Optimum effective viscosity of polymer solution for improving heavy oil recovery

Severe viscous fingering during waterflooding of heavy oil leaves a large amount of oil untouched in the reservoir. Improving sweep efficiency is vital for increasing heavy oil recovery. Polymer flooding, a widely recognized mobility control enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technology for conventional oil, is generally not recommended for oils with viscosities higher than 200 mPa s according to the traditional EOR screening criteria. However, polymer flooding of heavy oil reservoirs is becoming increasingly feasible with the wide use of horizontal wells and because of relatively high oil price.This study investigated the relationship between the tertiary oil recovery by polymer flooding and the effective viscosity of polymer solution. Twenty-eight sandpack flood tests were conducted using oils with viscosities ranging from 430 mPa s to 5500 mPa s. Results showed that there existed a minimum value and an optimum value of effective viscosity for the injected polymer solution. Rapid increase in oil recovery was observed when the effective viscosity of the polymer solution was increased between these two values. Outside of this range, the increase in the effective viscosity of polymer solution resulted in only small incremental oil recovery. It was also found that both the minimum and optimum effective viscosities of polymer solution increased with increasing oil viscosity.