Performance of Gel Treatments in Reservoirs with Multiscale Heterogeneity

Abstract

Spatially correlated permeability fields are usually generated by single-scale correlation. To overcome the limitations of single-scale permeability fields in describing real situation, permeability fields should be generated by multiscale correlation. Multiscale heterogeneity results in the existence of various permeability magnitudes and spatial distributions of permeability. Gel treatment is applied on the heterogeneous permeability fields realized by multiscale correlation. Performance of gel treatment has been shown to depend on permeability distribution and permeability values, which are determined by correlation length, variance, and number of scales. Generally, spatially-correlated permeability fields generated with longer correlation length, higher variance, and multiscale lead to higher improvement in the performance of gel treatment. In addition, longer application of preflush as waterflooding results in larger reduction of water-oil ratio when the gel treatment is applied to heterogeneous permeability fields after preflush.