Development of degradable pre-formed particle gel(DPPG)as temporary plugging agent for petroleum drilling and production

Temporary plugging agent(TPA)is widely used in many fields of petroleum reservoir drilling and production,such as temporary plugging while drilling and petroleum well stimulation by diverting in acidizing or fracturing operations.The commonly used TPA mainly includes hard particles,fibers,gels,and composite systems.However,current particles have many limitations in applications,such as insufficient plugging strength and slow degradation rate.In this paper,a degradable pre-formed particle gel(DPPG)was developed.Experimental results show that the DPPG has an excellent static swelling effect and self-degradation performance.With a decrease in the concentration of total monomers or cross-linker,the swelling volume of the synthesized DPPG gradually increases.However,the entire self-degradation time gradually decreases.The increase in 2-acrylamide-2-methylpropanesulfonic acid(AMPS)in the DPPG composition can significantly increase its swelling ratio and shorten the self-degradation time.Moreover,DPPG has excellent high-temperature resistance(150°C)and high-salinity resistance(200,000 mg/L NaCl).Core displacement results show that the DPPG has a perfect plugging effect in the porous media(the plugging pressure gradient was as high as 21.12 MPa),and the damage to the formation after degradation is incredibly minor.Therefore,the DPPG can be used as an up-and-coming TPA in oil fields.

Degradable preformed particle gel as temporary plugging agent for low-temperature unconventional petroleum reservoirs:Effect of molecular weight of the cross-linking agent

The development of unconventional petroleum resources has gradually become an important succession for increasing oil production.However,the related engineers and researchers are paying more and more attention to the application of temporary plugging agents(TPAs)for their efficient development.TPAs can expand the stimulated reservoir volume(SRV)and facilitate the flow of oil and gas to the bottom of the well.Particle-gels used as temporary plugging agents have the characteristics of the simple injection process,good deformation,high plugging strength,and complete self-degradation performance,which have been widely applied in recent years.In this paper,five samples of DPPG polymerized by different molecular weights of cross-linking agents were prepared.In addition,infrared spectroscopy analysis,differential calorimetry scanning(DSC)analysis,static particle gel swelling and degradation performance evaluation experiments,and dynamic temporary plugging performance experiments in cores were conducted at 34°C.Results show that as the molecular weight of the cross-linking agent(at 0.01 g)in the DPPG molecule decreased from 1,000 to 200 Da,the fewer cross-linking sites of DPPG,the looser the microscopic three-dimensional mesh structure formed.The swelling ratio increased from 7 to 33 times.However,the complete degradation time increased from 40 to 210 min.Moreover,the DSC results confirmed that the higher the molecular weight of the cross-linking agent,the worse is chemical stability and the more prone it to self-degradation.DPPG samples had good temporary plugging performance in reservoir cores.DPPGs prepared by the cross-linking agent with smaller molecular weight has a stronger swelling ratio,higher gel strength,and greater plugging strength in the core permeabilities.Moreover,the degraded DPPG is less damaging to the cores.However,their slower degradation rates take a slightly longer times to reach complete degradation.The results of this paper can provide new ideas and a theoretical basis for the development of particle gel-type temporary plugging agents(TPA)with controllable degradation time in low-temperature reservoirs.It can help to expand the application range of existing DPPG reservoir conditions.

Fracture propagation law of temporary plugging and diversion fracturing in shale reservoirs under completion experiments of horizontal well with multi-cluster sand jetting perforation

This study conducted temporary plugging and diversion fracturing(TPDF)experiments using a true triaxial fracturing simulation system within a laboratory setting that replicated a lab-based horizontal well completion with multi-cluster sand jetting perforation.The effects of temporary plugging agent(TPA)particle size,TPA concentration,single-cluster perforation number and cluster number on plugging pressure,multi-fracture diversion pattern and distribution of TPAs were investigated.A combination of TPAs with small particle sizes within the fracture and large particle sizes within the segment is conducive to increasing the plugging pressure and promoting the diversion of multi-fractures.The addition of fibers can quickly achieve ultra-high pressure,but it may lead to longitudinal fractures extending along the wellbore.The temporary plugging peak pressure increases with an increase in the concentration of the TPA,reaching a peak at a certain concentration,and further increases do not significantly improve the temporary plugging peak pressure.The breaking pressure and temporary plugging peak pressure show a decreasing trend with an increase in single-cluster perforation number.A lower number of single-cluster perforations is beneficial for increasing the breaking pressure and temporary plugging peak pressure,and it has a more significant control on the propagation of multi-cluster fractures.A lower number of clusters is not conducive to increasing the total number and complexity of artificial fractures,while a higher number of clusters makes it difficult to achieve effective plugging.The TPAs within the fracture is mainly concentrated in the complex fracture areas,especially at the intersections of fractures.Meanwhile,the TPAs within the segment are primarily distributed near the perforation cluster apertures which initiated complex fractures.

High-strength and self-degradable sodium alginate/polyacrylamide preformed particle gels for conformance control to enhance oil recovery

Excess water production has become an important issue in the oil and gas extraction process.Preformed particle gels(PPGs),show the capability to control the conformance and reduce excess water cut.However,conventional PPGs have poor mechanical properties and their swollen particles are easily damaged by shearing force when passing through the fractures in formations,meanwhile PPGs can be also degraded into various byproducts,leading to permanent damage to the reservoir permeability after temporary plugging.Herein,a novel type of dual cross-linked PPGs(dPPGs)was designed and synthesized using sodium alginate(SA)and acrylamide(AAm),cross-linked with N,N’-methylenebisacrylamide(MBA)and Fe^(3+).Results show that dPPGs have excellent mechanical properties with a storage modulus up to 86,445 Pa,which is almost 20 times higher than other reported PPGs.Meanwhile,dPPGs can be completely degraded into liquid without any solid residues or byproducts and the viscosity of dPPGs degraded liquid was found to be lower than 5 mPa·s.A laboratory coreflooding test showed that the plugging efficiency of dPPGs was up to 99.83%on open fractures.The obtained results demonstrated that dPPGs could be used as economical and environment-friendly temporary plugging agent with high-strength,self-degradation,thermal stability,and salt stability,thus making it applicable to a wide range of conformance control to enhance oil recovery.