SPE 114346

An Applied Chemical Flooding Simulator and Its Application in Daqing

Oilfield
Guo Chen, Ye Li, Jinmei Wang, Moran Ma, Kewei Lu, Guangzhu Jin*, Hongli Sun, The E&D Research Institute of
Daqing Oilfield Company
*-Now at Daqing Oilfield Company
Copyright 2008, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the 2008 SPE/DOE Improved Oil Recovery Symposium held in Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S.A., 1923April2008.

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
Daqing Oilfield has conducted various complex chemical improved oil recovery methods in both pilot tests and field
applications such as alkali-surfactant-polymer (ASP) flooding, ASP+Foam flooding and multi-polymer flooding, in the
meantime, some new process mechanism for various chemical flooding techniques has been rediscovered, for example,
polymer elasticity could increase micro-scale oil displacement efficiency, making the existing chemical flooding simulators
insufficient to handle these complex chemical flooding process mechanism. In this paper we develop an applied chemical
flooding simulator to have capability to simulate various complex chemical flooding processes in Daqing Oilfield. In
comparison with existing chemical simulators, the newly incorporated features include the chemical synergistic effect among
surfactant, alkali and oil in ASP flooding with ultra-low surfactant concentration, increasing micro-scale oil displacement
efficiency by polymer elasticity, multi-polymer commixing flooding process, foam behavior dependent on the reservoir pore
structure and the ratio of gas to liquid in foam system, relative permeability that is a function of polymer elasticity and
capillary number. The simulator models the other main physicochemical phenomena in chemical flooding process such as
convection, dispersion, diffusion, adsorption, aqueous reactions, in-situ generation of surfactant from acidic crude oil, etc.
The solving scheme for the simulator is sequential solution method, deriving pressure equation, saturation equation and
concentration equation from mass conservation equation, and then solving the pressure equation implicitly, followed by
obtaining the implicit solution of the saturation equation through Newtonian method. For concentration equation, an operator
splitting method is employed to split it into a diffusion equation and convection equation, obtaining implicit solution by
alternately solving the diffusion and convection equation. The solution procedure for diffusion equation is ADI. The
convection equation is discretized using an implicit single point upstream method, by taking advantage of the reservoir flow
potential field, to obtain an implicit non-iteration solution algorithm.
The developed model is a 3-D 3-phase (oil, water and gas) and multi-component chemical flooding simulator, having ability
to simulate single polymer flooding, multi-polymer flooding, ASP flooding, and ASP+Foam flooding. It has been
successfully applied in various chemical flooding simulations. This paper also presents some cases for its application in
Daqing Oilfield.
Introduction
Daqing Oilfield has conducted a number of theoretical studies and pilot tests for various chemical flooding techniques,
developing some chemical flooding methods suitable to its reservoir characteristics, mainly including single-polymer
flooding, multi-polymer flooding, ASP flooding with very low surfactant concentration, and ASP+Foam flooding. All these
chemical flooding methods above have a good potential to recover more additional oil over water flooding, and polymer
flooding has been carried into field application in Daqing Oilfield
1-3
.
With expanding in pilot tests and intensifying in theoretical studies on chemical flooding, some new process mechanism for
chemical flooding has been rediscovered. A number of research results for ASP flooding show that there is a synergistic
effect among surfactant, alkali and oil, decreasing interfacial tension (IFT) between oil and water to an ultra-low level, even
though in the case of low surfactant concentration without forming microemulsion
4
. During polymer flooding applications,
we have conducted a large number of fundamental studies on how to further improve the oil recovery effect, many research
results suggest that the heterogeneous reservoirs should be allocated with different polymers according to the compatibility
relationship between the molecular weight and permeability, and that polymer solution elasticity could increase micro-scale
2 SPE 114346
oil displacement efficiency
5-8
. Based on these research results, the separate layer and area injection of polymer with different
molecular weight and the high elasticity polymer flooding have been successfully applied to recover more additional oil. In
the study on ASP+Foam flooding, we discover that the foam system is more like to enter the high permeable zone and make
the displacing fluid divert into the low permeable zone, showing that the foam hehavior is a function of the porous structure,
and there exists an optimal ratio of gas to liquid in foam system, resulting in that the gas mobility control effect will become
worse if the actual ratio of gas to liquid is greater or less than the optimal one
9-11
.
These newly discovered process mechanism and the adopted operation methods for chemical flooding make the existing
chemical flooding simulators insufficient to simulate the chemical flooding complex processes in Daqing Oilfield. Most
existing chemical flooding simulators model surfactant-polymer flooding through phase behavior theory, which the surfactant
concentration must be higher than critical micelle concentration to form microemulsion phase to reduce IFT of
microemulsion-oil and microemulsion-water, having no ability to simulate ASP flooding with very low surfactant
concentration in Daqing Oilfield that only relies on a synergistic effect among surfactant, alkali and oil to reduce the IFT of
water-oil
4
. Most existing chemical flooding simulators can not simulate multi-polymer flooding process, and also has no
function to simulate the process mechanism of increasing oil displacement efficiency by polymer elasticity. Most foam
simulators simulate the foam process mechanism through limiting capillary model, but do not incorporate the process
mechanism that foam behavior is a function of the porous media structure and the ratio of gas to liquid
4,12
.
Many existing commercial chemical flooding simulators solve mathematical model mainly through either IMPES-like
method or fully implicit method. The deficiency for the IMPES-like solution scheme is that the solution has a bad stability.
Almost all fully implicit solution approaches require the iteration procedure in solving equations, causing a large amount of
calculation and occupancy in memory
4,13
.
This paper presents an applied chemical flooding simulator, having ability to simulate the newly discovered process
mechanism and the complicated operation procedure for chemical flooding in Daqing Oilfield, develops a sequential implict
solution scheme for the mathematical model, but with non-iteration procedure, based on the operator splitting techniques and
by taking advantage of the reservoir flow potential field.
Governing equation
Mass conservation equation
In order to develop the flow equation, some assumptions need to be made, including isothermal reservoir, immobile solid
phase, slightly compressible fluids and reservoir rock, Fickian dispersion, ideal mixing, Darcys law, and all chemical species
are transported in the aqueous phase only.
The mass conservation equation
14,15
for chemical component i in association with Darcys law is expressed in terms of
overall volume of component i per unit pore volume as below:
( ) ( ) (1) div
p
1
i
n
l
il l il i i i
Q C C
t
=

