Experimental Study on the Matching Relationship between PPG Size and Reservoir Heterogeneity

Abstract

Abstract Preformed Particle Gels are successfully used for profile control in heterogeneous reservoirs. However, it is still unclear how to select proper PPG size for a given heterogeneous reservoir. In order to obtain the best profile control performance, it is necessary to study the matching relationship between the PPG mesh and the permeability ratio. In this paper, the heterogeneous parallel-dual-sandpack experimental setup is established, including the injection system, measurement systems for temperature and pressure. During the experimental processes of water injection, PPG injection and subsequent water injection, the fractional flow of the two sandpacks with high and low permeability are recorded respectively. Then, a quantitative characterization parameter of the profile improvement ability is defined by dividing the change of fractional flow of the low permeable sandpack before and after PPG injection by that of low permeable sandpack before PPG injection. The experimental results show that different PPG meshes will achieve different profile control performance for the heterogeneous sandpack with the determined permeability ratio. The PPG with excessive large size may block the low permeable area, decrease its fractional flow and thus cause more severe flow heterogeneity. The PPG with excessive small size can not well block the high permeability area and they can migrate out during subsequent water injection resulting in the increase of fractional flow in high permeable area again. The matching relationship analysis show that the matched PPG mesh increases as the permeability ratio of the heterogeneous sandpack increases. In detail, the matched PPG sizes for the permeability ratio of 2, 4, and 6 are 120-150 mesh, 100-120 mesh and 60-80 mesh, respectively. The paper studied the matching relationship between PPG size and permeability heterogeneity, which was beneficial for selecting the proper PPG size for different heterogeneous reservoirs in more future applications.