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where ηwater and η are the viscosity of the brine and of the •
The dissolution facilities: specific static mixers and
polymer solution respectively. C is the polymer concentration pumps have to be used
in cm3/g. • The injection lines: and particularly the well head
Measurements have been achieved on a serie of increasing chokes
molecular weight polyacrylamides (Table 3). 18MDa • The well bore entry
molecular weight was selected for further detailed From this analysis it appears that the highest shearing device
qualification. would be the well head chokes.
A set of experiments has been realized to measure the
Polymer A B C evolution of the viscosity versus shear rate using capillary
Mw (106 g/mol) 18 12 8 tubes and rotating devices, and check that the viscosity losses
%hydrolysis 28 27 18 in the wellhead choke were not a killing factor. A viscosity
loss of 25% to 50% was observed in the shearing conditions of
%active 89 88 91 the choke, at respective polymer concentrations of 700ppm
[η] (cm3/g) 4570 2450 1550 and 1500ppm. Additional tests were done with lower
molecular weight polymers as described in Figure 3 to further
Table 3- Intrinsic viscosity in sea water at 50°C validate our choice. The high molecular weight polymer is
obviously the most affected by the shear degradation, but is
For this polymer, viscosity was measured at 50°C as a nevertheless the most efficient to ensure a high viscosity under
function of concentration and salinity as plotted on Figure 1. our salinity conditions.
From this plot it is clear that viscosity strongly decreases when
25
salinity increases up to 35-40g/l, but stabilizes at higher
salinities.
100 20
8 MDa
Viscosity (cP)
15 12 MDa
18 MDa
2000 ppm
1000 ppm 10
700 ppm
Viscosity (cP)
500 ppm
10 350 ppm
250 ppm 5
0
0 50000 100000 150000 200000
Applied shear rate (s-1)
1
Figure 2: Viscosity at 50°C as a function of applied
25 30 35 40 45 50 shear rate for 1000 ppm solutions of polymers of
Total Salinity (g/L) varying molecular mass.
Figure 1: Viscosity as a function of salinity and The viscosity losses are not only depending on the applied
concentration at 50°C for the polyacrylamide of shear but also on the residence time in the shearing device and
18Mda. Viscosity measurements at a shear rate of 10 both may be difficult to evaluate in the case of complex
s-1. devices. In this case it may be useful to construct a pilot loop
including that device.
Shear degradation
Polyacrylamides molecules are flexible chain molecules, that Thermal degradation
can be broken when submitted to high shear rates [2]. This A literature survey shows that hydrolysed polyacrylamides are
causes an irreversible loss of viscosity of the solution and very stable at 50°C [3,4] and the base-case assumption is that no
higher molecular weight polymers will be more sensitive to temperature ageing will occur during the project. Experiments
shear. It is generally admitted that once a solution has been under anaerobic conditions have been recently launched in our
sheared at high shear rates, further shearing at lower values of laboratories to further confirm that point.
shear rates will no longer impact viscosity. A thorough
analysis of shearing conditions has been achieved on the Adsorption
whole system of polymer injection. The potential stress Part of the injected polymer will remain adsorbed at the
locations are: surface of the rock material, which will reduce the
4 IPTC 11800
viscosifying effect of the solution and give a zero polymer In our study, the polymer option as implemented in the
concentration at the water/oil front. For a given solution, the Eclipse-Schlumberger software was used. All data are
adsorption is related to the mineralogy of the rock sample and provided as tables, directly derived from laboratory
to the accessibility to the active surface. Maximum adsorption measurements.
is observed on clays. As developed deep offshore field are generally multi-reservoir
Adsorption has to be measured on each rock type, and huge fields, our approach was multi-step:
preferentially not on crushed core where the active surface is - define an injection strategy on one of the most promising
much higher, and where adsorption is a maximum. reservoirs using base case polymer parameters
Both static (crushed cored) and dynamic (core flooding) - apply that strategy full field, and further optimize to define a
measurements were done on real unconsolidated core samples base case for polymer injection
representative of the field. Low adsorption has been measured - evaluate low case and high case polymer injection
in agreement with literature data available for clean sands: incremental oil by a probabilistic approach where static
between 10 and 30 µg/g. Measurements were done without oil properties and dynamic parameters from water flooding and
(Sw=100%), and at residual oil saturations. Values for polymer flooding were varied.
polymer adsorption at Sor (10µg/g to 14µg/g) were low, close A full paper should be required to give a detailed presentation
to those determined at full water saturation (25µg/g to of this work. This section will emphasize the simulation
29µg/g). Polymer adsorption/partitioning in crude oil can thus procedure and the key results obtained during our study.
be assumed negligible.
