Laboratory Study of Secondary Biopolymer Flooding of Safaniya Crude Oil Through Horizontal Well

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental investigation of the biopolymer flooding of Safaniya crude oil through horizontal well in a laboratory scaled models. Two models were scaled according to two possible horizontal and vertical field arrays. Different biopolymer concentrations were used to determine the effective concentration for Safaniya crude oil biopolymer flooding. Oil recovery and oil cut from horizontal and vertical injectors were compared. The results showed that displacing Safaniya crude oil with 0.15% concentration yielded the highest oil recovery. Diagonally placed horizontal well in the mixed arrays resulted in more oil recovery than vertical injector and parallel placed horizontal well. Parallel placed horizontal well resulted in a higher unswept area by the biopolymer which reduced oil recovery.