Evaluating Efficiency of Surfactant-Polymer Flooding with Single Well Chemical Tracer Tests at Kholmogorskoye Field

Abstract

EOR technologies in general and surfactant-polymer flooding (SP) in particular is considered as a tertiary method for redevelopment of mature oil fields in Western Siberia, with potential to increase oil recovery to 60-70% OOIP. The selection of effective surfactant blend and a polymer for SP flooding a complex and multi-stage process. The selected SP compositions were tested at Kholmogorskoye oilfield in September-December 2020. Two single well tests with partitioning chemical tracers (SWCTT) and the injectivity test were performed. The surfactant and the polymer for chemical EOR were selecting during laboratory studies. Thermal stability, phase behavior, interfacial tension and rheology of SP formulation were investigated, then a prospective chemical design was developed. Filtration experiments were carried out for optimization of slugs and concentrations. Then SWCTT was used to evaluated residual oil saturation after water flooding and after implementation of chemical EOR in the near wellbore areas. The difference between the obtained values is a measure of the efficiency of surfactant-polymer flooding. Pandemic restriction shifted SWCTT to the period when temperature dropped below zero and suitable for winter conditions equipment was required. Two SWCTT were conducted with same surfactant, but different design of slugs in order to prove technical and economic models of SP-flooding. Long-term polymer injectivity was accessed at the third well. Oil saturation of sandstone reservoir after the injection of a surfactant-polymer solution was reduced about 10% points which is around one third of the residual oil after water flooding. Results were compared with other available data such as well logging, lab core flooding experiments, and hydrodynamic simulation. Modeling of SWCTT is ongoing, current interpretation confirms the increase the oil recovery factor after SP-flooding up to 20-25%, which is a promising result. Temperature model of the bottom hole zone was created and verified. The model predicts that temperature of those zones essentially below that average in the reservoir, which is important for interpretation of tracer test and surfactant efficiency. The tested surfactant showed an acceptable efficiency at under-optimum conditions, which is favorable for application of the SP formulation for neighboring field and layers with different reservoir temperatures, but similar water composition. In general, the results of the conducted field tests correlate with the results of the core experiments for the selected surfactant