=
D u
Where
il
D is the Fickian dispersive flux
14,15
.
The overall volume of component i per unit pore volume is the sum over all phases including the adsorbed phase
(2) 1 1
c
1 1
p
cv
,n , i C

C S C

C
n
l
i il l
n
m
m i
L = +

=

= =

The phase flux
l
u from Darcys law is
( ) (3) grad grad
r
h g p
K
l l
l
l
l
=

K
u
Pressure equation
The pressure equation is derived from summing the mass conservation equation over all volume-occupying components,
substituting Darcys law for the phase flux term, using the definition of capillary pressure. The pressure equation
14,15
in terms
of the aqueous phase pressure
w
p is

( ) ( ) 4 grad div grad div grad div
cv
p p
1 1
w c
1
w
w
t
= = =
+

= +

n
i
i
n
l
l l
n
l
l T
Q p h p
t
p
C K K K
Where

=
=
v
n
i
il i
l
l
l
C
K
c
1
r

,

=
=
p
1
n
l
l T
,
t
C is the total compressibility.
SPE 114346 3
Saturation pressure
Let
w
S ,
o
S and
g
S be water, oil and gas saturation respectively, and 1
g o w
= + + S S S , then the saturation equation can be
derived from mass conservation equation as follows
( ) ( ) (5) div
w w w w w
Q S
t
= +

u
( ) ( ) (6) div
o o o o o
Q S
t
= +

u
Concentration equation for chemical species
Based on the assumption that all chemical species are transported in the aqueous phase only, and let ( )
iw iw i
C C A C

= , we can
obtain the concentration equation for each chemical species as follows
( ) ( ) [ ] (7) div
w w w w i i i i i i i
Q C C
t
= +

D u
Where
w i
C is the concentration of component i in the aqueous phase, and ( )
w w
n
1
cv
1
i
m
m i
C A S C

=

=
.
Process mechanism model for chemical improved oil recovery
Viscosity and rheology for polymer solution
The viscosity of polymer solution at the shear rate of zero is a function of polymer concentration and effective salinity, using
the Flory-Huggins
14-16
type equation to model the relationship:
( ) [ ] (8) 1
p
S
SEP
3
pw p3
2
pw p2 pw p1 w
0
p
C C A C A C A + + + =
Where
0
p
is the viscosity of polymer solution at zero shear rate,
w
is the viscosity of water,
SEP
C is the effective salinity,
pw
C is the polymer concentration in aqueous phase,
p1
A ,
p2
A ,
p3
A and
p
S are the input parameters.
The relationship of the polymer solution viscosity and shear rate is modeled by Meter
14,15
equation:
( )
(9)
1
1
ref
w
0
p
w p

+

+ =

Where
p
is the viscosity of polymer solution, is the shear rate,
ref
is the reference shear rate, and is the input
parameter.
Permeability reduction factor and inaccessible pore volume
The permeability reduction factor
k
R is modeled by the following equation
14,15
:
( )
(10)
1
1
1
pw rk
pw rk kmax
k
C b
C b R
R
+

