Performance of silicate gel and polymer/Cr(III) gel treatments in high temperature reservoirs

Abstract

Gel treatment is increasingly used as permeability modifiers in reducing high water production. To analyze the influences of reservoir temperature on the performance of gel treatment, extensive numerical simulation study is undertaken to model the behavior of high temperature reservoirs. Polyacrylamide (PAM)/Cr3+ gel treatment and silicate gel method are compared with waterflooding through water-oil ratio and cumulative oil recovery. The results demonstrate that, for the case of common temperature, PAM/Cr3+ gel treatment results in highly decreased water-oil ratio compared with water flooding. PAM/Cr3+ gel have shown poor performance in high temperature reservoirs. However, silicate gel is still effective in high temperature reservoirs.