Formation damage during alkaline-surfactant-polymer flooding in the Sanan-5 block of the Daqing Oilfield, China.

Alkaline-Surfactant-Polymer (ASP) flooding is an emerging chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) technology which has significantly enhanced oil recovery of Daqing Oilfield. ASP flooding benefits from the synergy effects of alkali, surfactant and polymer to improve both volumetric and displacement efficiencies and meanwhile lower surfactant adsorption. However, ASP flooding also induces some negative formation damage effects such as scaling, adsorption, and mineral dissolution. In this paper, we investigated the formation damage caused during ASP flooding in Block Sanan-5 in Songliao Basin – one of the most productive blocks of Daqing Oilfield in China. It was found that the distribution of formation damage caused by ASP flooding followed flow paths of chemical solutions and was dependent on well locations. The severity of damage varies as distance increases from the near-injection-well area to the near-production-well area. Understanding the effects of well locations on formation damage during ASP flooding could provide more accurate evaluation of formation damage and helped to guide reservoir development strategies. To analyze the well location factor, we collected scaling samples and more than 970 m of core samples from Block Sanan-5 of Daqing Oilfield covering different wells on various flow paths before and after ASP flooding. The changes of some key petrophysical parameters such as porosity and permeability before and after ASP flooding were investigated. A series of experiments, including Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Casting Thin Sections (CTS), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and ion analysis of produced water were performed to test properties of core samples. In addition, absorption of different components in the ASP solutions was also measured. Experimental results indicate that the ASP flooding has considerably different influences on different parts of flow paths. After ASP flooding, permeability distribution of core samples exhibits different variability trends from the near-injection-well areas to near-production-well areas. Due to absorption of alkali and polymer, grains migration and scaling of calcium and magnesium, permeability decreases at the near-injection-well area, then increases at an intermediate distance and decreases again at the near-production-well. Moreover, porosity of samples shows a similar tendency with variability of permeability, which is interpreted by the strong mineral corrosion due to high concentration of alkali in the near-wellbore area, while its extent of variation is smaller than permeability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]