+ =
Where
kmax
R is a function of reservoir properties,
rk
b is the input parameter.
The pore volume that polymer can enter is usually smaller than waters due to the large size polymer molecules, the reduced
porosity for polymer is called the inaccessible pore volume. This effect is modeled by multiplying the porosity in the
polymer concentration equation by the effective pore volume factor
ipv
f :
(11)
ipv o p
f =
Where
p
is the porosity for polymer solution,
o
is the actual reservoir porosity.
Polymer solution viscoelasticity
The viscoelasticity is that a material could behave both natures as viscous fluids and elastic solids. The polymer molecule
exists as coiling form in the solution due to its long chain structure with flexibility, resulting in shearing flow with elastic
deforming. The experiment results for rheology behavior in stable flow state show that the polymer solution exhibits shear
thinning property, the first normal stress difference increases with the increasement of shear rate, and the higher molecular
weight, the bigger first normal stress difference, indicating that the polymer solution has a very strong viscoelasticity. The
experiment results for rheology behavior in oscillation flow state demonstrate that both the storage modulus and loss
modulus increase with the increasement of polymer molecular weight, supporting that the high viscosity of polymer solution
4 SPE 114346
is accompanied by high elasticity. Therefore, the polymer solution is a viscoelastic fluid
5-8
.
The experiment results for core flooding show that there is still more residual oil remaining in the core after water flooding.
In this paper, the residual oil is always defined as the oil in cores after flooding up to 0% oil cut (immovable oil). The
residual oil after water flooding can be classified into four types: 1) oil film on the rock surface, 2) oil in dead ends, 3) oil in
pore throats trapped by capillary force, 4) oil remaining in un-swept micro-scale heterogeneous portion of the core. It could
be seen that all types of micro-scale residual oil were reduced after flooding with viscoelastic polymer. Due to the elastic
nature of the polymer, the velocity distribution in the pores is quite different from Newtonian fluid and the polymer could
also exert a very strong pulling effect on different types of residual oil. The viscous-elastic fluid not only has a viscous
driving force perpendicular to the oil-water interface for overcoming the capillary trapping force, but also has a strong
viscous dragging force parallel to the oil-water interface for pulling all types of residual oils after water flooding
5-8
.
The experiment research results for the viscoelastic polymer flooding show that the residual oil saturation after polymer
flooding is a function of the polymer elasticity and the capillary number, at the same capillary number, the residual oil
saturation decreases with the increasement of polymer elasticity, and at the same polymer elasticity, the higher capillary
number, the lower residual oil saturation. The relationship is shown in figure 1.
The first normal stress difference
1
N is used to characterize the elastic nature of polymer, it is a function of the polymer
concentration and the polymer molecular weight:
( ) ( ) (12)
2
pw r n2 pw r n1 1
C M C C M C N + =
Where ( )
r n1
M C and ( )
r n2
M C are the input parameter, they are dependent on the polymer molecular weight
r
M .
Chemical synergistic effect
From the earliest days, it was recognized that capillary forces could cause large number of oil to be left behind in well-swept
zones of water flooded oil reservoir. Capillary forces are the consequence of the IFT between oil and water phases that resists
externally applied viscous forces and causes the injected and banked up connate waters to locally bypass oil. Therefore,
lowering IFT between oil and water phases by adding some chemicals into displacing fluids could recover substantial oil, the
surfactant and alkali are the most effective chemical agents for this purpose such as the alkali flooding and micellar-polymer
flooding. The main role for alkali in alkali flooding is to react with the acidic components of crude oil to generate surfactant.
The micellar-polymer flooding is to inject the surfactant as well as the polymer to bring about improved oil recovery,
generally, the surfactant concentration injected is higher than the critical micelle concentration (CMC), resulting in that the
microemulsion forms to cause the oil solubilization process and the reduction in IFT of oil-microemulsion phases and water-
microemulsion phses
17
. The micellar-polymer flooding is technically successful but may not be successful in economy profit
due to its high surfactant concentration.
In Daqing Oilfield, the acidic content in the crude oil are very low, and for the operation costs reason the surfactant
concentration in chemical flooding is very low, we employ the chemical synergistic effect mechanism by conducting optimal
configuration of chemicals to achieve the interfacial tension reduction to an ultra low level for ASP flooding with very low
surfactant concentration, making that the ASP flooding is a very successful technology to recover more remaining oil over
water flooding. The interfacial tension active diagram is used to characterize the chemical synergistic effect among
surfactant, alkali and oil:
( ) ( ) 13
aw sw ow ow
C , C =
Where
ow
is the interfacial tension between oil and water phases,
sw
C in the surfactant concentration in aqueous phase,
aw
C is the alkali concentration in aqueous phase.
Capillary number
The capillary number is a function of the interfacial tension, reservoir potential gradient and reservoir permeability
14,15
:
( ) 14 1
grad
c p
ll
l
l
,n , l N
'
'
L =

=

k

Where
l l
is the interfacial tension between displaced and displacing phases,
l
is the potential of displacing phase.
Phase residual saturation
The residual oil saturation is a function of the first normal stress difference and the capillary number. The model provides
two optional methods to express this relationship. The first option is that the residual oil saturation could be modeled by an
equation as below:
(15)
1
co o2 1 o1
h
or
w
or h
or or
N T N T
S S
S S
+ +

+ =
Where
co
N is the capillary number for oil,
w
or
S is the residual oil saturation at low polymer elasticity and low capillary
SPE 114346 5
number,
h
or
S is the residual oil saturation at high polymer elasticity and high capillary number,
o1
T and
o2
T are the input
parameters.
The second option is that the changes in the residual oil saturation with the first normal stress difference and the capillary
number might be expressed directly by inputting a measured table:
( ) (16)
co 1 or or
N , N S S =
The other phase residual saturation is modeled as a function of the capillary number as below
14,15
:
( ) 17
1
c
H, r, L, r,
H, r, r,
l l
l l
l l
N T
S S
S S
+

