Reservoir simulation study on Schrader Bluff polymer flood

• Main Author: Jiang, Yirong
• Other Authors: Patil, Shirish, Dandekar, Abhijit, Ning, Samson Xiuxu, Khataniar, Santanu
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Enhanced oil recovery; Oil fields; Secondary recovery of oil; Oil field flooding; Fairbanks; Alaska North Slope; north slope; Alaska
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11122/12803

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2009 "The objective of this research project was to study the benefit of polymer flood in the Schrader Bluff reservoir on the North Slope of Alaska. This multi-billion-barrel reservoir has been water flooded for 11 years. Due to the unfavorable mobility ratio, the expected ultimate recovery factor for water flood is low, opening up great opportunities for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Polymer flood is expected to improve the unfavorable water/oil mobility ratio which has lead to unstable displacement and poor sweep efficiency currently being observed in the reservoir. To determine if polymer flood would enhance oil recovery in the Schrader Bluff reservoir, related publications were reviewed. A fine grid reservoir simulation model was constructed and history- matched. This reservoir model was then used to evaluate polymer flood in the Schrader Bluff reservoir. Parameters expected to impact the polymer flood performance were also investigated, including polymer viscosity, shear rate and injection timing. This study concluded that polymer flood could be an effective EOR process in the Schrader Bluff viscous oil reservoir"--Leaf iii 1. Polymer flood literature review -- 2. Alaska North Slope viscous/heavy oil resource overview -- 3. Reservoir simulator and input data introduction -- 4. Reservoir model construction and initialization -- 5. Model history match -- 6. Simulation evaluation of polymer flood in Schrader Bluff reservoir -- 7. Conclusions and recommendations -- References -- Appendices.