Polymers are frequently used to treat high water-cut producing wells in an effort to reduce water production. The application of polymer solution was reported to be successful in some cases but disappointing in others. This study applies numerical simulation to investigate the effectiveness of the polymer treatment for reducing water production from oil wells with water coning and from waterflood producers.

The results of the study show that near-wellbore, non-gel type polymer treatment in lowering water production can only be effective for a period of time. The water production will gradually rise to and exceed the pre-treatment level. An effective treatment requires deep polymer penetration in the formation to reduce water coning and the water production from waterflood producers. Water coning heightens at high production rates, low perforation intervals, high oil-water viscosity ratios, etc. The polymer treatment is not very effective for the wells with severe water coning problems.

Keywords:
vertical permeability, simulation run, production rate, base case, water cut, enhanced recovery, water saturation, cumulative water production, spe 25854, radial distance
Subjects:
Reservoir Fluid Dynamics, Improved and Enhanced Recovery, Reservoir Simulation, Perforating, Flow in porous media, Conformance improvement, Chemical flooding methods, Completion Installation and Operations, Completion Operations
Copyright 1993, Society of Petroleum Engineers
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