+ =
Where
l ,
S
L r,
and
l ,
S
H r,
are the residual saturation for phase l at low and high capillary number respectively,
l
T is the input
parameter.
Relative permeability
In the simulator, the relative permeability for each phase is given by a equation as below:
( ) ( ) 18
n
0
rl
l
n
l rl
S K K =
Where
0
rl
K and
l
n are the endpoint and exponent for phase l respectively,
nl
S is the normalized saturation for phase l :
( ) 19
1
p
1
r,
r,
n

=
n
l
l
l l
l
S
S S
S
Where
l
S is the saturation for phase l .
The change in phase residual saturation could result in changes in the endpoints and exponents of the relative permeability
curve
18-20
. These changes are modeled by linear interpolation between the given values at low polymer elasticity together
with low capillary number and high polymer elasticity together with high capillary number:
( ) ( ) 20
L, r, H, r,
H, r, L, r,
r, L, r,
L, r,
0
r l l
l l
l l
l l
K K
S S
S S
K K

+ =
( ) ( ) 21
L, H,
H, r, L, r,
r, L, r,
L l l
l l
l l
l , l
n n
S S
S S
n n

+ =
Where
l ,
K
L r,
and
l ,
n
L
are the endpoints and exponents for phase l at low polymer elasticity together with low capillary
number respectively,
l ,
K
H r,
and
l ,
n
H
are the endpoints and exponents for phase l at high polymer elasticity together with
high capillary number respectively,
l ,
S
L r,
is the residual saturation for phase l at low polymer elasticity together with low
capillary number,
l ,
S
H r,
is the residual saturation for phase l at high polymer elasticity together with high capillary number.
Foam model
Foam has been widely studied and used as a mobility control or as a blocking agent to improve the oil recovery performance
in the reservoir engineering
21-25
. Rossen and Cheng at al.
26-27
have established a simple but useful foam model to simulate
the steady state foam flow through the porous media based on the limiting capillary pressure. A number of research results
for foam in Daqing Oilfield show that the foam flow resistance is highly dependent on the permeability of porous media,
exhibiting that foam could reduce gas mobility more effectively in high permeable strata than in low permeable strata to
make the displacing fluid divert into the low permeable zone. Furerthermore, the experiments data for core flooding suggest
that there exists an optimal ratio of gas to liquid in foam system, at which the foam is in the best condition to control the gas
mobility and improve the conformance control
9-11
. Therefore, we develop an improved model over Rossen and Chengs to
model the process mechanism for foam. Foam generation is conditioned mainly by three factors: the first one is the surfactant
concentration, and the surfactant concentration must be above some threshold value of
*
C
s
, the second one is water saturation,
and it must be exceed a threshold value of
*
S
w
, the third one is the oil saturation, and there is no foam generation if the oil
saturation is above a threshold value of
*
S
o
.
As a matter of fact, foam alters both gas relative permeability and apparent viscosity in complex way, but for simplicity, all
foam process on gas mobility is assigned to the gas relative permeability:
22
f
rg f
rg
R
K
K =
Where
rg
K is the gas relative permeability in the absence of foam,
f
rg
K is the effective relative permeability of gas at foam
6 SPE 114346
forming,
f
R is the gas relative permeability reduction factor by foam. In the case of foam forming, the gas relative
permeability reduction factor is modeled as below:
( ) 23
if , e 1 R
- if e 1
2
1 1
if 1
w w
ref
max
w w w
ref
w w
max
w w
f
2
gl
w
g
2
gl
w
g

+ >

+
+
<
=

S S
K
K
S S S ,
K
K S S
R
S S ,
R
R
S
S
R
S
S

Where
gl
R is the optimal ratio of gas to liquid,
ref
K is the reference reservoir permeability, and are the input
parameters, the input parameter
max
R is a function of gas flux
g
u :
(24)
1
refg
g
rf max

