The experimental study of the effect of magnetically sensitive elastomers on oil recovery of reservoirs containing high-viscosity oils

Abstract

In world practice, low-viscosity oil accounts for the main share of production. As the development progresses, the share of high-viscosity oil in the total balance increases year on year. The growing unused reserves of high-viscosity oil oblige researchers to solve the issue of developing these reserves, which is an important task for the oil industry. Studies have been carried out to increase oil recovery during the development of oil reservoirs containing high-viscosity oil by pumping a solution of magnetically active polymer, namely silicone oligomer, the matrix of which contains 5–25% Fe+3 ions, treated with a constant transverse magnetic field with a strength of H = 51740 A/m. A mixture of 90% by weight of quartz sand and 10% by weight of bentonite clay, with a permeability of k = 1.4 D, was used as a reservoir model. The high-viscosity oil model consisted of St-45 aviation oil. A silicone oligomer of 159–360 brand was used as a matrix with an operating temperature range of 60°C to +300°C, into which particles of gamma-Fe2O3 Nano powder with a size of 0.5 nm are introduced, with a degree of filling of the matrix of 5–25% by volume of Fe. Magnetization saturation is 80 emu/g, residual magnetization is 460 emu/g, and coercive force is 670 Oh. Validation of the proposed method was carried out by physical modeling of the process of displacement of high-viscosity oil with a magnetic elastomer on a laboratory installation. The oil recovery coefficient was calculated according to a well-known method. The use of magnetically sensitive polymer can be an effective method of developing heavy oil fields. For each heavy oil field, taking into account its specifics (reservoir properties of the rock, physicochemical properties of oil, etc.), an appropriate magnet active polymer is selected. As the experimental results show, the best indicator of the oil recovery coefficient is achieved at 65%, compared with 48% of recovery in the absence of magnetic field exposure.