Petroleum Research 8 (2023) 151e166

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Petroleum Research
journal homepage: http://www.keaipublishing.com/en/journals/
petroleum-research/

The ternary combination of polymer gel, microsphere and surfactant

for conformance control and oil displacement to improve oil recovery
in strong heterogeneous reservoir
Siqi Liu a, Hu Jia a, *, Hongshen Wang b, Yanbin Liang c, Duansheng Shi b, Zhichong Lu a,
Junyi Wu a
a
State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, China
b
CNOOC Energy Technology & Services Limited, Engineering Technology Branch, Tianjin, China
c
Oil Production Technology Institute of PetroChina Dagang Oilfield Company, Tianjin, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The reservoir heterogeneity of Suizhong 36-1 oilfield is very obvious, the average permeability reaches
Received 2 March 2022 2000mD. Long-term water injection development leads to serious water channeling in high permeability
Received in revised form layers, resulting in ineffective circulation of injected water and reduction of oil recovery. It is urgent to
10 April 2022
form an effective EOR method. In this paper, the oil displacement effect of different combination slugs
Accepted 11 April 2022
Available online 16 April 2022
including polymer gel, polymer microsphere and surfactant is evaluated by means of conformance
control and chemical flooding. Three-layer heterogeneous 3-D plate model is used for oil displacement
experiment. The experimental results show that the combination slug sequentially composed of polymer
Keywords:
Heterogeneity reservoir
gel, polymer microspheres and surfactant have the best oil displacement effect with the oil recovery
EOR increment by 21.2% after the first water flooding. In addition, using the best slug combination for two
Polymer gel rounds flooding, the recovery factor increased by 28.2% compared with the first water flooding. This
Microsphere paper provides some new insights for enhanced oil recovery in strong heterogeneity reservoir.
Surfactant © 2022 The Authors. Publishing services provided by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communication Co.
Combined slug Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction displacement technologies. In recent years, cross-linked polymer

The Suizhong 36-1 oilfield is located in the southern part of the
Liaodong Bay, Bohai Sea, China. In the process of water injection
development, serious heterogeneity and high average permeability
of the reservoir lead to serious water inrush (Cao et al., 2020). The
average current water cut of the oilfield has reached 83.47%, and the
whole field has entered the middle and high water cut period (Li
et al., 2020). Therefore, effective oil stabilization and water con-
trol technology is urgently needed to restrain the rise of water cut
and improve the development effect (Wu et al., 2016). According to
the statistics of measures over the years, conformance control and
or oil displacement technology has become an effective method to
stabilize oil and control water in Bohai oilfield (Liu et al., 2019).
A large number of petroleum scientists have carried out a lot of
laboratory studies and field tests on conformance control and oil
gels have been widely used for conformance control because of
their low cost and controllable gel-forming time and strength
(Frampton et al., 2004; Goudarzi et al., 2015). Bai et al. (2015)
designed and successfully applied new polymer gels to reduce
reservoir heterogeneity, thereby reducing excess water production.
Zhao et al. (2015) reported the phenol-formaldehyde crosslinking
nonionic polyacrylamide (NPAM) gel for deep conformance control.
By adjusting the concentration of NPAM or crosslinkers, the gel
with different crosslinking time and different strength can be ob-
tained. Zhang et al. (2017) developed a novel high-strength gel to be
used in low-temperature, high-salinity, low-permeability and
fractured reservoir. It has a plugging rate of more than 99%,
achieving good mobility control, and improved oil recovery by
19.27% over water flooding. Brattekås et al. (2013) indicated that
the fracture conductivity was significantly reduced after polymer

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: jiahuswpu@swpu.edu.cn (H. Jia).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ptlrs.2022.04.002
2096-2495/© 2022 The Authors. Publishing services provided by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communication Co. Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND
license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
S. Liu, H. Jia, H. Wang et al. Petroleum Research 8 (2023) 151e166