Injection strategy
Residual resistance factor The objective is to find some scenarios which maximise oil
The adsorbed polymer will reduce the permeability of the rock production and minimise the quantity of polymer injected.
sample and reinforce the mobility reduction of the water Generally a high concentration, limited size (15% to 50% PV)
phase. Values ranging from 1.7 to 2.3 were measured on the slug is injected, followed by successive slugs of decreasing
reservoir core samples during polymer flood. concentrations.
4 key parameters have been varied to define the injection
Other characteristics strategy :
From our own experience of polymer injection in the field of - the start of injection,
Chateaurenard in France [5, 6, 7] and many other projects, it is - the slug concentration,
clear that the preparation of a high quality polymer solution is - the slug size,
key to a successful polymer project, that is: - the post slug concentration:
• Quick dissolution, As a simplification we have assumed that no multiple
• Stable viscosity decreasing concentration postslugs were implemented, and
• Minimum insolubles and microgels that polymer was injected till the end of the field life.
A specific program has been achieved to define the protocol of
dissolution of polymer and check the filterability of the In order to quantify the polymer injection two criteria are
polymer solution, and recommendations for QA/QC have been retained: how many additional barrels are brought by the
made for future industrial application. injection, and the global efficiency of the polymer to get these
Other tests have also been launched: barrels which is defined as the ratio of the total of additional
- compatibility of the polymer with the different oil barrels produced (water injection being the reference),
water additives used in the injection and divided by the total amount of active polymer injected (usually
production facilities expressed in bbl/kg). This efficiency is varying all along the
- impact of polymer back production on the process, an average value is retained.
water/oil separation process As preliminary simulations indicated that the level of
At that stage of study, all the tests were positive, meaning that adsorption was very critical to the amount of incremental oil,
polymer injection was compatible with the and was relatively uncertain (limited number of dynamic
injection/production system. measurements), this uncertain parameter was included in the
optimisation to obtain an injection strategy that would be
Incremental oil evaluation robust to the most influential parameters related to polymer
Benefits of any EOR option need to evaluate incremental oil physics.
versus baseline development. In the case of polymer injection
a dedicated software is required that would be able to Minimum and maximum values have been defined for each of
represent key physics of the polymer: the 5 parameters and an experimental design approach has
- viscosity as a function of polymer concentration and salinity been applied, to define a range of optimum values of the
- viscosity as a function of shear rates parameters.
-adsorption of the polymer on the rock material Key findings of that part of the study were that:
- Permeability reduction related to adsorption - maximum efficiency (bbl/kg of polymer) does
- If significant, inaccessible porous volume to the polymer not give maximum incremental oil (in bbls)
when adsoption is satisfied: - the sooner the injection the better the results,
particularly for the acceleration of production
IPTC 11800 5
0,4
Deterministic base case
Different deterministic simulations have been run on the 0,2
full field, following injection strategies as optimized on the
most representative reservoir of the field. These simulations 0
0 0,2 0,4 0,6 0,8 1
were mainly conducted over a period of 20 years of Time
production, starting with water injection and moving to
polymer injection after a minimum of 3 years of water Figure 3 Typical Oil Production Profile Case
injection. The same well pattern was used for water and 1,4
polymer injection (no additional wells), meaning injector- 1,2
• Even when no plateau duration extension was Figure 4 Typical cumulative oil profile
observed the production decline was significantly
decreased 1
• Water production was significantly decreased, 0,9
with variable results from well to well 0,8
• As watercuts are not fully developed in the field 0,7
since polymer injection starts early in the field 0,6
Watercut
where silos and blowing facilities have to be set up for transfer Conclusions
to the carrier. A very thorough feasibility study of polymer injection has
been achieved on a typical deep offshore low temperature
SPECIFIC POWDER CARRIER +BARGE (50°C°), high permeability (>1D as an average) sandstone
reservoir containing medium viscosity oil (3 to 7cP under
F
reservoir conditions).
