CONFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT USING GELS

This report describes work performed during the third and final year of the project, ''Conformance Improvement Using Gels.'' Corefloods revealed throughput dependencies of permeability reduction by polymers and gels that were much more prolonged during oil flow than water flow. This behavior was explained using simple mobility ratio arguments. A model was developed that quantitatively fits the results and predicts ''clean up'' times for oil productivity when production wells are returned to service after application of a polymer or gel treatment. X-ray computed microtomography studies of gels in strongly water-wet Berea sandstone and strongly oil-wet porous polyethylene suggested that oil penetration through gel-filled pores occurs by a gel-dehydration mechanism, rather than gel-ripping or gel-displacement mechanisms. In contrast, analysis of data from the University of Kansas suggests that the gel-ripping or displacement mechanisms are more important in more permeable, strongly water-wet sandpacks. These findings help to explain why aqueous gels can reduce permeability to water more than to oil under different conditions. Since cement is the most commonly used material for water shutoff, we considered when gels are preferred over cements. Our analysis and experimental results indicated that cement cannot be expected to completely fill (top to bottom) a vertical fracture of any width, except near the wellbore. For vertical fractures with apertures less than 4 mm, the cement slurry will simply not penetrate very far into the fracture. For vertical fractures with apertures greater than 4 mm, the slurry may penetrate a substantial distance into the bottom part of the fracture. However, except near the wellbore, the upper part of the fracture will remain open due to gravity segregation. We compared various approaches to plugging fractures using gels, including (1) varying polymer content, (2) varying placement (extrusion) rate, (3) using partially formed gels, (4) using combinations of high and low molecular weight (Mw) polymers, (5) using secondary crosslinking reactions, (6) injecting un-hydrated polymer particles, and (7) incorporating particulates. All of these methods showed promise in some aspects, but required performance improvements in other aspects. All materials investigated to date showed significant performance variations with fracture width. High pressure gradients and limited distance of penetration are common problems in tight fractures. Gravity segregation and low resistance to breaching are common problems in wide fractures. These will be key issues to address in future work. Although gels can exhibit disproportionate permeability reduction in fractures, the levels of permeability reduction for oil flow are too high to allow practical exploitation in most circumstances. In contrast, disproportionate permeability reduction provided by gels that form in porous rock (adjacent to the fractures) has considerable potential in fractured systems