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Study on Plugging Mechanism of Gel Plugging Agent in Fractured Carbonate Oil Reservoirs

  • INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES OF OIL AND GAS
  • Published:
Chemistry and Technology of Fuels and Oils Aims and scope

Estimates show that carbonate reservoirs contribute to 60% of the world’s total oil and gas production, where fractured reservoir bodies are the most widely and commonly distributed. Among all materials for plugging fractured reservoir bodies, gel plugging agent is very suitable, for which can solve the problems of rapid increase of water cut and rapid production reduction of wells. However, the plugging mechanism of gel plugging agent in fractured carbonate oil reservoir is still unclear. In this paper, AM/AMPS phenolic gel was prepared. Besides, a microscopic visualization research system of fractured-vuggy carbonate reservoirs was designed and established independently, and the fractured core model was self-made. Through the core flow test and microscopic visualization experiment, the plugging performance and mechanism of gel plugging agent in fractured carbonate oil reservoir were thorughly studied. The results demonstrated that AM/AMPS phenolic gel has selective plugging performance in fractures. After the system is gelled, it mainly plugs the water-bearing layer, with a water plugging rate as high as 99.82 %, and basically does not plug the oil-bearing layer, with an oil plugging rate of only 11.7%. It can be known that gel plugging agent has a plugging mechanism of mainly “inhibiting high-permeability reservoirs and unclogging low-permeability reservoirs”, and it is characterized by “plugging without stopping”. As a result, it can slowly migrate through high-permeability reservoirs and form a re-plugging.

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Acknowledgements

Financial support by the 2022 Scientific Research Program Funded by Hubei Provincial Department of Education, funding project number: Q20222902.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hubei Key Laboratory for Processing and Application of Catalytic Materials, Huanggang Normal University, Huanggang, China

    Xuejiao Li, Lingyang Su, Qi Li & Yingyang Wang

  2. College of Petroleum Engineering, Yangtze University, Wuhan, China

    Meilong Fu

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  1. Xuejiao Li
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  2. Lingyang Su
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  3. Meilong Fu
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  4. Qi Li
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  5. Yingyang Wang
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Correspondence to Xuejiao Li.

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Translated from Khimiya i Tekhnologiya Topliv i Masel, No. 3, pp. 76–82 May – June, 2023.

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Li, X., Su, L., Fu, M. et al. Study on Plugging Mechanism of Gel Plugging Agent in Fractured Carbonate Oil Reservoirs. Chem Technol Fuels Oils 59, 507–516 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10553-023-01552-2

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