Comparative Evaluation of Silica Nanoparticles Assisted Polymer Flood and ASP Flood for Enhanced Oil Recovery

Using Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) methods is highly regarded due to decline in oil production from the reservoirs. Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery (CEOR) methods are one of the most attractive ways to improve oil production. Common methods of CEOR are polymer flooding and alkaline-surfactant-polymer flooding. In polymer flooding; polymer is added to water to both increase the viscosity of water and to decrease the mobility ratio of displaced and displacing fluids. In alkaline-surfactant-polymer flooding; a solution of alkali, surfactant and polymer is injected and followed by a polymer drive. There is an extensive body of literature on the successful performance of polymer flooding and alkaline-surfactant-polymer flooding. Unfortunately, the substantial reduction in world oil prices restricts the use of costly methods to improve oil recovery. As a result, CEOR processes such as alkaline/surfactant/polymer flooding must be designed and implemented in an economically attractive manner to be perceived as viable oil recovery options and the primary expenses associated with these processes are chemical costs. Moreover, nanoparticles offer many new opportunities into various branches of the petroleum engineering. This paper includes a history match of one-dimensional (1D) alkaline-surfactant-polymer flood using a chemical compositional simulator. In this paper, a comparative simulation study is carried out and the effects of alkaline-surfactant-polymer flood and silica nanoparticles assisted polymer flood on oil recovery are simulated. Simulation results show that dispersed silica nanoparticles improve the effect of polymer flooding on oil recovery. Comparison of the simulation results declares that both alkaline-surfactant-polymer flood and silica nanoparticles assisted polymer flood improve oil recovery considerably, but the amount of oil recovery by the means of silica nanoparticles assisted polymer flood, in this specific case, is higher than ASP flood

Keywords:

Silica Nanoparticles , ASP Flood , Chemical Compositional Simulator