A Study of Micellar/Polymer Flooding Using a Compositional Simulator

An existing compositional chemical flooding simulator was modified and extended to include: 1) the effects of non-Newtonian behavior of polymer solutions, inaccessible pore volume and permeability reduction; 2) physical dispersion; 3) alcohol as a new component; and 4) relative pressure drop, which was modeled to study the mobility control of the process. Micellar/polymer oil recovery experiments were conducted and were history matched using the modified compositional simulator. The water flooding histories were matched using input parameters which were close to the laboratory measured values. The same parameters were employed for the simulation of the micellar/polymer oil recovery experiments and provided a good match of the oil breakthrough time. Other published micellar/polymer laboratory experiments were also matched. The senstivity of the oil recovery for these and similar floods to several process variables was investigated. These variables included salinity gradient, oil content of the slug, polymer buffer grading, and·relative permeability.