Effect of AMPS(2-acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulfonic acid) content on the properties of polymer gels

The BST oilfield in the northwestern Taklamakan Desert is a fractured carbonate reservoir,but issues of water breakthrough are becoming increasingly severe with the development of water flooding.Unfortunately,the high-temperature and high-salt conditions(130°C,71695 mg/L)of the BST oilfield pose challenges for the development of plugging agents.In this study,the effects of 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulfonic acid(AMPS)content on AM/AMPS copolymers and gels were studied through viscosity measurements,nuclear magnetic resonance(NMR),and cryo-scanning electron microscope(Cryo-SEM).Moreover,the AMPS stabilization mechanism of the polymers and gels was explained.Heatresistant and salt-tolerant gel systems were developed,and their gelation properties,thermal stability,injection capacity,and plugging ability were evaluated.Experimental results showed inconsistencies between the effects of AMPS content on the polymers and gels.For the polymers,the thermal stability increased with increased AMPS content in the polymer.However,excessive AMPS content resulted in poor gelation and low strength.The developed gel systems with S30 polymer(AMPS content is approximately 26%)exhibited excellent thermal stability,controllable gelation time,good injection capacity,and plugging ability.The field application results indicated that most production wells had a positive response,with reduced water-cut and increased daily oil production.

Development of self-generated proppant based on modified low-density and low-viscosity epoxy resin and its evaluation

Hydraulic fracturing is a critical technology for the economic development of unconventional oil and gas reservoirs.The main factor influencing fracture propping and reservoir stimulation effect is proppant performance.The increasing depth of fractured oil and gas reservoirs is causing growing difficulty in hydraulic fracturing.Moreover,the migration of conventional proppants within the fracture is always limited due to small fracture width and rigid proppant structure.Thus,proppants with good transportation capacity and fracture propping effects are needed.First,a novel self-generated proppant based on toughened low-viscosity and low-density epoxy resin was developed to satisfy this demand.Then,proppant performances were evaluated.Low-viscosity and low-density epoxy resin was generated when the thiol-ene click chemical reaction product of eugenol and 1-thioglycerol reacts with the epichlorohydrin.Then,the resin was toughened with graphite particles to increase its compressive strength from50.8 to 72.1 MPa based on micro-cracking mechanism and crazing-nail anchor mechanism.The adduct of diethylene triamine and butyl glycidyl ether and the Si O2 nanoparticles were treated as the curing agent and emulsifier respectively to form the emulsion.The emulsion is transformed into solid particles of various sizes within a reservoir to prop the fracture.Evaluation shows good migration capacity of this self-generated proppant due to the low density of epoxy resin.

Unlocking the potentials of gel conformance for water shutoff in fractured reservoirs: Favorable attributes of the double network gel for enhancing oil recovery

The double-network prepared with an in-situ monomer gel and a fast-crosslinked Cr(III) gel is introduced to develop a thixotropic and high-strength gel (THSG), which is found to have many advantages over the traditional gels. The THSG gel demonstrates remarkable thermal stability, and no syneresis is observed after 12 months with high salinity brine (95,500 mg/L). Moreover, the SEM and XRD results indicate that the gel is intercalated into the lamellar structures of Na-MMT, where the gel can form a uniform and compact structure. In addition, the THSG gel has an excellent swelling behavior, even in the high salinity brine. In the slim tube experiments, the THSG gel exhibits high rupture pressure and improves blocking capacity after being ruptured. The core flooding results show that a layer of gel filter cake is formed on the face of the fracture, which may be promoted by a high matrix permeability, a small aperture fracture, and a high injection rate. After the gel treatment, the fracture can be completely blocked by the THSG gel. It is found that a high incremental oil recovery (65.3%) can be achieved when the fracture was completely blocked, compared to 40.2% if the gel is ruptured. Although the swelling of ruptured gel can improve oil recovery, part of the injected brine may be channeled through the gel-filled fractures, resulting in a decrease in the sweep efficiency. Therefore, the improved blocking ability by gel swelling (e.g., in fresh water) may be less efficient to contribute to an enhancement of oil recovery. It is also found that the pressure gradient and residual resistance factor to water (Frrw) are higher if the matrix is less permeable, indicating that the fractured reservoir with lower matrix permeability may require a higher gel strength for treatment. The findings of this study may provide novel insights on designing robust double network gels for water shutoff in fractured reservoirs.