gel placement in the fractured core, resulting in sweep efficiency 2. Experimental studies
increasing during chase fluid injections, with oil recovery up to 60%.
In addition, microspheres are also widely used for conformance 2.1. Materials
control. Lei et al. (2011) developed microspheres (5e30 mm) using
acrylamide monomers cross-linked with an organic crosslinker to For the preparation of the polymer gel in this paper, a polymer,
improve sweep efficiency during water flooding. Zou et al. (2018) crosslinkers and coagulant are applied. Then, for more detailed
studied various properties of divinylbenzene-co-acrylamide (DCA) research, materials used are listed as in Table 1.
microspheres. DCA microsphere can self-assemble in the core into All the percentage content mentioned in this study is weight
microspheric clusters used for conformance control, resulted in percent.
subsequent water flooding pressure increase of tenfold and oil re-
covery enhancement of 9.53%. Zhou et al. (2014) indicated that 2.2. Rheological measurements
during microspheres flooding stage, they can displace some
remaining oil and plugging some pore throats. Thus, force subse- Four gel systems with different polymer concentrations were
quent injected water to change its direction and increase the sweep prepared in the rheological test of polymer gels. The test polymer
efficiency. gel formulations in this study are summarized in Table 2.
Although polymer gels and polymer microspheres are widely Firstly, preparing the polymer gel system according to Table 2,
used for conformance control in heterogeneous reservoirs. How- then put it in a oven at constant temperature 65
C and observe the
ever, using a single chemical agent for conformance control is the gel formation by Sydansk gel code method (Sydansk and
mainly strategy. In recent years, the combined slug is aroused great Argabright, 1987). Next, the rheological properties of the polymer
attention for conformance control and chemical flooding in het- gel were measured by the HAAKE RS600 Rotational Rheometer. The
erogeneous reservoirs. The experimental results show that the measure sensor is a plate to plate structure with a gap of 1 mm.
combined slug has more advantages than the single slug. Shi et al. Each measured sample was about 2.5 ml, which could just entirely
(2021) developed a liquid-solid coexistence combined system with cover the sensor plate during the measuring process (Jia et al.,
weak gel, polymer viscoelastic particles and emulsion polymer 2019). Shear frequency range from 0.01 Hz to 50 Hz. All the tests
which aimed at the reservoir conditions of B oilfield in Bohai Bay. were conducted at 25
C.
The experimental results show that the combined system has good
flooding efficiency, compared with water flooding, the recovery 2.3. Transition pressure test
factor increased by 22.2%. Gong et al. (2017) investigated Branched-
preformed particle gel (B-PPG)/HPAM/surfactant mixed solutions According to the transition pressure test method proposed by
to further enhance oil recovery after polymer flooding in parallel Smith (1989), this paper defined the TGU parameter of polymer
sand pack models. The experimental results showed B-PPG/HPAM/ microspheres by measuring the time of 25 g polymer microspheres
surfactant mixed solutions have strong abilities to adjust fractional flowing through the sieve under constant pressure and comparing
flow and enhance oil recovery. The presence of a surfactant can the flow rates of base polymer solution and polymer microspheres.
improve displacement efficiency, while B-PPG and HPAM could The schematic diagram of the experimental device is shown in
enhance sweep efficiency. Fig. 1.
In this paper, the oil displacement efficiency of a single chemical
agent including polymer gel, microsphere and surfactant was firstly Qp
evaluated by parallel sand pack. And then, the composite slugs with TGU ¼ (1)
Qg
different sizes and combinations were designed. The oil displace-
ment efficiency of different combination slugs was evaluated Qp: Flow rate of polymer base fluid, g/s.
through three-dimensional plate flooding experiment. By Qg: Flow rate of polymer microspheres, g/s.
comparing the oil displacement efficiency of single chemical agent In this paper, the concentration of base polymer fluid and
and different combination slugs, the oil displacement mechanism polymer microspheres are 2500 ppm, using 5 layers of 540 mesh
of combination slug can be more clearly clarified. The organization
Table 2
of this paper follows into, section 1 introduces the materials and
Employed gel formulations.
experimental methods. In section 2, we evaluate the main prop-
erties of polymer gels and microspheres. Section 3 conduct parallel Systems Concentration
sand pack flooding experiments. In the last section, we use a three- Polymer Resorcinol Phenol-formaldehyde Ammonium
dimensional plate model to evaluate the oil displacement mecha- (ppm) (ppm) crosslinker (ppm) chloride (ppm)
nism of different slug combinations. To achieve above objectives, 1 3000 200 6000 1000
Brookfield DV-III viscometer, sand pack model, plate model, con- 2 4000 200 6000 1000
stant temperature oven, HAAKE RS600 Rotational Rheometer, 3 5000 200 6000 1000
4 6000 200 6000 1000
Multi-functional core displacement device were employed.

Table 1
Chemicals applied in this paper.