u
u
R R
Where is the conventional power law exponent,
rf
R is the value of
max
R at the reference gas flux
refg
u .
Model of alkali process mechanism
The process mechanism for alkali in chemical flooding mainly include: (1) reacting with the acidic components of crude oil
to generate surfactant, (2) reacting with chemical species in reservoir to change the ionic environment, (3) exhibiting a
synergistic effect with surfactant and oil to reduce interfacial tension between oil and water phase, (4) exerting effect on
adsorption of surfactant by high pH and reaction products. In this paper, the model from Bhuyan et al.
28
is used to simulate
these process mechanisms above for alkali.
Multi-polymer model
In Daqing Oilfield, in order to further improve oil recovery from polymer flooding, it is very common to screen polymer
molecular weight according to reservoir permeability, resulting in that the injected polymer varies in molecular weight with
reservoir permeability. There is a need to develop a simulation model capable of dealing with the combination flooding
process for multi-polymer.
The mechanism considered for multi-polymer is that each polymer flows in the porous media on its own, employing
individual flow equation to describe the material transportation process for each polymer in porous media such as convection,
diffusion, dispersion and adsorption. The enhanced oil recovery process is result of total concentration of all the polymers,
the parameters in polymer process mechanism models are calculated by the method of concentration weighting average for
all polymers.
The total polymer concentration
t
piw
C in aqueous phase is calculated as below:
(25)
tp
1 pi
piw
t
piw
=
=
n
C C
Where
piw
C is the concentration of polymer pi in aqueous phase,
tp
n is the total number of polymer.
In the individual polymer process mechanism models, including the viscosity model, rheology model, permeability reduction
model and elasticity model which described in equation (8), (9), (10) and (12), we substitute the total polymer concentration
t
piw
C for the individual polymer concentration
pw
C in these models to implement the multi-polymer flooding model to
simulate the process for multi-polymer mixing flooding, each input parameter in equation (8), (9), (10) and (12) is obtained
as below:
(26)
tp
tp
1
piw
1
pi piw

=
=
=
n
i
n
i
C
C

SPE 114346 7
Where is the calculated input parameter in equation (8), (9), (10) and (12) for multi-polymer mixing flooding,
pi
is the
input parameter in equation (8), (9), (10) and (12) for flooding of individual polymer pi .
The multi-polymer flooding model above has been verified by comparing experimental data against the calculated results
from the model. We have conducted a set of experimental viscosity measurements of single-polymer solution with different
molecular weight and various makeup ratio of multi polymers with different molecular weight, including pure polymer with
medium molecular weight, pure polymer with high molecular weight, polymer makeup ratio of 6:4 of medium molecular
weight to high molecular weight, and polymer makeup ratio of 2:8 of medium molecular weight to high molecular weight.
Then we use the multi-polymer flooding model to simulate these experimental data, the comparison results are given in
figure 2-5. The comparison results show that excellent agreement between the experimental data and simulation are obtained.
Adsorption
The surfactant adsorbing concentration
sar
C

at reference pH value
r
pH is given by measured input curve as below:
( ) ( ) 27
sw sar sar
C C

=
Where
sw
C is the surfactant concentration in aqueous phase.
The relationship between surfactant adsorbing concentration
sa
C

and pH is modeled as below:

( ) 28
pH - pH
pH - pH
1
r max
r
sar sa

= a C

Where
max
pH is the maximum value for pH, a is the input parameter.
A Langmuir-type isotherm is used to model polymer adsorption as a function of concentration and salinity.
14,15

Solution scheme
The developed simulator adopts sequential solution method to achieve its numerical solving procedure. Firstly, the pressure
equation (4) is solved implicitly. Then Newtonian method is used to obtain implicit solution for saturation equation (5) and
(6), we discretize the saturation equation (5) and (6) through the single point upstream method, taking advantage of reservoir
potential field, to implement the implicit solution procedure but without iteration algorithm. Finally, we employ operator
splitting technique to achieve implicit solution but numerical algorithm being in the form of explicity for the chemical
concentration equation (7).
Chemical concentration equation (7) could be split into a convection equation and a diffusion equation as follows:
( ) ( ) (29) div
w w w i i i i i i
R C C
t
r = +

u
( ) ( ) ( ) (30) 0 div 1
w w
=

i i i i i
C
t
r D
Where ( ) 1 0, r . Solving equation (29) and (30) alternatively by implicit procedure could achieve solution scheme for the
concentration equation (7). The convection equation (29) is discretized implicitly in the form of integration, and the flux
difference is calculated by using single point upstream mode. By taking advantage of reservoir potential field, the order of all
gridblocks are rearranged in flowing sequence, the implicit solving procedure could be implemented along with the flowing
sequence in the form of an explicity-like calculation mode. The solution from the convection equation (29) is only the result
of taking into account the mass transportation from convection, it need to be modified by diffusion and dispersion process
using diffusion equation (30), the diffusion equation (30) is solved implicitly by ADI method
13
.
Application cases in Daqing Oilfield
Application to ASP+Foam flooding pilot test
Pilot background and numerical simulation model Daqing Oilfield has conducted an ASP+Foam pilot test, this simulator
is used to conduct simulation in both the history matching and the development performance prediction. In the ASP+Foam
pilot, the total number of well is 16, including 6 injectors and 10 producers, the well location is given in figure 6. The
average well spacing between injectors is 250 m, the average well spacing between injector and producer is 176 m. The pilot
area is 0.39 km
2
, the pay zone is S 3-7, the average net pay thickness is 6.3 m, the original oil in place (OOIP) is 35.9210
4

