Work

Reservoir Equilibrium Development Method by Combined Conformance Control of Polymer/Gel-Dispersed Fluids

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Reservoir conformance control is a necessary production measure in the oil field, which significantly impacts the efficiency of enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Polymers, hydrophobic associating polymers (HAPs), polymer microgels (MGs), and preformed particle gel (PPG) are typical polymer/gel dispersion fluids that are widely used as conformance control agents. Currently, there is still no combined conformance control method to realize the equilibrium production of the reservoir. This paper first evaluates the reservoir adaptability of polymers, HAPs, and MGs by the three-parallel core displacement experiments. Then, the displacement equilibrium factor (DEF) was established by comprehensively considering the profile improvement, oil increment, and oil recovery to optimize the fluid switching time. Based on the above oil displacement experiments, a scatter plot of the DEF with respect to the ultimate recovery of each layer can be plotted, which has an inflection point when the DEF is 45%. When the DEF is lower than 45%, the difference in the oil displacement effect of each layer is enhanced. Therefore, the best time to switch the injection fluid is when the DEF is reduced to 45%. Finally, based on the above results, a graph guiding the combined conformance control method under different reservoir variation coefficients and reservoir median permeability was established, and an equilibrium production method for heterogeneous reservoirs was developed. The five-parallel core flooding experiments with the DEF < 45% as the switching guidance can increase the oil recovery by 17.79% based on association polymer flooding, which is 9.68% higher than that of the conventional conformance control method. This paper can provide theoretical and experimental support for the optimal design of conformance control in oilfields.

Source: Gels

DOI: 10.3390/gels12060543