Compound Description Manufacturer

4
Polymer Relative molecular weight is 800  10 , degree of hydrolysis is 25e30% Aisen Flocculant Co., LTD, China
Resorcinol Effective content greater than 99% Chengdu Kelon Co., LTD, China
Phenol-formaldehyde Effective content >20% Tianjin Runge Auxiliary Technology Co., LTD, China
Ammonium chloride Effective content greater than 99% Chengdu Kelon Co., LTD, China
Polymer microspheres Initial particle size is 4.79 mm, volume expansion 20e30 times after aging for 6 days Tianjin Runge Auxiliary Technology Co., LTD, China
Surfactant Interfacial tension between surfactant and simulated formation crude oil is 9.0  103mN/m Tianjin Runge Auxiliary Technology Co., LTD, China
Crude oil The viscosity under viscosity at 65
C is 80 mPa s Suizhong 36-1 oilfield
Injection water The total salinity is 450 mg/L Suizhong 36-1 oilfield
Formation water The total salinity is 7900 mg/L Suizhong 36-1 oilfield

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S. Liu, H. Jia, H. Wang et al.
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of transition pressure device.
metal sieve as filter to simulate porous media. By measuring the
flow rate and TGU value under different pressure, the relationship
curves of pressure vs. flow rate and TGU are drawn respectively.
There is only one intersection point between the two curves, and
the pressure at the intersection point is the transition pressure of
polymer microspheres.
2.4. Sand pack flooding
(1) Polymer gel treatment
In this section, the polymer concentration was optimized
through the single sand pack to obtain the optimal gel formulation.
A sand pack of 2.5 cm in diameter and 40 cm in length is com-
pressed with 80 mesh of quartz sand at a pressure of 12 MPa. Firstly,
the formation water of Suizhong 36-1 oilfield is injected to saturate
the sand pack at a rate of 1 ml/min, then calculate the porosity of F
and the water permeability Kw. Secondly, the gel system in Table 2
was injected into the sand pack until 0.30 pore volume (PV) at the
same rate of 1 ml/min. Recording the pressure during injection and
calculate the resistance coefficient (Fr) of different gel systems.
Then, the sand pack with gel system was aged at 65
C. In addition,
the same gel system was put into transparent bottle and aged in the
same environment, as a reference for monitoring gelation in sand
pack. Lastly, when the reference sample reached the final strength,
Suizhong 36-1 formation water was used to carry out water
flooding at 1 ml/min. The pressure difference between the two ends
of the sand pack was recorded when the first drop of liquid flows
from the outlet end of the sand pack, which is the breakthrough
pressure (Pb) of the gel. Then, continue flooding 20 PV formation
water at the same rate, calculate the residual resistance coefficient
(Frr) and plugging rate (h). Below equations are used for calculating
these parameters.
lW DPPG QW
Fr ¼ ¼ , (2)
lPG DPW QPG
lW: Mobility of injected water passing through sand pack, D/
(mPa$s).
lPG: Mobility of polymer gel solution passing through sand pack,
D/(mPa$s).
DPW: Pressure difference of injected water passing through sand
pack, MPa.
DPPG: Pressure difference of polymer gel system passing through
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Petroleum Research 8 (2023) 151e166
sand pack, MPa.
QW: Volumetric-flow rate of injected water passing through
sand pack, cm3/min.
QPG: Volumetric-flow rate of polymer gel system passing
through sand pack, cm3/min.
lwb DPwa Qwb
Frr ¼ ¼ , (3)
lwa DPWwb Qwa
lwb: Mobility of injected water passing through sand pack before
injecting polymer gel system, D/(mPa$s).
lwa: Mobility of injected water passing through sand pack after
injecting polymer gel system, D/(mPa$s).
DPwb: Pressure difference of injected water passing through
sand pack before injecting polymer gel system, MPa.
DPwa: Pressure difference of polymer gel solution passing
through sand pack after injecting polymer gel system, MPa.
Qwb: Volumetric-flow rate of injected water passing through
sand pack before injecting polymer gel system, cm3/min.
Qwa: Volumetric-flow rate of polymer gel passing through sand
pack after injecting polymer gel system, cm3/min.
h ¼ ð1  kb = ka Þ  100% (4)
ka: The water permeability of sand pack after polymer gel
plugging, mD.
kb: The water permeability of sand pack before polymer gel
plugging, mD.
(2) Polymer microsphere treatment
Two sand packs with a diameter of 2.5 cm and a length of 60 cm
are used as parallel sand pack. Low permeability sand pack is
compressed by 120 mesh quartz sand at 12 MPa pressure, and high
permeability sand pack is compressed by 60 mesh quartz sand at
10 MPa pressure.
Using the same method in section (1) to saturate the formation
water in high permeability and low permeability sand packs
respectively. And then, inject crude oil in high permeability and low
permeability sand pack respectively to establish initial oil satura-
tion. Then, firstly water flooding is carried out at a rate of 1 ml/min.
When the water cut exceeds 90%, water flooding is stopped and
0.30 PV polymer microsphere solution is injected at the same rate,
and then the system is aged at 65
C for 6 days. Lastly, secondly
water flooding was carried out at the same rate until the water cut
S. Liu, H. Jia, H. Wang et al. Petroleum Research 8 (2023) 151e166

was greater than 90%. The variation of oil recovery and water cut
from low permeability and high permeability sand packs vs. in-
jection volume is periodically recorded.

