The role of the polymer in rock-fluid interactions

Time: 12:45 – 13:30, November 8

Room: 02.110

Polymer injection into heterogeneous reservoirs can be an effective technology for improved oil recovery. The polymer increases the viscosity of the displacing fluid, which improves the mobility ratio. This leads to a better sweep efficiency. However, during the flow of the polymer in porous media, the decrease of its viscosity can happen due to the mechanical degradation and/or an increase in salt concentration in the polymer slug. Therefore, preventing viscosity loss during the polymer application has to be done prior to the treatment of a reservoir.

In this work, a series of core flood experiments was carried out to study the effect of rock-fluid interaction during the polymer flow in outcrop cores for both high and low salinity brine. Of the effluent, the ionic composition was determined (inductively coupled plasma spectrometry ICP) as well as the viscosity (rheology measurements). Core flood experiments were accompanied by modelling in PHREEQC. This work has been done as a joint project between TU Delft and Shell Global Solutions. All experiments were conducted at TU Delft.