The use of polymer flooding as a tertiary method of increasing oil recovery in fields of late stage of development

At the current stage of the development of the oil industry, many of the large fields have entered the late stage of development, which is characterized by a drop in oil production, an increase in the water content of products, an increase in the share of hard-to-recover reserves and the fund of idle wells. Companies engaged in oil production use various physico-chemical and hydrodynamic methods to improve the productivity of oil-bearing formations, increase production from formations with low permeability and improve production from heterogeneous formations. These methods are aimed at increasing the flow of oil and gas from wells and may include hydrodynamic, thermal, chemical methods and other technologies. The choice of method depends on the specific conditions of the deposit. The purpose of this article is to tell about one of the physico-chemical methods of increasing oil recovery - polymer flooding, and its applications in fields of late stage of development. The article summarizes the key features in the design of polymer injection in oil fields. The largest projects for the use of polymer flooding, at such fields as Daqing and Shengli (People's Republic of China), will be considered. Examples and experiments are given for the study and selection of the most effective polymer, as well as injection practices in order to maximize efficiency at the field and gain valuable knowledge for further expanding the use of technology in large areas, and the final result for increasing oil production from the reservoir.