Experiment on water-flooding sweep control technique for carbonate reservoir with abnormally high temperature and high salinity:A case study of Abu Dhabi X Oilfield
Nowadays,Abu Dhabi X carbonate oilfield is confronted with serious heterogenity water-flooding problems caused by abnormally high temperature and high salinity as well as severe heterogeneity. It is difficult to solve these problems with conventional water shutoff & profile control and EOR methods. In this work,a novel Soft Microgel(SMG)aqueous dispersion was selected as the displacement phase for the water-flooding sweep control technique. The natural core and crude oil from Abu Dhabi X carbonate oilfield and simulated formation water were used in the experiment to perform the analysis of SMG physical and chemical performance,research on SMG oil displacement mechanism and physical simulation experiment on oil displacement. The results indicate that the SMG aqueous dispersion has the characteristics of low viscosity,easy injection,easy deep migration,and excellent ability of retention and shutoff. To some extent,it can make up for the defect of traditional polymer flooding mechanism and overcome the limitation of oilfield application. The excellent thermal stability of SMG has been proved by six months of abnormally high temperature and high salinity aging test,demonstrating its outstanding resistance to high temperature and high salinity under reservoir conditions. Furthermore,the SMG after aging is still able to improve the water-flooding swept volume and enhance the integrated recovery of the reservoir. According to the results,the EORs of submillimeter-scale SMG and micron-scale SMG increased by 6.70% and 5.67%,respectively. To sum up,the water-flooding sweep control technique with SMG aqueous dispersion as the displacement phase can effectively control the sweep direction of water-flooding in reservoirs and improve the sweep efficiency of water flooding,for which it is expected to solve the development problem of uneven water-flooding in abnormally high temperature and high salinity reservoirs in Abu Dhabi.