tons. The control area of two central producers is 0.125 km
2
with OOIP of 12.5810
4
tons. The mesh system for simulation
is composed of 25 17 6 gridblocks, with 31.304 m in X-spatial gridblock size and 30.829 m in Y-spatial gridblock size.
The simulation mesh system is given in figure 7. The reservoir properties are given in table 1.
The physicochemical properties of chemical agents and foam used in this pilot are obtained from laboratory measurement
and verified by history matching for core flooding. The major properties of foam are: the critical water saturation equals 0.37,
the critical surfactant concentration is 0.0009, the critical oil saturation is 0.35, and the optimal ratio of gas to liquid is 3. The
active diagram of interfacial tension used is given in table 2.
History matching The gas and liquids are injected alternately. The formula of ASP+Foam system and the injection program
8 SPE 114346
in the pilot test are given as follows:
Preflush water: injection of the fresh water.
Pre-slug of ASP system: the slug size of ASP solution is 0.02 pore volume, the composition for ASP system formula
includes surfactant, sodium hydroxide and polymer, with concentration of 0.3%(in Vol), 1.2t% (weight) and 0.12% (weight),
respectively.
Main slug of ASP+Foam system: the slug size of the ASP system and the natural gas is 0.55 pore volume, the
composition for ASP system formula includes surfactant, sodium hydroxide and polymer, with concentration of 0.3%(in
Vol), 1.2% (weight) and 0.12% (weight), respectively.
Secondary slug of ASP+Foam system: the slug size of the ASP system and the natural gas is 0.3 pore volume, the
composition for ASP system formula includes surfactant, sodium hydroxide and polymer, with concentration of 0.1%(in
Vol), 1.2t% (weight) and 0.12% (weight), respectively.
Buffer slug of polymer solution: The slug size is 0.1 pore volume of polymer solution with concentration of 0.06%
(weight).
As mentioned before, the central two production wells are the major producers, the history matching only focuses on the two
producers. The history matching covers the period from the fresh water flush to the buffer slug of polymer solution. The
matched variables include the daily oil and water production and the water cut. The history matching is performed through
adjustment of relative permeability and the other physical data. The comparisons of observation data against simulation
results are given in Figure 8-11 for the injected pore volume in the range 0-0.97 PV.
Performance prediction The history matching-based adjusted model is used to predict the development performance in this
pilot for ASP+Foam flooding. The prediction is conducted until the water cut for two central producers is reaching 98%. The
prediction results show that the total incremental oil production for the two producers is 2.860310
4
tons, accounting for the
oil recovery factor of 22.74% for the time period of ASP+Foam flooding. The predicted results are given in Figure 8-11,
where the injected pore volume is in the range 0.97-1.27 PV.
Application to multi-polymer flooding
The application case described next is a field polymer flooding project in Daqing Oilfield, called B1 polymer flooding
project, using this simulator to optimize development plans and predict development performance.
B1 polymer flooding project background and numerical simulation model The total area of B1 region is 11.17 km
2
, the
total number of wells is 480, including 222 injectors and 258 producers. The oil bearing zones are S10-S 10
2
reservoirs.
The mesh system for simulation is composed of 120 80 9 gridblocks, with 50.81 m in X-spatial gridblock size and 44.26
m in Y-spatial gridblock size.
Development plan optimization for polymer flooding The annual injection for polymer solution is 0.14 pore volume, the
polymer concentration is 0.1% (weight), the total amount of polymer used in B1 region is 650mg/LPV. The prediction result
for water flooding is that the oil recovery factor is 8.8% of OOIP in the time period from the polymer project beginning to the
water cut reaching 98%. There are two sets of polymer flooding plans to be proposed, the first one is that the whole B1
region is injected only one kind of polymer solution with medium molecular weight, the second one is that part of B1 region
with high permeability is injected polymer solution with high molecular weight, and the other part is still injected the
polymer with medium molecular weight. The oil recovery factor prediction for each plan is shown in Figure 12. The
prediction result for the first plan is that the oil recovery factor is 18.5% of OOIP, increasing oil recovery factor by 9.7% over
water flooding. The prediction result for the second plan is that the oil recovery factor is 20.6% of OOIP, increasing oil
recovery factor by 11.8% over water flooding. Therefore, the suggested polymer flooding plan is the second one.
Summary and Conclusions
An applied chemical flooding model was developed to have capability to simulate various complex chemical flooding
processes in Daqing Oilfield. The newly incorporated features over the existing chemical simulators include the chemical
synergistic effect among surfactant, alkali and oil in ASP flooding with ultra-low surfactant concentration, increasing micro-
scale oil displacement efficiency by polymer elasticity, multi-polymer commixing flooding process, foam behavior
dependent on the reservoir pore structure and the ratio of gas to liquid in the foam system, relative permeability that is a
function of polymer elasticity and capillary number.
A sequential solving method is used to obtain the implicit solution for the model, deriving pressure equation, saturation
equation and concentration equation from mass conservation equation, and then solving the pressure equation implicitly,
followed by achieving the implicit solution for saturation equation through Newtonian method. For concentration equation,
an operator splitting method is employed to split it into a diffusion equation and convection equation, obtaining implicit
solution by alternately solving the diffusion and convection equation. The solution procedure for diffusion equation is ADI.
The convection equation is discretized using an implicit single point upstream method, by taking advantage of the reservoir
flow potential field, to obtain an implicit non-iteration solution procedure.
The developed model is a 3-D 3-phase (oil, water and gas) and multi-component chemical flooding simulator. The simulation
results over field application cases show that it is capable to simulate the complex process mechanism for multi-polymer
flooding, ASP flooding and ASP+Foam flooding.
SPE 114346 9
Nomenclature
i
C Overall volume of component i per unit pore volume
il
C Volume fraction of component i in phase l
i
C

