Development of a High-Temperature-Resistant Polymer-Gel System for Conformance Control in Jidong Oil Field

Abstract

Summary The PG Reservoir in Jidong Oil Field is at a depth of approximately 4500 m with an extremely high temperature of approximately 150°C. The average water cut has reached nearly 80%, but the oil recovery is less than 10% after only 2 years of waterflooding process. It is of great importance to develop a high-temperature-resistant plugging system to improve the reservoir conformance and control water production. An in-situ polymer-gel system formed by the terpolymer and a new crosslinker system was developed, and its properties were systematically studied under the condition of extremely high temperature (150°C). Suitable gelation time and favorable gel strength were obtained by adjusting the concentration of the terpolymer (0.4 to 1.0%) and the crosslinker system (0.4 to 0.7%). An increase of polymer and crosslinker concentration would decrease the gelation time and increase the gel strength. The gelant could form continuous 3D network structures and thus have an excellent long-term thermal stability. The syneresis of this gel system was minor, even after being heated for 5 months at the temperature of 150°C. The gel system could maintain most of the initial viscosity and viscoelasticity, even after experiencing the mechanical shear or the porous-media shear. Core-flow experiments showed that the gel system could have great potential to improve the conformance in Jidong Oil Field.