Control of water mobility using polymers and multivalent cations

Conference · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1974 · Soc. Pet. Eng. AIME, Pap.; (United States)

OSTI ID:6750572

Needham, R B; Threlkeld, C B; Gall, J W

A newly developed process, using a combination of water-soluble polymers and multivalent cations to reduce water mobility, has been tested in the laboratory. The process treats the porous media with a sequence of 3 slugs, the first and third being polymer solutions and the second being a solution of a selected multivalent cation. Calcium, magnesium, and aluminum cations have been used with partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamides or copolymers of acrylamide in laboratory flow tests. For example, treatments of Repetto sandstone cores having brine permeabilities of 200 to 400 md with a polymer solution resulted in a residual resistance factor to brine of about 3; whereas, residual resistance factors of 16 to 18 were obtained by using either calcium or aluminum cations in the 3-slug combination treatment with the same polymer. Based on laboratory evidence that polymer concentrations of 250 ppm can produce residual resistance factors in excess of 10 in porous media having brine permeabilities greater than one darcy, applications are evident in polymer flooding as well as in the high concentration-low volume treatment of oil-producing and water-injection wells.

• Research Organization: Phillips Petroleum Co.
• OSTI ID: 6750572
• Report Number(s): CONF-7404143-
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Soc. Pet. Eng. AIME, Pap.; (United States) Journal Volume: SPE-4747
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020300* -- Petroleum-- Drilling & Production
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
FLUID FLOW
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
MATERIALS
MOBILITY
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC POLYMERS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
POLYAMIDES
POLYMERS
POROUS MATERIALS
ROCKS
SANDSTONES
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
USES
WATER