TY - BOOK
T1 - The impact of permeability heterogeneity on the effectiveness of alkaline surfactant polymer enhanced oil recovery process
AU - Ghafram Al Shahri, Hamid
PY - 2012
Y1 - 2012
N2 - [Truncated abstract] Alkaline surfactant polymer (ASP) flooding is one of the applied chemical enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques that have been proven successful in field pilot tests. Heterogeneity of rock layers in terms of permeability is known to affect the oil recovery processes. The performance of the ASP flooding process in heterogeneous porous medium has been studied by few researchers and these studies mainly focused on transverse/vertical (multi-layer) heterogeneity, meaning each layer being macroscopically homogenous itself but possessing different magnitudes of permeability compared to other layers. Results of those studies have demonstrated that the ASP process mitigates the heterogeneity effects. One of these studies provided valuable insight on the impact of vertical heterogeneity on ASP flooding. However, the impact of longitudinal heterogeneity on the ASP flooding process is not well understood, and requires further investigation. The goal of this study is to investigate how the efficiency of the ASP flooding process depends on the permeability alterations along the ASP flow path. In order to investigate the impact of longitudinal heterogeneity on ASP flooding processes, six well controlled sand pack ASP floods were conducted in packs with different heterogeneity configurations. Only one variable was allowed to change. All variables which could have influence on the amount of oil recovered by the ASP process were eliminated or equalised except for the heterogeneity. The heterogeneity in terms of permeability variations, in the direction of flow, was the only variable in these floods that was altered. The oil saturations in these sand packs before and after the ASP flooding were precisely determined based on mass measurements to evaluate the heterogeneity impact on the ASP process.
AB - [Truncated abstract] Alkaline surfactant polymer (ASP) flooding is one of the applied chemical enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques that have been proven successful in field pilot tests. Heterogeneity of rock layers in terms of permeability is known to affect the oil recovery processes. The performance of the ASP flooding process in heterogeneous porous medium has been studied by few researchers and these studies mainly focused on transverse/vertical (multi-layer) heterogeneity, meaning each layer being macroscopically homogenous itself but possessing different magnitudes of permeability compared to other layers. Results of those studies have demonstrated that the ASP process mitigates the heterogeneity effects. One of these studies provided valuable insight on the impact of vertical heterogeneity on ASP flooding. However, the impact of longitudinal heterogeneity on the ASP flooding process is not well understood, and requires further investigation. The goal of this study is to investigate how the efficiency of the ASP flooding process depends on the permeability alterations along the ASP flow path. In order to investigate the impact of longitudinal heterogeneity on ASP flooding processes, six well controlled sand pack ASP floods were conducted in packs with different heterogeneity configurations. Only one variable was allowed to change. All variables which could have influence on the amount of oil recovered by the ASP process were eliminated or equalised except for the heterogeneity. The heterogeneity in terms of permeability variations, in the direction of flow, was the only variable in these floods that was altered. The oil saturations in these sand packs before and after the ASP flooding were precisely determined based on mass measurements to evaluate the heterogeneity impact on the ASP process.
KW - Enhanced oil recovery
KW - Alkaline surfactant polymer flooding
KW - Emulsion flow
KW - Chemical flooding
KW - Porous media heterogeneity
KW - Interfacial tension (IFT)
KW - Chemical EOR
KW - Emulsion droplet size distribution
M3 - Doctoral Thesis
ER -