(3) Surfactant treatment

Parallel sand pack is also used, and the production process is the
same as section (2). After the first water flooding, the surfactant
solution of 0.30 PV is injected and the system is also aged at 65
C
for 6 days. Then, secondary water flooding is carried out at a rate of
1 ml/min until the water cut exceeds 90%. Likewise, periodically
record the variation of oil recovery and water cut from low
permeability and high permeability sand packs vs. injection
volume.

2.5. 3-D plate model flooding

As shown in Fig. 2, a three-dimensional plate model of 30 cm in

length, 30 cm in width, and 4.5 cm in height is employed, with a
pattern of one injection well and three production wells, and five
pressure taps were designed. Fig. 2. 3-D plate model.
The plate model was averagely divided into low permeability,
medium permeability and high permeability zone, respectively by
compressing 40 mesh, 80 mesh and 120 mesh quartz sands. The Table 3
permeability of high, medium and low permeability layers is Slug combination and slug size of different scheme design.

around 4000, 2000 and 1000mD respectively. Then, water and oil Experimental Slug Composition
are respectively injected into the plate model to establish initial oil design No.
saturation by the same method as previously stated. Lastly, we 1 0.30 PV polymer microsphere
study on the oil displacement effect of different combination slugs 2 0.05 PV polymer gel and 0.25 PV polymer microsphere
as designed in the following. 3 0.05PV polymer gel,0.20PV polymer microsphere and
0.05PV surfactant
4 0.05PV polymer gel,0.20PV polymer microsphere and
(1) Slug combination scheme 1 0.05PV surfactant

Slug combination scheme 1 is composed of polymer micro-

sphere only. When the first water flooding to the water cut over
3. Results and discussion
80%, the slug was injected. After aging at 65
C for 6 days, secondary
water flooding was carried out. Meanwhile, monitor the change of
3.1. Rheological analysis of polymer gel
pressure at the injection end and each pressure tap vs. injection
volume.
According to Sydansk gel code method, the final gel-forming
time of the polymer gel was 6 days, and the final gel strength
(2) Slug combination scheme 2
could reach E code. However, the Sydansk gel code method only can
qualitatively describe the gel strength, while the storage modulus
Slug combination scheme 2 was consisted of polymer gel and
of the polymer gel can be used to quantitatively describe the gel
polymer microspheres. The oil displacement experiment process is
strength(Laurent et al., 1980). Therefore, in the rheological analysis
same as section (1). In this step, polymer microspheres were
of this paper, we focus on testing and analyzing the storage
injected followed by the polymer gel.
modulus of the polymer gel after reaching the final gel strength. It
shows that under the shear frequency of 0.01e15.8 Hz, the storage
(3) Slug combination scheme 3
modulus of gels with different polymer concentrations increased
vs. shear frequency as shown in Fig. 3. At the same shear frequency,
Slug combination scheme 3 is formulated with polymer gel,
the greater the polymer concentration is, the greater the storage
polymer microspheres and surfactant. Similarly, the oil displace-
modulus will be. This is because when other variables remain un-
ment experiment process is same as section (1). In the step, the
changed, the increase of polymer concentration leads to a fast
injection sequence of the combined slug is polymer gel, followed by
growth of crosslinking sites and the formation of three-
microspheres, and surfactant as the last slug.
dimensional network structure (Vasquez et al., 2005). At the
shear frequency of 15.8 Hz, the storage modulus of the polymer gel
(4) Slug combination scheme 4
is in the range of 10e50 Pa.

Slug combination scheme 4 is same as section (3). After secondly

water flooding, the same combination slug was injected again, and
the third water flooding was performed after aging at 65
C. The
other experimental steps are same as section 1.
The slug combination and slug size of four schemes are shown in
Table 3.
3.2. Transition pressure analysis of polymer microspheres
Fig. 4 presents that the initial transition pressure of the polymer
microspheres is 38.50 kPa, and the transition pressure increases
with the increase of aging time. It shows that the ability of polymer

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Table 4
Basic parameters of sand pack.

