An Industry Consortium (BP, ChevronTexaco and Nalco Company) conducted a joint research project known as Bright Water. The goal of this project was to develop a novel, time-delayed, highly expandable particulate material that would improve the sweep efficiency of a water flood. In November 2001, the first of these water flood profile modification treatments was pumped in the Minas field, as reported in SPE 84897 (1). An overview of the development of the particulate system is given in the present paper. The polymeric "kernel" particles are capable of "popping" under the influence of temperature and time. The expanded particle can then provide resistance to fluid flow in porous media. Various properties of the kernel dispersions are summarized. Laboratory tests representative of the deployment of the product are presented to illustrate the injection, propagation and popping of the particles.

Screening criteria for application of the product are reviewed and related to product selection for the field trial.

Keywords:
crosslinker, injection, enhanced recovery, reservoir, permeability, kernel particle, bright water particle, activation temperature, particle, dispersion
Subjects:
Reservoir Fluid Dynamics, Improved and Enhanced Recovery, Flow in porous media, Waterflooding, Conformance improvement, Chemical flooding methods
Copyright 2004, Society of Petroleum Engineers
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