The study has demonstrated that:
1. Considering the need for massive quantities of
INTERNATIONAL STANDARD CONTAINERS + BARGE + SHUTTLE
polymer in a fullfield deep offshore development
(>10Kt/year) polyacrylamide polymers are preferred
F to biopolymers
2. High molecular weight hydrolyzed polyacrylamides
can be used under a wide range of salinities covering
INTERNATIONAL STANDARD CONTAINERS + SHUTTLE +FPSO
sea water and a mixture of sea water and produced
water.
F 3. Additional recoveries in the range of 5% can be
achieved in this particular context of large well-
Figure 8 Diagram of polymer supply logistics spacing development of a medium viscosity field
4. Earlier injection is more profitable, but also more
risky as the water injection baseline may not be
Pilot opportunity sufficiently well established
The need for a pilot has been investigated. Three main 5. Powder polymer supply is achievable for deep
objectives have been identified offshore fields either with a specific bulk carrier or
1. Demonstrate the ability to prepare on site a using standard international containers to transport
« good quality » polymer solution and the big bags (250 kg)
operability of the facilities 6. Even in the case where no room is left on the
2. Demonstrate that the injectivity of the polymer existing FPSO, marine options can be found to safely
solution is sufficient to be able to maintain the process the polymer on a barge connected to the
pressure) FPSO (depending on the sea conditions)
3. Demonstrate the efficiency of the polymer 7. An injectivity pilot is compulsory for such a project
(pressure maintenance and in situ viscosification 8. ‘recovery ‘ type polymer pilot with a full
or no polymer degradation) quantification may be difficult to design and lead to
Considering that no polymer solution has ever been prepared a phased development with potentially less resources
offshore, to such high flow rates, the operability demonstration for the full field project (due to the time delay)
is compulsory. Acknowledgements
Considering that pressure maintenance is key to the success of The authors sincerely thank the contribution of the whole
the project and that additional recovery with polymer is project team from its very early stages to the present, and
strongly correlated to the amount of solution that has particularly M.Planckaert who did all the simulation work
effectively been injected, the second objective is compulsory related to deterministic simulations.
and has even been identified as a killing factor if injectivity
losses related to polymer were very significant. References
1. Ming Hang, Wentao Xiang,Jian Zhang, Wei Jiang, Fujie
The third objective might be difficult to complete in a deep off
shore context, particularly for early injection Sun,“Application of EOR Technology by Means of
Polymer Flooding in Bohai Oil Fields”, SPE104432,
• If the water injection baseline is not well established
(2006)
the benefit of polymer may be difficult to determine
• Minimum pilot duration may be prolonged if a 2. Maerker, J.M., “Shear degradation of partially
hydrolyzed polyacrylamide solutions”, SPE5101, (1975).
producer response is required: large spacing implies
that water breakthrough inflexion or polymer back 3. Moradi-Araghi, A., Doe, P.H.: “Hydrolysis and
production may be long precipitation of polyacrylamide in hard brines at elevated
temperature,” SPE13033, (1987).
• A long test eliminates the feasibility of a single
injector pilot (rig location cost), therefore a full line is 4. Ryles, R.G., “Chemical stability limits of water soluble
concerned :Such a pilot would lead to a phased polymers used in oil recovery”, SPE13585, (1988).
5. Labastie, A., Vio, L.:”The Chateaurenard Polymer flood
development and potentially less resources for the
full field project (due to the time delay) field test”, European Symposium on Enhanced Oil
Recovery, Bournemouth, England, (1981).
More work on the minimum duration of a ‘recovery‘type pilot, 6. Putz, A.G., Lecourtier, J.M., Bruckert, L., “Interpretation
including brainstorming on existing and innovative monitoring of high recovery obtained in a new polymer flood in the
techniques is still required to design such a pilot. Chateaurenard field”, SPE18093, (1988).
7. Putz, A.G., Rivenq, R.C., “Commercial polymer injection
in the Courtenay field”, J. Pet. Sci. Eng7, 15-23., (1992).