Investigation of a high temperature gel system for application in saline oil and gas reservoirs for profile modification

The deeper the burial of the oil and gas reservoir, the higher the temperature of the oil and gas reservoir. When profile adjustment of water injection wells, plugging of oil production wells (gas production wells) and temporary plugging or killing of oil production wells (gas production wells) are required, the higher the temperature resistance of the plugging agent (above 150 °C) is required. In addition, high temperature resistant plugging agents should also be used in profile control or water plugging in reservoirs (120°C–200 °C) that are thermally recovered by steam injection or in situ combustion. It is of great importance to develop a high-temperature-resistant gel plugging system to fulfill the requirements of deep buried high-temperature oil or gas reservoirs or thermal recovery high-temperature oil reservoir operations. A gel system formed by the terpolymer (L-1) and a new cross-linking system (HB-1) was developed, and its properties were systematically studied in the condition of extremely high temperature. Studies have shown that the gel system could form stable continuous 3D network structures in high temperature (120°C–200 °C) and thus have an excellent long-term thermal stability. The gel system can adjust the strength by changing the concentration of the terpolymer (0.05%–1%) and the crosslinker (0.05%–1%), which can achieve different construction requirements. Compared with the conventional high-temperature-resistant gel, the cross-linking system HB-1 contains 4 hydroxyl groups (–CH2OH), it can crosslink with 4 amide groups (–CONH2) on the terpolymer. Therefore, this gel system can form a smaller grid size of 3D network structures (less than 5 μm), so it has stronger temperature resistance and better long-term thermal stability. When the temperature is 200 °C, the grid size of network structure is about 10 μm, but the strength of the gel system can still be maintained at code F-G. When the salinity of the water solution is 200,000 mg/L, the gel system on the contact surface can still maintain a small grid size of 3D network structures (about 10 μm). The gel system could maintain most of the initial viscosity and viscoelasticity, even after experiencing the mechanical shear or the porous-media shear. A gel system with strength F can still be formed after shearing by the pore media of 10 sand-packed tubes, and the plugging rate of each sand-packed tube exceeds 97%. It can be found by scanning electron microscope pictures that the gel system can be very firmly attached to the pore media, which can achieve profile adjustment of the formation. The gel system could have great potential in the application of high temperature oil or gas reservoirs.