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Ivon Ulacio1 Andrés Ramírez2 Gonzalo Rojas3 Karla S. Farro N.4 Edgar Vásquez5
Palabras clave/Keywords/Palabras-chave:
Flood, injection, injeção, inyección, mobilidade, mobility, movilidad, pilot, piloto, polímero, polymer, reservatórios, reservoir, yacimiento.
1
Ing°Petró°, MSc, Universidad de Oriente (UDO). Correo-e: ivonulacio@gmail.com; 2Ing°Petró°, MSc, PDVSA Petrocedeño, S. A. Correo-e: ramirezandr@
gmail.com; 3Ing°Petró°, PhD, UDO. Correo-e: garojas45@gmail.com; 4Ing°Petró°, UDO. Correo-e: karlasfarrononato@gmail.com; 5Ing°Petró°, PDVSA
Petrocedeño, S. A. Correo-e: emvb26@hotmail.com
Problem Statement 315 psia). The reservoir is one polymer solution quality, and the
hydraulic unit given the results governing reservoir conditions,
Petrocedeño is a joint venture of salinity of produced water encourage the idea of apply field
between PDVSA (60%), TOTAL samples, and petrophysic experiments and operational
(30.4%), and Equinor (Former correlation. In the year 2016, tests. The objectives of the pilot
Statoil with 9.6%); it operates in the pilot test started operations. test are to provide quick answers
the Zuata main field, which is Since then, polymer solution at a to questions like injection
located in the Orinoco Belt. The concentration between 900 ppm performance, polymer stability,
reservoir is an unconsolidated and 1,600 ppm was injected in and effect of heterogeneities,
sandstone of Miocene age, from the reservoir which is a deltaic among others. The results will
where oil of 8.5°API is being sedimentary environment, determine if the technology
composed by distributary channel represents a feasible opportunity
produced since 1999. The field
fills and mouth bars. Four rocks for the future development of this
has an area of 399 km2, and more types were indentified using field.
of 300 stratigraphic wells. At the petrophysic concepts, being that
moment, more than 711 producing the predominant rock type has an Introduction
wells have been drilled since the average permeability of 15 Darcy,
beginning of the exploitation of and a water saturation of 6% The polymer pilot test con-
the field. After reach a plateau (porosity was stablished in 0.32). sist of three injectors wells af-
of production of 200,000 Bbl/d, The polymer flooding is injected fecting five producers wells (see
efforts have been made to through three injectors wells (Well figure 1). A polymer solution with
apply enhanced oil recovery AA06, AA07, AA08) affecting each an apparent viscosity of 66 cP
technologies that could be an one of them at two producers (considering a shear rate of 7.34
efficient solution to increase the wells (AA01, AA02, AA03, AA04). sec−1) was injected in each of
recovery factor, and to revitalize For more detail, see the figure 1, the injectors during the first three
the field. One of the possibilities is where the location of the wells is months, to displace the oil in the
the polymer flooding technology. showed. reservoir. The initial conditions
After performing the preliminary
prior to injection could be appre-
set of pre-project evaluations, Risk assessment before pilot ciated in the figure 1, as you can
and obtain promising results from project start up indicated that see, the reservoir pressure is ap-
laboratory analysis, it was decided was necessary to establish if proximately 315 psia, with a tem-
to execute a pilot test in an area the expected polymer solution perature of 115.5 °F, this could be
of the field, where conditions mobility was achieved, so several used to estimate a reservoir oil
showed no interest of applying any laboratory analyses were carried viscosity of 4,150 cP, considering
thermal recovery technique. The out: core flood experiments, the PVT data of the field.
reservoir pressure at the moment and polymer retention tests,
of project start up was 315 psia, however uncertainties regarding The reservoir petrophysic
the reservoir temperature 115.5 actual field application, such as data can be observed in the table
°F; average
porosity of 0.32;
the reservoir
a b s o l u t e
permeability
is estimated
between 19 –
15 Darcy, and
the reservoir
thickness is
25’. The oil
mobility is very
low due to very
high viscosity,
estimated
in 4,150 cP
according PVT
data (reservoir
conditions:
115.5 °F and
Figure 1. Location of the injector well regarding the producing wells
106 GEOMINAS, Vol. 50, N° 89, diciembre 2022
Evaluación de los cambios de movilidad de una solución …
Methodology
Table II. Ion content of the supply water and reservoir water
Table III. Parameters evaluated monthly on water samples lometric tubes. The appreciation
of the colometric tubes depends
on the user, so less variation is
observed. According to these re-
sults, the maximum expected iron
content should be 1.7 ppm (see
figure 7). Note that iron content
determined in the lab outside the
field is also plotted in the figure.
Oxygen content is lower than 0.2
ppm (see figure 8).
Table V. Flow behavior index for different polymer solutions concentra- by Serigth (2014), a maximum
tions decrease of 10 cPs in polymer
solution viscosity was observed
(see figure 12). For this analysis,
several samples of polymer solu-
tion were contaminated with dif-
ferent proportions of oxygen and
iron, and then isolated from the
atmosphere. The samples were
kept at a temperature of 116 °F
to simulate reservoir conditions.
