Improved oil recovery in sandstone reservoirs with deep profile control technology: A comparative study between modified starch gel and polymer gel

Deep profile control technology was implemented to alleviate the issue of oil recovery in sandstone reservoirs caused by varying permeability. Rheological tests, injection and plugging capacity experiments, core flooding experiments combined with Computed Tomography (CT) analysis were performed to study the mechanisms of profile control, oil displacement, rheology, and plugging properties of modified starch gel and polymer gel. Moreover, a comparison was made regarding the oil recovery, sweep efficiency, and displacement efficiency for both the starch gel and polymer gel. The results show that the ease of injection and plugging properties of the modified starch gel are superior to those of the viscoelastic polymer gel. The visual and quantitative distribution profiles and migration characteristics of water, oil, and gels are characterized. During the gel flooding stage, the modified starch gel maintained a rigid shape compared to the lax behavior observed with polymer gel. During the subsequent water flooding stage, the modified starch gel became immobile. It plugged the high permeability layer of the core plug, increasing the sweep efficiency of the low permeability layer by 60.00%. The sweep efficiency of the low permeability layer increased by 37.26% as the polymer gel continued to flow through the core plug. In addition, the high permeability layer is easily swept clean, so enhancing the displacement efficiency is the key to maximizing recovery. The displacement and relatively easy sweep efficiencies must be improved simultaneously to maximize the recovery in the low permeability layer. The study's findings shed light on the significance of modified starch gel in enhancing oil recovery in sandstone reservoirs with varying permeability.

Automated summary

This study investigated the application of deep profile control technology to address the issue of oil recovery in sandstone reservoirs with varying permeability. Rheological tests, injection and plugging capacity experiments, and core flooding experiments were conducted to study the properties and mechanisms of modified starch gel and polymer gel. The results showed that the modified starch gel had better injection and plugging properties, resulting in improved oil displacement and sweep efficiency.