Development Performance and Pressure Field Evolution of ASP Flooding

Abstract

ASP (alkali-surfactant-polymer) is acknowledged as an effective technology to improve the oil recovery. The microscopic displacement efficiency and macroscopic sweep efficiency have been discussed in detail for the past few years. However, development performance, especially pressure characteristics, needs to be further studied. This paper aims to explore the pressure evolution performance during ASP flooding, of which the results will shed light on development characteristics of ASP flooding. The study on ASP flooding pressure field development is conducted by laboratory and numerical methodology. A large sandpack laboratory model with vertical heterogeneous layers is used to monitor pressure performance during the ASP flooding. With the help of interpolation methods, a precise and intuitive pressure field is obtained based on pressure data acquired by limited measurement points. Results show that the average formation pressure and its location are changing all the time in the whole process. In addition, the influence of heterogeneity and viscosity on recovery and pressure is also probed in this paper. We built a numerical simulation model to match the experiment data considering the physical and chemical alternation in ASP flooding. Also, response surface methodology (RSM) is adopted to obtain the formula between pressure functions and influencing factors.