Chemical/Polymer EOR Consulting
Polymer, Surfactant-Polymer (SP), and Alkali-Surfactant-Polymer (ASP) Flooding — Reservoir Engineering, Simulation, and Field Implementation — Worldwide
Assign your company's chemical EOR project — from laboratory-scale simulation through pilot design and full-field implementation — to A&A, and let the high-level, seasoned IOR/EOR consultants of the A&A Consulting Team put decades of chemical flooding experience, across some of the industry's most challenging reservoirs, to work for you.
Avasthi & Associates, Inc. (A&A) is an independent petroleum engineering consulting firm. A&A does not sell polymers, surfactants, or other chemical EOR products — our only business is expert technical consulting, which means our chemical EOR design and simulation recommendations are never influenced by a stake in any particular chemical supplier or technology.
The high-level, seasoned IOR/EOR consultants of the A&A Consulting Team have been involved in chemical EOR — polymer, alkali-surfactant-polymer (ASP), and surfactant-polymer (SP) — flooding projects for many years, with extensive experience across a wide range of reservoir types, around the world.
Polymer EOR: The Basic Mechanism
In polymer EOR, water mixed with large polymer molecules is injected into a reservoir to change the mobility ratio between water and oil, improving sweep efficiency and pushing more oil from the reservoir toward the producing wells.
From Laboratory to Field: A&A's Simulation Approach
Polymer EOR design usually starts with laboratory testing. Numerical simulation of these lab tests provides key parameters — water-oil relative permeability, polymer adsorption coefficients, accessible pore volume, residual resistance factor, and water viscosity as a function of polymer concentration — that carry forward into the field-scale model.
If a black-oil-type reservoir-fluid description is available, polymer EOR simulation studies are conducted using a black-oil reservoir simulator, such as CMG's IMEX or SLB's ECLIPSE 100. Where a more detailed, multi-component fluid description is needed to capture chemical EOR processes, an advanced-processes/compositional simulator — such as CMG's STARS or SLB's ECLIPSE 300 — is used instead. A&A's consultants are experts in using all of these simulators for polymer EOR simulation studies, whether of laboratory tests or full field cases.
Representative Field Studies
Examples of A&A consultants' field polymer EOR simulation studies include, but are not limited to, the following:
• Forecasting and optimization of proposed polymer pilots for reservoirs in the final stages of waterflooding:
◦ A very large European stratified reservoir
◦ A Canadian sandstone reservoir with wormholes created during production — a dual-permeability model was used to simulate wormhole effects, and tracer injection was also simulated
◦ A faulted reservoir in Argentina
• History matching and forecasting polymer EOR recoveries:
◦ History matching an existing polymer pilot and designing a full-field expansion for an Argentinian reservoir
◦ Simulating laboratory tests, history matching an existing polymer pilot, and conducting a sensitivity study, design, and forecast for a full-field polymer EOR project in a highly heterogeneous, fractured Saskatchewan reservoir
A&A's Chemical EOR Consulting Services
A&A's high-level, seasoned chemical EOR consultants and subject-matter experts (SMEs) are available to work on our clients' polymer (and other chemical) EOR projects, including, but not limited to:
• Reservoir engineering and simulation studies — laboratory-test simulation, history matching, sensitivity analysis, and full-field forecasting
• Facilities engineering and surface systems — polymer/chemical makeup and mixing facilities, injection systems, and produced-fluid handling
• Candidate screening and chemical-EOR method selection (polymer, SP, or ASP) for a given reservoir
• Pilot design, monitoring, and full-field expansion planning
Training & Knowledge Transfer
In addition to conducting chemical EOR engineering and simulation studies for our clients, A&A's chemical EOR consultants conduct a high-level, customized, hands-on training workshop on polymer flooding and other chemical EOR topics, for the benefit of our clients, around the world, whenever mutually convenient:
“Practical Engineering Aspects of Chemical EOR”
An outline of this workshop is available on request.
What A&A Delivers
A chemical/polymer EOR consulting engagement with the A&A Consulting Team is built around the practical decisions your company needs to make, including, but not limited to:
• A recommended chemical EOR method — polymer, SP, or ASP — supported by laboratory-test simulation and history-matched reservoir models
• A pilot-test design and monitoring plan, with full-field expansion criteria
• Facilities and surface-system recommendations for chemical makeup, mixing, injection, and produced-fluid handling
• Economic evaluation and sensitivity analysis to support the investment decision
• Presentation-ready recommendations for your company's management, partners, and investors
We can put teams of our high-level, seasoned chemical EOR consultants — with extensive experience in reservoir engineering and simulation, facilities engineering and surface systems, and related studies — to work on your company's polymer flooding, and other chemical, EOR projects, around the world, whenever required.
To find out how we can help your company on its chemical EOR project feasibility/scoping studies, pilot-test, and field-wide project design, evaluation, and optimization, around the world, please contact us.