Sand pack No. Polymer concentration (ppm) F (%) Vb (cm3) Kw (mD)

1 40 33.01 64.8 2064.3

2 40 36.52 71.7 2118.7
3 40 33.77 66.3 2091.5
4 40 37.64 73.9 2050.8

microspheres to block porous media is enhanced after expansion.

After 6 days aging, the transition pressure reached 42.75 kPa,
indicating that the polymer microspheres with favourable flow
ability.

3.3. Oil displacement efficiency for different chemicals in sand pack

3.3.1. Optimization of polymer concentration for the gel system

Fig. 3. Change curve of gel storage modulus with different polymer concentration.
The basic parameters of different sand packs are shown in
Table 4. In the single sand pack flooding of polymer gel, this paper
mainly studies the injectivity, strength and washing-out resistance
of the polymer gel. It shows that with the increase of polymer
concentration, the water resistance coefficient also rises

Fig. 4. Transition pressure of microspheres at different expansion times.

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Table 5 rapidly, which is due to water breaking through the polymer gel.
Sand pack water flooding data. Meanwhile, the polymer concentration shows little effect on the
Sand pack No. Fr Pb (MPa) PL (MPa/m) h (%) plugging rate and residual resistance coefficient in the subsequent
1 46.2 0.54 1.35 98.17
water flooding. After 20 PV water flooding, the plugging rate was
2 64.1 0.86 2.15 98.67 still higher than 78%, and the residual resistance coefficient is
3 105.7 0.92 2.30 98.87 greater than 4.5, indicating that the polymer gel has good washing-
4 141.1 0.96 2.40 98.97 out resistance. Based on the analysis of injectivity, strength and
washing-out resistance of polymer gel in sand pack, the gel
formulation with polymer concentration of 4000 ppm was selected
consistently in Table 5. In porous medium with similar perme- for subsequent plate model flooding.
ability, the resistance during polymer injection is mainly deter-
mined by the initial viscosity of the polymer (Du et al., 2019).
3.3.2. Polymer microspheres flooding performance
Overall, when the polymer concentration is over 4000 ppm, the
Polymer microspheres can plug the porous medium due to the
resistance coefficient is greater than 100, indicating the poor
pore size matching rule, so they can be adsorbed, accumulated and
injectivity.
bridged in the pore-throat to act as plugging agent (Smith et al.,
The strength of the polymer gel in a sand pack can be evaluated
2000; Hua et al., 2013). During sand pack flooding, polymer mi-
by the breakthrough pressure and plugging rate (Singh et al., 2018).
crospheres will be deformed, when the pressure is greater than the
And polymer concentration is the main factor affecting gel strength,
transition pressure, it penetrates deep into the reservoir (Feng et al.,
Table 5 shows the breakthrough pressure and plugging rate are
2003). Meanwhile these microspheres would drive crude oil
proportional to polymer concentration. In general, the plugging
through the pores-throats while they are transported in porous
rate of polymer gel after gelling in sand pack can reach 98%, which
media, achieving deep conformance control and oil displacement
means good plugging ability. The breakthrough pressure gradient
with the ultimate purpose of enhanced oil recovery (Chauveteau
of the polymer gel was the lowest of 1.35 MPa/m for the polymer
et al., 2001).
concentration of 3000 ppm, and rapidly increased from 2.15 to
Table 6 and Fig. 6 indicated that oil is mainly recovered from the
2.40 MPa/m with increasing polymer concentration from 4000 to
high permeability sand pack. Compared with the first water
6000 ppm. It can be seen from Fig. 5, after 0.5 PV water flooding, the
flooding, the oil recovery increased by 9.48%. On the other hand,
plugging rate and residual resistance coefficient are declined
judging from Table 7 and Fig. 7, the water cut did not significantly

Fig. 5. Change curve of plugging rate and residual resistance factor during water flooding.

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Table 6
Oil recovery at different water flooding stages (Injecting 0.3 PV Polymer
Microspheres).

Sand pack Kw So Oil Recovery（%）

（mD） （%）
Firstly Water Injecting Polymer Secondly
Flooding Microsphere Water
Flooding

Low 1000 82.12 7.67 9.43 13.33

permeability
High 3000 83.67 33.80 34.26 44.63
permeability
Total 24.91 26.02 34.39

Fig. 7. Dynamic curves of water cut vs. injection volume during water flooding
(Injecting 0.3 PV Polymer Microspheres).

Table 8
Oil recovery at different water flooding stages (Injecting 0.3 PV Surfactant).