Adsorbed concentration of species i

il
D Fickian dispersive flux
h Vertical depth
K Intrinsic permeability tensor
rl
K Relative permeability of phase l
p
n Number of phases
c
n Total number of chemical species
cv
n Total number of volume-occupying components
l
p Pressure of phase l
w
p Aqueous phase pressure
w cl
p Capillary pressure between aqueous phase and phase l
i
Q Source and sink term
l
S Saturation of phase l
l , r
S Residual saturation of phase l
l
u Flux of phase l
g
u Gas flux,
i
Density of pure component i
l
Density of phase l
Porosity of reservoir
l
Viscosity of phase l
div Divergence operator
grad Gradient operator
Subscripts
i Species or component number
l Phase number
w Water phase
o Oil phase
g Gas phase
References
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Daqing 20(2), 1-8, (2001).
2. Wang Qimin, Ji Baofa and Sui Jun: Practice and Knowledge of Tertiary Recovery Technique in Daqing Oilfield, Petroleum Geology
& Oilfield Development in Daqing 20(2), 9-13, (2001).
3. Cheng Jiecheng: EOR Technology Improvement and Its Further Development for Daqing Oilfield during 10
th
5-Year-Project,
Petroleum Geology & Oilfield Development in Daqing 25(1), 18-22, (2006).
4. Shen Pingping and Yu Jiayong: Fundamental Study on Extensively Enhanced Petroleum Recovery, Petroleum Industry Press, Beijing,
P. R. China. 2001.
5. Wang Demin, Cheng Jiecheng and Yang Qingyan: Viscous-elastic Polymer Can Iincrease Microscale Displacement Efficiency in
Cores, paper SPE 63227 presented at the 2000 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition held in Dallas, Texas, 1-4 October
2000.
6. Xia Huifen, Wang Demin, Liu Zhongchun, et al.: Study on the mechanism of polymer solution with viscous-elastic behavior
increasing microscopic oil displacement efficiency , Acta Petrolei Sinica 22 (4), 60-65. (2001).
7. Wang Demin, Cheng Jiecheng, Xia Huifen, et al.: Improvement of displacement efficiency of cores by driving forces parallel to the
oil-water interface of viscous-elastic fluids, Acta Petrolei Sinica, 23 (5),48-52. (2002).
8. Zhang Hongfang, Wang Demin, Yue Xiangan, et al.: Experimental study on enhancing displacement efficiencies using polymer
solutions, Acta Petrolei Sinica 25(2),55-58, 64. (2004).
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(2001).
10. Zhang Yangqing, Liu Yu and Qian Yu: Injection Pattern and Slug Optimization of Foam Flooding and Its Pilot Test, Petroleum
10 SPE 114346
Geology & Oilfield Development in Daqing 20(1), 46-48, (2001).
11. Wu Xiaolin, Chen Guangyu and Zhang Guoyin: A Study on Foam Complex Formula, Petroleum Geology & Oilfield Development
in Daqing 19(3), 27-29, (2000).
12. Mojdeh Delshad, Kazuhiro Asakawa, Gary A. Pope and Kamy Sepehrnori: Simulations of Chemical and Microbial Enhanced Oil
Recovery Methods, paper SPE 75237 presented at the SPE/DOE Improved Oil Recovery Symposium held in Tulsa, Oklahoma, 13-
17 April 2002.
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Engineering,The University of Texas at Austin, 1997.
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17. Lake, L. W.: Enhanced Oil Recovery, Presentice Hall, New Jersey. 1989.
18. Chatzis, I. and N. R. Morrow: Correlation of Capillary Number Relationships for Sandstones, paper SPE 10114 presented at the 56
th

Annual Conference of the SPE, San Antonio, TX, Oct. 5-7,1981.
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Aug., 1985.
20. Deshad, M., D. Bhuyan, G.A. Pope and L.W. Lake: Effect of Capillary Number of the Residual Saturation of a Three-Phase Micellar
Solution, paper SPE 14911 presented at the SPE 5
th
symposium of Enhanced Oil Recovery, Tulsa, OK, April 1986
21. Hirasaki, G.J.: The Steam Foam Process, J. Petr. Technol., 449-456, (May 1989).
22. Persoff, P., C. C. Radke, K. Pruess, S. M. Benson and P. A. Witherspoon: A Laboratory Investigation of Foam Flow in Sandstone at
Elevated Pressure, SPE Reser. Eng., 365-372, (Aug. 1991).
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SPE/DOE Improved Oil Recovery Symposium held in Tulsa, Oklahoma, 13-17 April 2002.
24. D. Shan and W. R. Rossen: Optimal injection strategies for foam IOR, paper SPE 75180 presented at the SPE/DOE Improved Oil
Recovery Symposium held in Tulsa, Oklahoma, 13-17 April 2002.
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SPE 75176 presented at the SPE/DOE Improved Oil Recovery Symposium held in Tulsa, Oklahoma, 13-17 April 2002.
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presented at the SPE/DOE Enhanced Oil Recovery Symposium held in Tulsa, OK, 17-20 April 1988.


