Abstract
For some years SITEP and Eni have started to evaluate certain tertiary methods of enhaced oil recovery for El Borma, a mature tunisian field. A pilot project based on the application of a commercial chemical product called "BRIGHT WATER®" (BW), a trademark of Tiorco-Nalco, was chosen to verify on a real case its applicability and efficiency. The technology aims at the improvement of the oil recovery and at the reduction of the water production. This methodology is applied for oil mature fields, that are subjected to the water injection and that are presenting a heterogeneous reservoir with contrast of permeability. This paper describes the work performed to design a field test of such a technique in El Borma, with the twofold purpose to achieve the highest probability of success and gather as much information as possible to use in future applications. The project went through four phases: 1. Selection of one injector well and one producer; 2. Program of monitoring to verify the connection between the injector and the producer (injection of a tracer to determine the arrival time and simulation on a numerical model); 3. Injection of the polymerics and monitoring; 4. Application on the other zones of the field, in case of the success of the method. The first three phases were completed at the beginning of 2010. This work also describes the workflow which will be established to follow the improvements of the oil production.