Sand pack Kw（mD） So Oil Recovery（%）

（%）
Firstly Water Injecting Secondly Water
Flooding Surfactant Flooding

Low 1000 82.12 9.81 10.82 19.37

permeability
High 3000 83.67 39.63 42.96 56.67
permeability
Total 26.99 29.33 40.85

Fig. 6. Dynamic curves of recovery factor vs. injection volume during water flooding
(Injecting 0.3 PV Polymer Microspheres).

Table 7
Water-cut at different water flooding stages (Injecting 0.3 PV Polymer
Microspheres).

Sand pack Kw So Water-cut（%）

（mD） （%）
Firstly Water Injecting Polymer Secondly
Flooding Microsphere Water
Flooding

Low 1000 82.12 51.59 52.53 72.54

permeability
High 3000 83.67 94.07 94.19 95.46
permeability
Total 93.22 93.18 94.66

decrease after the injection of polymer microspheres. This suggests

that the use of polymer microspheres only for conformance control
is limited for the strong heterogeneous reservoir.

3.3.3. Surfactant flooding performance

Fig. 8. Dynamic curves of recovery factor vs. injection volume during water flooding
Through Table 8 and Fig. 8, as for oil displacement efficiency of
(Injecting 0.3 PV Surfactant).
high and low permeability sand pack, most of the crude oil in high
permeability sand pack was displaced, while there was still a large
amount of crude oil left in low permeability sand pack, the oil re-
data that the injected water in high permeability sand pack has
covery increased by 9.48% compared with the first water flooding.
promoted advantage channels, through which most of the injected
Through Table 9 and Fig. 9, when the water cut was as high as
water flows, and only a little flowing into the low permeability sand
94.81% in high permeability sand pack, it was only 67.50% in low
pack. Under this circumstance, the swept area of injected water in
permeability sand pack. It was not difficult to infer from the above
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Table 9
Water-cut at different water flooding stages (Injecting 0.3 PV Surfactant).

Sand pack Kw So Oil Recovery（%）

（mD） （%）
First Water Injecting Second Water
Flooding Surfactant Flooding

Low 1000 82.12 57.84 58.45 67.50

permeability
High 3000 83.67 93.67 93.48 94.81
permeability
Total 92.71 92.49 93.74

Fig. 11. Dynamic curves of oil recovery vs. injection volume in each well (Slug com-
bination scheme 1).

Fig. 9. Dynamic curves of water cut vs. injection volume during water flooding
(Injecting 0.3 PV Surfactant).

Fig. 12. Dynamic curves of water cut vs. injection volume in each well (Slug combi-
nation scheme 1).

3.4. Plate model flooding performance for different scenarios

3.4.1. Slug combination scheme 1

(1) Displacement efficiency

Fig. 10 shows the remaining oil distribution in the plate model

after a single polymer microsphere slug displacement experiment.
Obviously, most oil in the high permeability layer and part of me-
dium permeability layer (zone I and zone II) was displaced after the
secondary water flooding, while there was a large amount of un-
Fig. 10. The distribution of remained oil after water flooding (Slug combination tapped oil in the low permeability layer and part of medium
scheme 1).
permeability layer(zone III and zone IV). These areas marked by red
arrows represent different oil displacement efficiency.
low permeability sand pack was very limited, and the oil Fig. 11 shows that the production well 1 contributed the most oil
displacement efficiency was very low (Pei et al., 2012; Chen and recovery, with the majority of the oil recovered from production
Zhao, 2015). well 1, and limited oil recovered from production wells 2 and 3.
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Fig. 13. Pressure curves of different positions during water flooding (Slug combination scheme 1).

