Experimental study and field application of surfactant-polymer flooding in offshore oilfield

Restricted by the short life of the oil development platform and its high investment, offshore oilfield needs higher oil recovery rate in the early developmental stage so as to recover its investment fast. Therefore, polymer flooding method carried out in medium water cut period was proposed. The production performance improved through the use of polymer flooding in Bohai H oilfield, but became worse when the polymer flooding reached the end stage. The oil recovery increased by 10.5%. It is important to find a way to improve production performance other than polymer flooding. Therefore, this article optimizes surfactant-polymer flooding as the subsequent technology that enhances oil recovery. By using laboratory experiment to compare different experimental schemes, two important parameters including number of injection pore volume and injection timing were optimized. The research result was applied in field development of Bohai H oilfield. Based on the research results, this article concludes innovatively that surfactant-polymer flooding can enhance oil recovery significantly in offshore oilfield, and the number of injection pore volume and injection timing can affect the surfactant-polymer flooding obviously. It is reasonable when the number of injection pore volume is 0.3 PV for Bohai H oilfield; oil recovery can further increase if surfactant-polymer flooding is carried out in higher water cut period. The field application from 2013 to 2018 shows that the oil production performance of Bohai H oilfield can be improved significantly by using surfactant-polymer flooding; the daily oil production increased by about 1.25 times for average single well; and the oil recovery increment forecasted is 4.6% points. The research result can be used as an important reference for similar offshore oilfields to enhance oil recovery. Key words: Surfactant-polymer flooding, enhancement of oil recovery, injection pore volume number, injection timing, offshore oilfield.