SPE 114346 11

Table 1 Reservoir properties Table 2 IFT active diagram
























Note: N1 denotes the first normal stress difference

Figure 1 Capillary desaturation curves for polymer solution with different elasticity.




















Figure 2 Comparison of measured and simulation Figure 3 Comparison of measured and simulation
for polymer with medium molecular weight. for polymer with high molecular weight.



Layer
Net pay
thickness
m
Permeability
m
2

Porosity
Depth
m
Layer 1 0.0-2.8 0.040-0.378 0.235-0.257 912-950
Layer 2 0.0-1.4 0.039-0.417 0.235-0.257 914-952
Layer 3 0.0-2.8 0.040-0.596 0.235-0.257 920-953
Layer 4 0.2-2.6 0.039-0.493 0.235-0.257 922-956
Layer 5 0.5-2.2 0.039-0.543 0.235-0.257 924-958
Layer 6 0.0-4.1 0.039-0.543 0.235-0.257 926-960
Surfactant concentration IFT
(mN/m)
0 0.001 0.002 0.003 0.004 0.005
0 20 0.9 0.2 0.12 0.07 0.04
0.5% 0.758 0.017 0.004 0.00019 0.00015 0.00010
1.0% 0.173 0.011 0.001 0.00009 0.00004 0.00003
1.5% 0.073 0.006 0.0007 0.00005 0.00003 0.00002
2.0% 0.03 0.002 0.0003 0.00002 0.00002 0.00001
A
l
k
a
l
i

C
o
n
c
e
n
t
r
a
t
i
o
n

3.0% 0.06 0.008 0.0007 0.00012 0.00010 0.00005
0.0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1.0
0.00001 0.0001 0.001 0.01 0.1 1
Capillary Number
R
e
s
i
d
u
a
l

O
i
l

S
a
t
u
r
a
t
i
o
n
/
O
i
l

R
e
c
o
v
e
r
y

F
a
c
t
o
r
N1=159Pa
N1=77Pa
N1=45Pa
N1=19Pa
N1=5Pa
N1=0Pa
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
0 0.03 0.06 0.09 0.12 0.15
Polymer Concentration (% in weight)
V
i
s
c
o
s
i
t
y

(
m
P
a

s
)
Measured
Simulation
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
0 0.03 0.06 0.09 0.12 0.15
Polymer Concentration (% in weight)
V
i
s
c
o
s
i
t
y

(
m
P
a

s
)
Measured
Simulation
12 SPE 114346




















Figure 4 Comparison of measured and simulation Figure 5 Comparison of measured and simulation
results for polymers at make up ratio 4:6 of medium results for polymers at make up ratio 2:8 of medium
to high molecular weight. to high molecular Weight.
















Figure 6 Well location for ASP+Foam pilot test. Figure 7 Simulation mesh system for ASP+
Foam pilot test.



















Figure 8 Comparison of observation and Figure 9 Comparison of observation and
Simulation for water cut in the pilot test. Simulation for oil recovery factor in the pilot test.



0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16
Polymer Concentration (% in weight)
V
i
s
c
o
s
i
t
y

(
m
P
a

s
)
Measured
Simulation
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16
Polymer Concentration (% in weight)
V
i
s
c
o
s
i
t
y

(
m
P
a

s
)
Measured
Simulation
Legend
Producer
Injector
Legend
Producer
Injector

0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5
Injected Pore Volume
W
a
t
e
r

C
u
t

(
%
)
Simulation
Observed data

0
5
10
15
20
25
0. 0 0. 5 1. 0 1. 5
Injected Pore Volume
O
i
l

R
e
c
o
v
e
r
y

F
a
c
t
o
r

(
%
)
Simulation
Observed data
SPE 114346 13


















Figure 10 Comparison of observation and Figure 11 Comparison of observation and
simulation for water cut for well B2-J6-70. simulation for water cut for well B2-J6-71.























Figure 12 Oil recovery factor prediction for every development plan.

0
20
40
60
80
100
0. 0 0. 5 1. 0 1. 5
Injected Pore Volume
W
a
t
e
r

C
u
t

(
%
)
Simulation
Observed data

0
20
40
60
80
100
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5
Injected Pore Volume
W
a
t
e
r

C
u
t

(
%
)
Simulation
Observed Data
0
10
20
30
40
0.0 0.3 0.6 0.9 1.2 1.5 1.8
Injected Pore Volume
I
n
c
r
e
a
m
e
n
t
a
l

O
i
l

R
e
c
o
v
e
r
y

F
a
c
t
o
r

(
%
)
waterflooding
single-polymer flooding
multi-polymer flooding