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Using single microsphere slug for flooding, the oil recovery incre- polymer gel and microspheres for conformance control and oil
ment is 15.6% after first water flooding at water cut over 90%. The displacement, the recovery factor is increased by 16.5% compared
water cut of production well 2 decreased most significantly, from with the first water flooding as shown in Fig. 15, which is higher
76.9% to 66.4% after injected polymer microsphere slug (see Fig. 12). than the single microsphere slug of 15.6%. Fig. 16 shows that the
water cut of production well 1 and production well 3 perform a
(2) Pressure monitoring significant decline, indicating that the combined slug can effec-
tively plug the water channel in the high permeability layer.
Fig. 13 (a) shows that the injection pressure was always less than
0.05 MPa during the whole process, indicated the good injectivity of (2) Pressure monitoring
polymer microspheres. Among the five pressure taps, only pressure
tap 1 maintained pressure during the whole process as shown in Fig. 17 shows that the injection pressure suddenly increases
Fig. 13(b), indicating that it was swept by the injected water. How- from 0.03 to 0.30 MPa during polymer gel injection. Due to the high
ever, no pressure response for taps 2, 4 and 5 for a while before the initial viscosity of polymer gel system (100e200 mPa s), the
secondary water flooding. Fig. 13(d) shows that the pressure at injectivity of polymer gel solution is poor than microspheres, which
pressure tap 3 remained zero in the whole process, indicating no leads to high resistance and injection pressure during the injection
injected water swept in this part. It implies that in the first water process. In addition, it is worth noting that the pressure tap 3 is
flooding, the injected water gradually promotes a dominant flow changed during the secondary water flooding as shown in
channel in the high permeability layer which results in most of the
injected water flowing along this preferred path with less resistance,
but the pressure taps 2, 4 and 5 were located in middle and low
permeability layers with a relative high water resistance.
In general, the oil displacement efficiency of using a single
microsphere slug for flooding is limited, especially for strong het-
erogeneity reservoirs. Polymer microspheres only perform the
deep oil displacement capacity, while the plugging ability of high
permeability layer is very limited. Therefore, the sweep efficiency of
the middle-and low permeability layers is very low, and a large
amount of crude oil is not displaced.

3.4.2. Slug combination scheme 2

(1) Displacement efficiency

Fig. 14 shows the distribution of the remained oil after the

secondary water flooding. It shows that polymer gel and micro-
spheres combined slug has better displacement efficiency
compared with single microspheres slug. Using combined slug of

Fig. 15. Dynamic curves of oil recovery vs. injection volume in each well (Slug com-
bination scheme 2).

Fig. 14. The distribution of remained oil after water flooding（Slug combination Fig. 16. Dynamic curves of water cut vs. injection volume in each well (Slug combi-
scheme 2）. nation scheme 2).

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Fig. 17. Pressure curves of different positions during water flooding (Slug combination scheme 2).

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S. Liu, H. Jia, H. Wang et al. Petroleum Research 8 (2023) 151e166

Fig. 17(d).
The polymer gel and microspheres combined slug overcomes
the disadvantage that single microspheres cannot effectively plug
the dominant flow channel formed by injected water (Wang et al.,
2006). In fact, the injection water forms a dominant channel in the
high permeability layer after the firstly water flooding, so the
polymer gel slug will selectively penetrate into the region during
the injection process. Then the polymer gel achieves the purpose of
plugging the dominant channel in the high permeability layer.
Again in the process of water flooding, due to gel plugging, the
resistance of the region is very larger and the injection water will
change its direction towards the low permeability layer. On the
other hand, polymer microspheres will be in a flow state under high
pressure and enter porous media to improve oil displacement ef-
ficiency (Rousseau et al., 2005; Alhuraishawy et al., 2017).
3.4.3. Slug combination scheme 3
by the injected water with larger flow rate (see Fig. 22).
The polymer gel, microspheres and surfactant combined slug
actually solved the problem of low oil displacement efficiency
compared with polymer gel and microspheres combined slug. By
adding a surfactant slug, the surfactant could emulsify the forma-
tion crude oil, and then stabilized the emulsion by reducing the
interfacial tension of the system, thus improving the oil washing
efficiency (Kamal et al., 2017; Larson, 1978).
3.4.4. Slug combination scheme 4
(1) Displacement efficiency
Fig. 23 shows the remaining oil distribution after two rounds
flooding by using polymer gel, microspheres and surfactant com-
bined slug. It shows that most crude oil is displaced. The recovery
factor is increased by 28.2% compared with the first water flooding

(1) Displacement efficiency.

Fig. 18 describes the distribution of the remained oil after the

secondary water flooding. It can be seen that the polymer gel, mi-
crospheres and surfactant combined slug results in better oil
displacement efficiency than polymer gel and microspheres com-
bined slug.
The dynamic changes of recovery and water cut of each pro-
duction well vs. injection volume during the whole water flooding
process were shown in Fig. 19 and Fig. 20. Using polymer gel, mi-
crospheres and surfactant combined slug, the recovery factor was
increased by 21.2% compared with the first water flooding, and was
also higher than the polymer gel and microspheres combined slug
(16.5%).

(2) Pressure monitoring

Fig. 21(d) shows that pressure tap 3 is responded earlier with a

higher value compared with Fig. 17(d), indicating that the pressure
tap 3 area located in the low permeability layer is quickly affected

Fig. 19. Dynamic curves of oil recovery vs. injection volume in each well (Slug com-
bination scheme 3).

