An evaluation of the combination of EOR technologies based on applied reservoir simulation

Abstract

This master thesis investigates a combination of two different chemicalEOR methods: 1) polymer flooding and 2) deep profile control.The combination of these EOR methods are simulated by the useof ECLIPSE100 on a simplified synthetic 3D model (500m x 500m x36m). A 4 meter thick high permeability layer with a permeability of2000 mD is sandwiched between two low permeability layers of 100mD. For most of the simulations, the oil viscosity was 30 cp. After 30years of production, polymer flooding as a mobility control yieldedan additional recovery of 6.7% of STOOIP. The combination of mobilitycontrol and deep profile control almost doubled the effect andgave additional recovery of 11.3% of STOOIP. Sensitivity studies showedthat the effect of deep profile control is highly dependent on theextension of the partly blocked zone. The larger the blocking zone,the higher recovery by deep profile control. Saturation plots showedthat polymer flooding advances the water front in the low permeablelayers while profile control recover additional oil around the blockedarea inside the low permeable formation. The two methods have adual advantage and produce additional oil that is complementary toeach other. In this master thesis it has been shown that the concept ofcombined polymer flooding and profile control is a highly promisingcombined recovery method, and a method that should be consideredwhen evaluating a development scheme.