For each target period (5, 10, 20,
40, 60, and 120 days) a sample
for each contaminant proportion
was subject to viscosity measure-
ments. A sample for each period
of time was prepared, so no sam-
ple was used more than one time
for these analyses.
• Flood strategy: Continuous in- • Well completion design: Chang- rates, which could be occurring
jection vs. slug injection with dif- es in the completion design in or- at the sand face.
ferent viscosities will be evaluat- der to reduce the storage effect,
ed. and improve the injection profile. Conclusions
• Improve the polymer stability: In • Investigate the possible neg- • The polymer solution under
order to be more resistant to the ative effect on polymer solution study showed a very strong
conditions found in the reservoir. viscosity caused by high shear shear shinning behavior at
surface conditions, thanks to Buell, R.S., Kazemi, H. and Po- Media. Society of Petroleum
the low salinity of the water ettmann, F.H. (1990). Analyz- Engineers. DOI: https://doi.
used for preparation. ing Injectivity of polymer solu- org/10.2118/129200-MS.
• The negative effects of iron tions with the hall plot, SPE
and oxygen content were dis- Reservoir Engineering, 5(01), Seright, R., & Skjevrak, I. (2014).
carded as a possible cause of (pp. 41–46). DOI: https://doi. Effect of Dissolved Iron
polymer viscosity affectation. org/10.2118/16963-PA. and Oxygen on Stability of
• Salinity of the reservoir wa- HPAM Polymers. SPE Im-
ter could affect negatively the Carreau, P. J. (1972). Rheo- proved Oil Recovery Sym-
polymer solution viscosity, de- logical Equations from Mo- posium. DOI: https://doi.
pending on the mixing degree lecular Network Theories. org/10.2118/169030-MS.
that is occurring in the reser- Transactions of the Soci-
ety of Rheology, 16(1), (pp. Shupe, R. D. (1981). Chemical
voir between the two aqueous
99–127). DOI: https://doi. Stability of Polyacrylamide
solutions.
org/10.1122/1.549276. Polymers. Journal of Petro-
• The evaluation of the charac-
leum Technology, 33(08),
teristics of the polymer solu-
Heemskerk, J., Rosmalen, R., 1513–1529. DOI: https://doi.
tion at different points of the
Janssen-van, R., Holtslag, R. org/10.2118/9299-PA.
preparation process indicated
J., & Teeuw, D. (1984). Quan-
that the injected fluid retained Thomas, A., Gaillard, N., &
tification of Viscoelastic Ef-
most of its properties before Favero, C. (2012). Some Key
fects of Polyacrylamide Solu-
entering the injector wells, in- Features to Consider When
tions. Society of Petroleum
dicating that no degradation Studying Acrylamide-Based
Engineers. DOI: https://doi.
was taking place at surface Polymers for Chemical En-
org/10.2118/12652-MS
conditions. hanced Oil Recovery. Oil &
• Filterability ratio indicated that Knight, B. L. (1973). Reservoir Gas Science and Technolo-
the polymer solution present- Stability of Polymer Solutions. gy – Revue d’IFP Energies
ed good quality, suitable for Journal of Petroleum Technol- nouvelles, 67(6), 887–902.
the injection process. ogy, 25(05), 618–626. DOI: DOI: https://doi.org/10.2516/
• A reduction in the mobility of https://doi.org/10.2118/4167- ogst/2012065.
the polymer solution was also PA.
observed using fall off test in- Vongvuthipornchai, S., & Ra-
terpretations. This conclusion Mahani, H., Sorop, T., Hoek, P. V., ghavan, R. (1987). Pressure
was also supported by the Brooks, D., & Zwaan, M. (2011). Falloff Behavior in Vertically
behavior of the Hall plot deriv- Injection Fall-Off Analysis of Fractured Wells: Non-Newto-
ative. Polymer flooding EOR. SPE nian Power-Law Fluids. SPE
• No lineal behavior was ob- Reservoir Characterization Formation Evaluation, 2(04),
served in the derivative re- and Simulation Conference 573–589. DOI: https://doi.
sponse in all the cases and Exhibition. DOI: https:// org/10.2118/13058-PA
studied; instead, radial stabili- doi.org/10.2118/145125-MS
zations were present in all the Willhite, G. P., & Dominguez, J.
studied fall off tests. Manichand, R. N., Mogollon, J. L., G. (1977). Mechanisms of
• The observed resistance fac- Bergwijn, S. S., Graanoogst, Polymer Retention in Porous
tor increase from 1, 3 to 7. The F., & Ramdajal, R. (2010). Pre- Media. Improved Oil Recov-
reasons behind this could be liminary Assessment of Tam- ery by Surfactant and Poly-
related to polymer retention. baredjo Heavy Oilfield Poly- mer Flooding, 511–554. DOI:
mer Flooding Pilot Test. SPE https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-
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