Isolation of water inflow into the well with a thermosetting gel-forming

Abstract

A method has been developed for isolating water inflow into a well based on the injection of a thermoactive mixture of solutions of a gel-forming initiator and a gelling agent. The method allows to control the isolation process by regulating the gel-forming time by means of temperature and delivering the mixture to a given formation depth. To ensure mixing of the components of the composition in full and to prevent the formation of sediment, before injection, a solution of a gelling agent is added into the solution of the gel-forming initiator. It is possible to mix the components of the mixture directly in the wellbore by successively pumping solutions of the gel-forming initiator and the gelling agent. The results of oil sweeping experiments showed that the developed technology for isolating water inflow based on the use of a thermoactive gel-forming mixture significantly exceeds the known compositions in terms of technological efficiency. After applying the proposed technology, zones with increased oil saturation are involved in the development, there is also a decrease in the volume of produced water, and the profitability of production increases. Keywords: water inflow isolation; gelling agent; gel-forming initiator; thermoactivity; sweeping ratio; technological efficiency.