摘要:
A process for reducing the permeability to water of a thief zone of a subterranean hydrocarbon reservoir, said process comprising injecting an injection fluid down a well and into a thief zone. The injection fluid comprises a dispersion of particles in water, which particles are capable of flocculating at a critical flocculation temperature (CFT) which is at or below the maximum temperature encountered in the thief zone and greater than the maximum temperature encountered in the well, and which particles comprise a carbon allotrope selected from graphene, carbon nanotubes, fullerenes and graphite, having adsorbed at its surface: (a) a non-ionic surfactant, and/or (b) a two-headed surfactant, and (c) optionally an ionic surfactant. The particles flocculate in the thief zone so as to reduce the permeability of the thief zone to water.
摘要:
The invention provides an improved method of controlling permeability in downhole formations. The invention provides a downhole process which comprises forcing an aqueous solution of polymer down a well into an insolubilising zone which is in a subterranean formation and which has a higher temperature than the temperature of the solution in the well and insolubilising the polymer in the insolubilising zone. The polymer solution is an aqueous solution of an LCST polymer having an LCST temperature between the temperature of the solution and the temperature of the zone. As the temperature of the solution increases towards the temperature in the zone the polymer becomes insolubilised.
摘要:
A method of recovering hydrocarbons from a porous subterranean hydrocarbon-bearing formation comprising the steps of : a) feeding to at least on reverse osmosis unit of a desalination assembly a high salinity water feed stream having a total dissolved solids content (total salinity) of at least 10,000 ppm; b) driving a portion of the high salinity water feed stream across a membrane in the reverse osmosis unit of the desalination assembly at a pressure above the osmotic pressure of the high salinity water feed stream while excluding at least a portion of the dissolved solids from crossing said membrane to produce a treated low salinity water product stream having a total salinity of less than 5,000 ppm and a concentrated waste brine stream wherein the hydrostatic head exerted by the high salinity water feed stream on the feed side of the membrane provides at least a major component of the pressure required to overcome the osmotic pressure; c) injecting the low salinity water product stream into the hydrocarbon-bearing formation from an injection well; d) displacing the hydrocarbons with the low salinity water product stream toward an associated production well; and e) recovering hydrocarbons from the formation via the production well.
摘要:
Cross-linked polymeric microparticles having a volume average particle size diameter of from about 0.05 to about 10 μιη and comprising from about 0.01 to about 5 mol% of one or more hydrolytically labile, crystallisable cross-linking structural units based on the total structural unit content of the polymeric microparticles and wherein the cross-linking structural units are derived from one or more hydrolytically labile, crystallisable cross-linking monomers having a number average molecular weight in the range of from about 1,500 to about 40,000 Daltons and comprise at least one polyester chain having at least five -RC(0)0- ester groups in a linear arrangement wherein the R groups each represent an alkanediyl group or a substituted alkanediyl group and wherein the cross-linking monomers have at least two sites of ethylenic unsaturation. The microparticles also comprise structural units derived from a hydrophilic monomer. When a dispersion of the microparticles in an aqueous fluid is injected into a hydrocarbon-bearing formation, the labile cross-linking structural units hydrolyze thereby releasing free polymer chains that are soluble or dispersible in the aqueous fluid such that a viscosified aqueous solution is generated within the formation,