Assessment on synergic potential of hybrid gel treatment with low salinity waterflood

Abstract

With gel treatment, application of low salinity waterflood recovers significant amount oil from mixed-or oil-wet and severely heterogeneous reservoirs due to wettability alteration. In order to assess the performance of hybrid gel treatment with low salinity waterflood, numerical simulations has been performed for various injection schemes including low salinity polymer flood and hybrid gel treatment with low salinity waterflood. While injectivity in polymer process is significantly reduced by injection of low salinity water, that of gel treatment process is not highly influenced. In addition, optimization algorithm maximizing net present value (NPV) is applied to injection scheme under consideration of injectivity to clarify the assessment of potential of hybrid gel treatment with low salinity waterflood comparing with low salinity polymer flood. Restricted constraint condition of injection makes hybrid gel treatment with low salinity waterflood to become efficient recovery method with respect to not only NPV but also injectivity comparing with low salinity polymer flood. A thorough understanding of dramatic synergic effect from hybrid gel treatment with low salinity waterflood helps to determine appropriate hybrid EOR with low salinity waterflood corresponding to specific characteristics of reservoirs.