Primary funding is provided by

The SPE Foundation through member donations

and a contribution from Offshore Europe

The Society is grateful to those companies that allow their

professionals to serve as lecturers

Additional support provided by AIME

Society of Petroleum Engineers

Distinguished Lecturer Program
www.spe.org/dl 1
 Improved Oil & Gas Recovery by
Polymer Technology: EOR, Water
Shutoff and Sand Control

Alain Zaitoun
Poweltec, France

Society of Petroleum Engineers

Distinguished Lecturer Program
www.spe.org/dl
2
 Outline

1. EOR Challenges

2. Polymer Flooding
General aspects
Field case in heavy oil reservoir

3. Water Shut-Off
Fundamentals of WSO by RPMs
WSO gas well field case

4. Sand Control
Principle of sand control by polymers
Sand control in gas storage wells

5. Conclusions
 EOR Challenges

Peak oil occurring soon, oil slow decline expected

EOR enables increase in Recovery Factor

Teams mobilized in Major Oil companies

to implement EOR
Chemical EOR attractive, major focus on polymers

Low capital cost, low risk, waterflood improvement

4
Malaysia Scenario

Increasing domestic
consumption
Forecasted decline from 2007
Net crude importer by ~2010 ?

5
 EOR by Polymers
Polymer Flood improves Mobility Control, thus
reservoir sweep efficiency

Water flooding Polymer flooding

6
 Polymer Flood:
Heavy-Oil Application (Canada)

7
 Pelican Lake heavy oil field

High-permeability sand reservoir

Thin continuous pay layer (4 m thick)

Heavy oil 14 API 2000 cP

Shallow, low temperature, fresh water

Horizontal well primary production

Low recovery factor (around 5%)

RF expected to jump to 25% with polymer flood

8
9
 Pelican Lake Polymer Flood Pilot

1400 m

200 m

10
 Simulation of Polymer Injection Scenarios

Oil rate in Central Producer 00-15-PRO

Max Injection & Production Rates 150 m3/d

45 Water injection
1000 ppm (12 months) then water
40
1000 ppm (9m) 500 ppm (6m) water
35 1000 ppm (6m) 500 ppm (12m) water
1000 ppm (3m) 500 ppm (18m) water
30 1000 ppm (3m) water
Oil rate (m /d)
3

25

20

15

10

0
1/1/97 1/1/01 1/1/05 1/1/09 1/1/13 1/1/17
Date

11
12
 Main outcomes of Polymer Flood pilot

Polymer Flood has potential in heavy-oil reservoir

In combination with Horizontal Wells

Integrated Lab & Simulation studies help designing pilot

Polymer injectivity is an essential issue

First pilot results very positive, field extension

implemented by operator (270 injection wells in 2009)

13
Water Shutoff

14
 Water Shutoff by Polymer/Gels

Two strategies: (1) Sealing gels and (2) RPM

Sealing gels block a water producing interval

Sealing gels compete with cements or packers

Relative Permeability Modifiers are weak polymer/gels

Usually bullhead injected into the whole open interval =

cost effective

Maintain oil/gas permeability while reducing strongly water

permeability
15
 Principle of WSO by RPM Polymers

Water Two-layer model

Oil
Water
Oil

Oil Oil Low k Oil Oil

W Water
Water Water High K Water

Swollen or
weakly
X-linked polymer

16
 Principle of RPM treatments
Modification of Relative Permeability
by Polymer Adsorption

(Sor)

RRF=10
before polymer
after polymer

(Swi)
Adsorbed polymer or microgels
17
 Example of successfull WSO treatment
Pelican Lake Horizontal Well 11-15A (Canada)

1000 100 %
Water
Treatment
Oil
Water Cut
Monthly Production (m3)

500 50 %

100 10 %
0 0%
ju 8

ju 9

ju 0

ju 1
8

1
85

0
9
r-8

r-8

r-9

r-9
-8

-8

-9

-9
-8

-9
t-8

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4

il-

in

in

in

in
t

t
av

av

av

av
oc

oc

oc
ju

18
Successful WSO treatment in horizontal well (Canada)

7000
Cumulated Oil Production (m3)

6000

5000 RPM treatment

4000 Sand Incremental

cleaning oil
3000

2000

1000

0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
Cumulated Water Production (m3)
19
 New Microgel Technology
SMG are calibrated microgels larger and more stable than
conventional polymers

dH 2.0 m

dH 0.3 m

Linear polymer Microgel A Microgel B Small microgel

Linear chain

20
 Several Microgel products proposed today

Brightwater (Popping microgel)

Colloidal Dispersion Gels (CDG)

SMG (Small calibrated microgels)

PPG (Preformed Particle Gels to plug thief zones)

More used for Conformance Injection well treatments

21
Example of integrated study:
Water Shutoff in a
Gas storage well
Cerville (GDF)
(SPE 106042)

22
Model construction

VA36
Well

Grs Voltzia
Reservoir

Low k
Restriction de permabilit
Aquifre
Aquifer

23
Simulation forecasts

24
Effect of Microgel WSO treatment on gas well
Drop in water production
Water Gas Ratio

Microgel Treatment

2001_2002 2002_2003 2003_2004 2004_2005 2005_2006

25
Effect of Microgel WSO treatment on gas well
Increase in Gas Production rate

ls
el well #0
W
well #1
well #2
25E+06
well #3
well #4
well #5
20E+06

15E+06

10E+06

05E+06

000E+00
2001/02 2002/03 2003/04 2004/05 2005/06
02

03

04

05

06
0

0
-2

-2

-2

-2

-2
01

02

03

04

05
microgel treatment
20

20

20

20

20
26
Sand Control by Polymers

27
 Principle of action:

Stabilization of rock cement by "coating" with adsorbed

polymer/microgel layer

28
 Chemical sand consolidation

Two types of products; (1) Oil-based, (2) Water based

Oil-based product: resins and organo-silanes

Resins form hard solid compounds

Formulations have to re-establish oil/gas permeability

Water-based polymers are environmentally friendly

Lower consistency than resins, deeper penetration

Low costs compared to sand control completions

29
Advantages of water-based RPM
polymer products

Treatment has little impact on

oil or gas permeability
Thus, can be injected into
existing completion with no
risk of well plugging
Deeper penetration possible
than with resins or cement,
also much thicker intervals
Environmentally friendly
water based RPM products

30
Microgel treatment: effect on sand production

Sand monitoring device

31
 Effect of Microgel Treatment on Sand Production
Sand production before treatment Sand impacts at wellhead
sand (u.a.)

Sand production after treatment

Qgas

sand (u.a.)

Qgas

32
 Conclusions

Polymer Technology has great potential

Easier and cheaper than other IOR methods

Both EOR (reservoir) & WSO/Sand Control

(near-wellbore) applications

New products available (microgels)

Environmentally friendly (water based)

33
 Conclusions (II)

Broadening field of applications: Sand Control &

EOR in Heavy Oil fields

New products in WSO and Conformance, more

stable than conventional polymers (microgels)

Lab/Simulations integrated studies improve

process control & success rate

34