Simulation Study of Oil Viscosity on Polymer Flooding for Oil Recovery: Case Study of Chad/Bornu Oil Fields

Jibril, I.B. Bello A. and Dansabe I.T.

Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources Engineering, Kaduna Polytechnic, Kaduna.

Keywords: Polymer flooding, Gravity-Tongue, Viscous Fingering, Oil recovery.

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the influence of oil viscosity on polymer flooding mechanism in one of the reservoirs of Bornu oil field using simulation model. The polymer flooding simulation is done by coding data of the selected field of study on a note pad and run on an Oil simulator ECLIPSE 100 and designed to investigate the behavior of oil viscosity sensitivity assessments on oil recovery. Results obtained from the simulations indicate that the FOPT, FOE, FCPT and FPR decrease with increase in the oil viscosity. These decreases are attributed to the increase in the mobility ratio between the polymer solution and the oil phase, the viscous forces are dominating and the polymer solution underruns the oil, forming a so-called "gravity-tongue". The effect results in high proportion of the oil being left as residual oil at the end of the polymer flooding process. This study provides technical support in selecting and optimizing enhanced oil recovery systems for chemical flooding.