Fig. 18. The distribution of remained oil after water flooding（Slug combination Fig. 20. Dynamic curves of water cut vs. injection volume in each well (Slug combi-
scheme 3）. nation scheme 3).

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Fig. 21. Pressure curves of different positions during water flooding (Slug combination scheme 3).

163
S. Liu, H. Jia, H. Wang et al.
Fig. 22. The distribution of remained oil after water flooding（Slug combination
scheme 4）.
Fig. 23. Dynamic curves of oil recovery vs. injection volume in each well (Slug com-
bination scheme 4).
as shown in Fig. 24. In addition, the oil recovery of the second round
flooding is increased by 8.5% compared with the first round
flooding.
(2) Pressure monitoring
The pressure during the first injected combined slug was higher
than the secondary injected combined slug as shown in Fig. 25(a).
Because after the first round flooding, most of the crude oil in the
high permeability layer was displaced, leaving little crude oil in the
high permeability layer, and the flow resistance was small.
Fig. 25(d) indicates that the pressure tap 3 maintains higher pres-
sure level during the third water flooding compared with the
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Petroleum Research 8 (2023) 151e166
Fig. 24. Dynamic curves of water cut vs. injection volume in each well (Slug combi-
nation scheme 4).
secondary water flooding.
In slug combination scheme 3, using polymer gel, microsphere
and surfactant combined slug, the recovery factor is only 56.1%.
Undoubtedly, there is still a large amount of undisplaced oil in the
plate. In fact, the proportion of polymer gel used in the combined
slug is very small (only 0.05PV), therefore the strength of polymer
gel is limited when plugging the high permeability layer (Aldhaheri
et al., 2020). With continuous water flooding, the plugging ability of
polymer gel decreases, which will lead to the cycle of water
channeling in high permeability layer. Therefore, the remaining oil
in the formation can be further excluded by two rounds of
conformance control and chemical flooding (He et al., 2018). It
shows that for highly heterogeneous reservoirs, multi-turn profile
control experiments can further excavates remaining oil.
Through plate flooding experiment, combined slug sequentially
composed of polymer gel, polymer microspheres and surfactant
has the best oil displacement effect with the oil recovery increment
by 21.2% after the first water flooding at water cut over 90%. Due to
lack of polymer gel, single microspheres slug cannot effectively
plug the water channeling in high permeability layer, and the oil
recovery only increased by 15.6% compared with the first water
flooding. Moreover, combined slug with polymer gel and micro-
spheres is lack of emulsification and viscosity reduction brought
out by surfactants, hence the oil recovery only increased by 16.5%
compared with the first water flooding. The best ternary combined
slug for two rounds flooding has great potential to expel remaining
oil, and the oil recovery is increased by 28.2% compared with the
first water flooding.
4. Conclusions
In this paper, the oil displacement effects of different combined
slugs are evaluated by conformance control and chemical flooding.
Conclusions can be drawn as below.
(1) In the sand pack with permeability of 2000 mD, the plugging
rate of polymer gel reaches 98%, the breakthrough pressure
gradient is greater than 1.35 MPa/m, and it has good
washing-out resistance. In TGU test, the transition pressure
of polymer microspheres reaches 42.75 kPa after swelling for
6 days, with favourable flow ability.
S. Liu, H. Jia, H. Wang et al. Petroleum Research 8 (2023) 151e166

Fig. 25. Pressure curves of different positions during water flooding (Slug combination scheme 4).

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S. Liu, H. Jia, H. Wang et al.
(2) In parallel sand pack flooding, polymer microspheres and
surfactants was used to carry out oil displacement experi-
ments separately. Compared with the first water flooding,
the oil recovery was increased by 9.48% and 13.86%, respec-
tively. Most of the oil was displaced from the high-
permeability sand pack, while the oil in the low-
permeability sand pack was poor mobilized. The displace-
ment efficiency brought out by a single chemical flooding
agent is very low.
(3) The combination slug sequentially composed of polymer gel,
polymer microspheres and surfactant has the best oil
displacement efficiency. Using the best slug combination for
two rounds flooding, the recovery factor increased by 28.2%
compared with the first water flooding.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing
financial interests or personal relationships that could have
appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
This work is supported by Distinguished Young Scholars Fund in
Sichuan (Award No.2019JDJQ0036), Fok Ying-Tong Education
Foundation, China (Grant No. 171043) and Youth Science and
Technology Innovation Team Fund of Southwest Petroleum Uni-
versity (Award No.2018CXTD08).
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