Numerical simulation on proppant migration and placement within the rough and complex fractures

Hydraulic fracturing is a key technology for the development of unconventional hydrocarbon resources.The proppant placement morphology determines the fracture conductivity,thus affecting the reservoir stimulation effect.In this paper,the proppant migration and placement within complex fractures was studied by considering the fracture wall roughness through computational fluid mechanics-discrete element method(CFD-DEM)in numerical simulation,which is a key approach to study the proppant migration and placement.The results show that the proppant placement non-uniformity,proppant migration capacity,and proppant volume filled in the far-end and the secondary branched fracture are enhanced within the rough fracture compared with those within smooth fractures.The proppant migration capacity is increased within the fracture at low inclination angles(<60°)and low approach angles(<90°),and the proppant placement area is larger in the inclined fracture than that in the vertical fracture.The rise of injection rate and fracturing fluid viscosity causes more proppants migrate to far-end or secondary fractures,resulting in a non-proppant area within the near-wellbore fracture.An increase by 1.3 times in the injection rate and 3 times in the fracturing fluid viscosity leads to a decrease by 26.6%and 27%,respectively,in the proppant placement area within the near-wellbore fracture.The staged injection with small size proppants followed by large size proppants increases the proppant placement area in the primary fracture by 13%-26%,and that with large size proppants followed by small size proppants increases the proppant placement area by 19%-25%,which is due to that the latter method facilitates filling of the secondary branched fracture.The injection location mainly affects the proppant filling degree within the near-wellbore fractures.Compared with the upper injection,the middle and lower injection is not beneficial to filling of proppants within the near-wellbore fracture.

The effect of betaine surfactants on the association behavior of associating polymer

The interfacial properties and rheological behavior of surfactant/polymer complex systems were measured to investigate the association behavior of the associating polymer.Compared with the pure surfactant solution,there are two inflection points in the surface tension curve for the surfactant/polymer complex systems.The two inflection points are dependent on the surfactant type and polymer concentration.The effect of surfactant on the rheological behavior of polymer can be divided into two aspects.First,the addition of short-chain betaine surfactant is detrimental to the viscosity of polymer solution due to the electrostatic shielding effect.Second,long-chain betaine surfactant also reduces the viscosity of polymer solutions at low concentrations.However,when the concentration of the long-chain betaine surfactant is relatively high,the long-chain betaine surfactant could form worm-like micelles that promote the intermolecular association and thus increase the number of associating junctions,thereby resulting in the augmentation of viscosity.So it is necessary to apply the long-chain betaine surfactant to build the polymer/surfactant flooding system.The interaction model between surfactant and polymer is proposed,which is different from the traditional‘Three-Region Model’.

Self-healing elastomer modified proppants for proppant flowback control in hydraulic fracturing

To address proppant flowback issues during post-fracturing treatments and production,self-healing elastomer modified proppants(SMPs)are proposed.Owing to their inherent self-aggregation behavior,the SMPs can aggregate together spontaneously to prevent proppant flowback and increase the pack porosity.It is noteworthy that the SMPs have a firm and dry self-healing elastomer(SE)coating,making their storage,transport and use as conventional proppants possible.The SE synthesized through polymerization is rich in amidogens and carbonyl groups as characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and the proton nuclear magnetic resonance.Thermal and thermomechanical properties of the SE coating are revealed by the thermogravimetric analysis,the differential scanning calorimetry and the rheological tests.The self-aggregation behavior of the SMPs is demonstrated by the adhesion force tests.The reversible hydrogen bonding interactions in SE coating contribute to the self-aggregation behavior of the SMPs,which is revealed by the thixotropy test and the FTIR analysis at different temperatures.With the self-aggregation behavior,the crushed proppants can aggregate in situ to form a stable structure again and therefore reduce the threat of narrowing down the fracture and proppant flowback,which has an important practical significance during oil and gas production.

Self-aggregating behavior of poly(4-vinyl pyridine)and the potential in mitigating sand production based onπ-πstacking interaction

Unconsolidated sandstone reservoirs are most susceptible to sand production that leads to a dramatic oil production decline.In this study,the poly(4-vinyl pyridine)(P_(4)VP)incorporated with self-aggregating behavior was proposed for sand migration control.The P_(4)VP could aggregate sand grains spontaneously throughπ-πstacking interactions to withstand the drag forces sufficiently.The influential factors on the self-aggregating behavior of the P_(4)VP were evaluated by adhesion force test.The adsorption as well as desorption behavior of P_(4)VP on sand grains was characterized by scanning electron microscopy and adhesion force test at different pH conditions.The result indicated that the pH altered the forms of surface silanol groups on sand grains,which in turn affected the adsorption process of P_(4)VP.The spontaneous dimerization of P_(4)VP molecules resulting from theπ-πstacking interaction was demonstrated by reduced density gradient analysis,which contributed to the self-aggregating behavior and the thermally reversible characteristic of the P_(4)VP.Dynamic sand stabilization test revealed that the P_(4)VP showed wide pH and temperature ranges of application.The production of sands can be mitigated effectively at 20-130℃ within the pH range of 4-8.