This paper summarizes the performance of a polymerflooding pilot conducted in an unconsolidated sandstone reservoir in the south of Oman with the objective of extending the envelope of polymerflooding applications to lower-permeability (average 100 md) and highly heterogeneous reservoirs. Fiber-optics data acquisition has demonstrated clearly injection conformance improvement during the switch from water injection to polymer. In addition, approximately 10% of incremental oil recovery was obtained with an average water-cut reversal of 12% across the pattern where the total pattern recovery was greater than 30% (including the waterflood).
Introduction
Polymerflooding has been ongoing successfully in one of the major fields of southern Oman for almost 10 years. However, the operator aspires to extend the application boundary for the polymer to be applied in lower permeabilities, heavier oils, and different sweep strategies.
