaluation of Polymer Injection Projects in Brazil. SPE Paper No. 94898.
Demin, W., Jingcun, Z., Fanru, M., Heng, L., Lin, L., Bohui, H. and Lianqing, Q. 1995. Commercial Test of Polymer Flooding in Daqing
Oil Field. SPE Paper No. 29902.
Du, Y. and Guan, L. 2004. Field-Scale Polymer Flooding: Lessons Learnt and Experiences Gained During Past 40 Years. SPE Paper No.
91787.
Fulin, Y., Demin, W., Xizhi, Y., Xinguang, S., Qinghai, C. and Lei, Z. 2004. High Concentration Polymer Flooding is Successful. SPE
Paper No. 88454.
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(9) 49-53.
Groeneveld, H., George, R.A. and Melrose, J.C. 1977. Pembina Field Polymer Pilot Flood. JPT (May) 561-570.
Jewett, R.L. and Schurz, G.F. 1970. Polymer Flooding-A Current Appraisal. JPT (June) 675-684.
Koning, E.J.L., Mentzer, E. and Heemskerk, J. 1988. Evaluation of a Pilot Polymer Flood in the Marmul Field, Oman. SPE Paper No.
18092.
Krebs, H.J. 1976. Wilmington Field, California, Polymer Flood - A Case History. JPT (Dec.) 1473-1480.
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of Common Polymer on Field Test with 20% Closed to the Result of Laboratory Test in Daqing. SPE Paper No. 108684.
Maitin, B.K. and Volz, H. 1981. Performance of Deutsche Texaco AG’s Oerrel and Hankensbuettel Polymer Floods. SPE Paper No. 9794.
Moritis, G. 2006. CO2 Injection Gains Momentum. Oil and Gas J. 104 (15) 37-57.
Needham, R.B. and Doe, P.H. 1987. Polymer Flooding Review. JPT (Dec.) 1503-1507.
Putz, A.G., Bazin, B. and Pedron, B.M. 1994. Commercial Polymer Injection in the Courtenay Field, 1994 Update. SPE Paper No. 28601.
REVEAL, Petroleum Experts Inc, Edinburgh, UK, 2007.
Taber, J.J., Martin, F.D. and Seright, R.S. 1997. EOR Screening Criteria Revisited-Part 2: Applications and Impact of Oil Prices. SPEREE
(Aug.) 199-205.
Tielong, C., Zhengyu, S., Fan, Y., Changzhong, H., Ling, Q. and Jinxing, T. 1998. A Pilot Test of Polymer Flooding in an Elevated-
Temperature Reservoir. SPEREE (Feb.) 24-29.
Tinker, G.E., Shannon, M.T., Kilgore, T.L., Baxter, D.D., Bates, T., Miron, R.L., Zemel, B., Huston, C.K., Schultz, V.N. and Pride, H.M.
1981. Coalinga Polymer Demonstration Project. Final Report DOE/SAN/1556-5 (Dec.).
6 SPE 113396
Wankui, G., Jiecheng, C., Yuming, Y., Chuanhong, L., Wenxue, L., Qun, L., Junde, L. and Junzheng, W. 2000. Commercial Pilot Test of
Polymer Flooding in Daqing Oil Filed. SPE Paper No. 59275.
Wilmington USA sandstone > 1,000 135 30.8 - 29,000 polyacrylamide 250 0.230 - Krebs, 1976
Pembina Canada sandstone 25 125 1.0 12000 250-300 polyacrylamide 1000 0.040 - Groeneveld et al., 1977
Marmul * Oman sandstone 15,000 115 80.0 3000 600 polyacrylamide 1000 0.630 25-35 Konig et al., 1988
Oerrel ** Germany sandstone 2,000 136 19.0 167000 fresh polyacrylamide 1500 0.120 23.0 Maitin and Volz, 1981
Chateaurenard France sandstone 2,000 86 40.0 400 400 polyacrylamide 1000 0.400 12.5 Putz et al., 1994
East Coalinga *** USA sandstone 50-480 100 25.0 1000-9000 770 xanthan gum 400 0.264 - Tinker et al., 1981
Sleepy Hollow Regan USA sandstone 2,580 100 21.0 32054 718 polyacrylamide 750 0.480 8.0 Christopher et al., 1988
Shuanghe China sandstone 420 167 7.8 5060 362.5 polyacrylamide 900 0.154 9.8 Tielong et al., 1998
∗ secondary; ∗∗ essentially secondary, but initiated at a water cut of 80% in water flood; ∗∗∗ secondary, but a failure; - not available
Note: incremental oil recoveries are not reported for projects that are failures
SPE 113396 7
Table 3: Summary of Water Treatement and Polymer Mixing Operations for the Field Projects
Water Pre-treatment Salinity Polymer Mixing
Project Water Source
(ppm)
Process O2 scavenger Other Additives Polymer Form Mixing Mode Mixing Location
Table 4: Summary of Polymer Usage Efficiency obtained for Various Makeup Waters
from the Simplistic First Simulation Example
Polymer
Brine Type Normalized Efficiency
(ppm)
Polymer
Brine Type Normalized Efficiency
(ppm)
250 25,000
150 15,000
100 10,000
50 5,000
0 0
86
88
90
92
94
96
98
00
02
04
06
06
92
94
96
98
00
02
04
86
88
90
19
19
19
19
19
19
19
20
20
20
20
19
19
20
20
20
20
19
19
19
19
19
Year Year
Figure 1: Chemical EOR Projects in the US Figure 2: Chemical EOR Production in the US
China
France
India
Indonesia
Venuzula
300
NaCl
250
CaCl2
MgCl2
200
Viscosity (cP)
150
100
50
0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
TDS (ppm)
-1 o
Figure 4: Effect of Salts on 1500 ppm HPAM Polymer Solution Viscosity (10 sec and 105 F)
Element ppm
Mg < 50
Ca < 25
Seawater Nanofilter Na < 9000
SO4 < 10 Element ppm
Element ppm TDS 23000 Mg <1
Mg 1300
Ca <1
Ca 420
Reverse Osmosis Na <150
Na 10800
SO4 <1
SO4 2700
TDS 350
TDS 35000
RO Product
Designer Water
Figure 5: Summary of Feed and Product Water Qualities from Designer Water Process
10 SPE 113396
160
Seawater
140
Designer Water
100
-1
80
60
40
Significant reduction in polymer quantity
20 required to achieve the desired viscosity
0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
Polymer (ppm)
O
Figure 6: Effect of Removing Salts from Seawater on Viscosity of HPAM Polymer Solution at 100 F
O2
Scavenger
Biocide
Injection ITW
Mother
Solution
Hypochlorite
Polymer
230,000 BPD
100,000 BPD
Figure 7: Simplified Schematic of Designer Water Makeup and Polymer Mixing Process
SPE 113396 11
NF + RO
1000
NF Only
10
Formation Brine
1
1 10 100 1000 10000
Figure 8: Dependence of 1500 ppm HPAM Viscosity on Divalent Ion Content of Makeup Water
100
80
Oil Recovery (% STOIIP)
60
40
20
0
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0
PV Water Injected
1 cp oil 100 cp oil
100cp Form ation Water 100cp Sea Water
100cp NanoFiltered Water 100cp Full Designer Water
Figure 9: Recovery Factor vs. PV Injected for Waterfloods and Comparison Polymerfloods
Designed for 100 cP Initial Viscosity