Abdelazim Abbas Ahmed
University Technology Petronas
Tronoh
Malaysia
Title: Rheological and Propagation of Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-Acrylic Acid) grafted Montmorillonite Dispersion in Heterogeneous Sand Pack for Improving Sweep Efficiency
Biography
Biography: Abdelazim Abbas Ahmed
Abstract
High water production is a major issue for upstream oil and gas operators due to massive water injection. Reducing the water production while improving oil recovery from these fields is a key challenge. Polymer based gels have been widely used to improve reservoir conformance problems and to reduce excess water production. Unfortunately, polymer gels are not suitable for high temperature reservoirs (> 100 °C), because at high temperature polymer gels loss both stability and effectiveness. The present study reports on laboratories experiments carried out to investigate rheological properties and propagation of modified bentonite clay particles in a heterogeneous sand pack. A series of sand pack flooding tests were conducted on modified bentonite clay diluted in brines of various salinities, pH, and various particles concentrations. Propagation, retention and dispersion of modified bentonite were studied in a heterogeneous sand pack represented by three parallel cylindrical cores flow model with different permeability. These tests evaluate injectivity and determine permeability reduction. Results showed that a high flow resistance developed across the sand pack demonstrating high retention and adsorption of modified bentonite in the sand pack. Results also suggested another very significant advantages that modified bentonite could be selectively injected into high permeability zones due to low viscosity of particles dispersion. These positive results bring new promising insights for successful applications of modified bentonite.