CHEMICAL EOR

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CHEMICAL RECOVERY
Chemical recovery methods include polymer, micellar-polymer and alkaline
flooding. Polymer flooding is used under certain reservoir conditions that lower the
efficiency of a regular waterflood, such as fractures or high-permeability regions that
channel or redirect the flow of injected water, or heavy oil that is resistant to flow.
Adding a water-soluble polymer to the waterflood allows the water to move through
more of the reservoir rock, resulting in a larger percentage of oil recovery. Polymer
gel is also used to shut off high-permeability zones.
Micellar-polymer flooding uses the injection of a micellar slug containing a
mixture of a surfactant, co-surfactant, alcohol, brine, and oil that moves through the
oil-bearing formation, releasing much of the oil trapped in the rock. This slug is
followed by polymer injection. This method is one of the most efficient EOR
methods, but is also one of the most costly to implement.
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Alkaline flooding requires the injection of alkaline
chemicals (lye or caustic solutions) into a reservoir that
react with petroleum acids to form surfactants that help
release the oil from the rock by reducing interfacial tension,
changing the rock surface wettability, or spontaneous
emulsification. The oil can then be more easily moved
through the reservoir to production wells.
A new modification to the process is the addition of
surfactant and polymer to the alkali, giving rise to an
alkaline-surfactant-polymer (ASP) EOR method,
essentially a less costly form of micellar-polymer flooding.
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POLYMER FLOODING
Certain reservoir conditions can lower the efficiency
of a regular waterflood. Natural fractures or high-
permeability regions in the reservoir rock sometimes will
cause the injected water to channel or flow around much
of the oil in place by taking the path of least resistance.
The heavier or more viscous oils will also cause
problems for a waterflood operation because of their
resistance to the more mobile or free-flowing water.
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 To help prevent injected water from bypassing oil,
the water can be made more viscous or thickened by the
addition of a water- soluble polymer. This, in effect,
allows the water to move through more of the reservoir
rock, resulting in a larger percentage of oil recovery.

Fresh water may be injected ahead & behind the

polymer solution to prevent it from being contaminated
by the final driving water, which may be produced brine.
Polymer gel can also be used to shut off high-
permeability zones.
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• Polymer flooding improves sweep efficiency by reducing
the mobility ratio between injected and displaced fluids.

Description
In polymer flooding, a slug of 0.3 PV or higher of polymer
solution is injected into the reservoir with a prior injection of a
low salinity brine (freshwater) slug. The polymer slug is
followed by another freshwater slug and by continuous driving
water injection.

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• The polymer solution slug is injected between 2 freshwater
buffers in order to attenuate the direct contact with the
saline reservoir water. The saline water reduces the
polymer solution's viscosity.

• The polymer flooding does not reduce the residual oil

saturation. In comparison with water flooding, it improves
oil recovery and accelerates oil production over by
increasing the reservoir volume contacted.

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 POLYMERS

WHY?
The viscosity increase, due to the addition of polymers soluble in water, lies in its large
or high molecular weight(1-3 millions and currently even up to 30).This feature is
accentuated by the anionic repulsion between polymer molecules and between segments on
the same molecule. The repulsion causes the molecule in solution to elongate &snag on
others similarly elongated; an effect that accentuates the mobility reduction of the more
viscous water at higher concentrations.
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 Interaction of Polymer Solution with Salinity
If the brine salinity is high, the repulsion of polymer molecule is
greatly decreased through ionic shielding since the freely rotating
carbon-carbon bonds allow the molecule to coil up.
The shielding causes a corresponding decrease in the effectiveness
of the polymer since snagging is greatly reduced.

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 Polymer Types
Polyacrylamide
Advantages:
• less expensive and providing higher resistance to drive water injection
Disadvantages:
• Sensitive to salts ,Highly affected by temperature conditions, the presence of
oxygen and high velocity .
Polysaccharides
Advantages:
• Not affected by salinity, and shearing effects
Disadvantages:
• Expensive and its stability degrades at temperatures above 200 F, Subjected to
biodegradation by enzymes.
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FLOW OF POLYMERS THROUGH POROUS MEDIS

Polymer Retention
Polymer retention is expressed by
adsorption of the polymer on rock surface and by
entrapment of polymer molecules in small pores
spaces which cause the permeability reduction.

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 Adsorption & Entrapment
Adsorption
• Adsorped polymers represent an additional resistance to flow
and a polymers loss of polymers.
• During adsorption the polymers leave the porous medium have
a lower concentration than before.
• The higher the polymer concentration before flowing through
the pore space the, higher will be the adsorption on the rock
surface.
• The reduction of polymer concentration is used as a measure of
adsorption. 16
 Entrapment
• The pore spaces in the reservoir rock have different pore sizes.
• The long chain of polymer molecules can easily flow into the large
pore sizes and trapped in the smaller openings only while The
passage of brine is permitted.
• The small openings that not contacted by the flowing polymer
molecules form the so called “inaccessible pore volume”.
• Up to 30% of the total pore volume may not be accessible to
polymer molecules, This allow polymers to displace oil, from the
other part of the reservoir, at rate faster than predicted.
• In other word the effective porosity, that is available to polymer
solution is much less than that is available for brine. 17
 Guidelines For Polymer Application
(Screening Criteria)
• Reservoir depth is critical when related to reservoir Temperature
• Polymer flooding is Successful when applied in the early stages
of a water flood process (when applied at the beginning as the
saturation of the mobile oil is high).
• Temperature less than 200F is suitable to obtain a stable
polymer solution.
• Porosity must be medium to high (higher than 18 %).
• Absolute permeability is considered good between 50 to 250md.
• Oil viscosity should not be higher than 150 to 200cp . 18
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