Eor/Ior Additional Reading Available at The

EOR/IOR
OVERVIEW
Currently available primary- and secondary-oil-production technologies leave behind two-thirds of the oil in place as stranded
oil. However, many analysis and field projects have shown that
significant oil-recovery increases are possible with improved/
enhanced oil recovery (EOR) by gas injection, thermal recovery, or chemical injection. The first two methods have proved
cost-effective even at low oil prices. Current oil prices have created renewed interest in more-costly chemical-based EOR methods such as gel
treatment, foam flooding, polymer flooding, alkaline/surfactant/polymer (ASP)
flooding, and alkaline flooding. This year, we focus on chemical-based EOR
methods. Chemical-EOR methods focus on improving the sweep efficiency by
correcting reservoir heterogeneity or controlling fluid mobility, or they focus on
increasing displacement efficiency by reducing residual-oil saturation.
EOR/IOR
additional reading
available at the
SPE eLibrary: www.spe.org
Gel treatment usually is intended to improve sweep efficiency and to reduce

excess water production in channeled or fracture-dominated mature reservoirs.
A newer trend in gel treatment is to apply preformed gels for in-depth treatments. These gels have been reported to penetrate deeply into superhigh-permeability streaks or fractures and seal or partially seal them off, thus creating
high flow resistance in formerly watered-out, high-permeability zones. When
successful, these gel systems divert a portion of the injection water into areas
not previously swept by water.
SPE 107776
Improved ASP Design
Using Organic-Compound/
Surfactant/Polymer for La
Salina Field, Maracaibo
Lake by E. Guerra, PDVSA
Intevep, et al.
Foam flooding often is used to reduce gas mobility and to correct reservoir heterogeneity and increase sweep efficiency for gasflooding. Foam can be injected
into the reservoir by coinjection of gas and surfactant solution or by injection
of surfactant solution alternating with gas (SAG). Foam stability, surfactantadsorption reduction, and optimized SAG-process design are the keys to controlling the economics of foam flooding.
SPE 107727
Polymer Flooding: A
Sustainable Enhanced Oil
Recovery in the Current
Scenario by Ivonete
P. Gonzalez da Silva,
Petrobras, et al.
Polymer flooding is designed to control mobility for waterflooding. Highmolecular-weight and new high-temperature salt-resistant polymers have made
polymer flooding more economical. Adding either an alkaline or surfactant
chemical, or both, in a polymer flood will scour residual oil from the rock, resulting in higher oil recovery than with polymer flooding alone. However, the scale
problem associated with alkaline limits the use of ASP flooding.
SPE 106901
SAGD Optimization
With Air Injection by
J.D.M. Belgrave, EnCana
Corporation, et al.
SPE 107095
Field-Scale Wettability
ModificationThe
Limitations of Diffusive
Surfactant Transport by
W.M. Stoll, SPE, Shell
International E&P, et al.
Wettability is of major importance to oil recovery, especially for fractured oilwet carbonate reservoirs where water flows through the fractures but does not
imbibe into the matrix because of negative capillary pressure. The chief concern
is to develop cost-effective chemical formulations that change the carbonate
JPT
wettability from oil-wet to water-wet.
Baojun Bai, SPE, is an assistant professor of petroleum engineering at Missouri
University of Science and Technology (University of Missouri-Rolla). Previously, he
was a reservoir engineer and head of the conformance-control section at the Research
Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development (RIPED), PetroChina. Bai also
was a post-doctoral scholar at the California Institute of Technology and a graduate
research assistant at the New Mexico Petroleum Recovery Research Center for EOR
projects. He holds a BS degree in reservoir engineering from Daqing Petroleum Institute,
an MS degree in oil and gas production and development engineering from RIPED, and
PhD degrees in petroleum engineering and in petroleum geology from New Mexico
Institute of Mining and Technology. Bai serves on the JPT Editorial Committee.
42
JPT JANUARY 2008

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Gel treatment usually is intended to improve sweep efficiency and to reduce

JPT JANUARY 2008

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