Development of degradable pre-formed particle gel (DPPG) as temporary plugging agent for petroleum drilling and production

• Published in: Petroleum science Vol. 18; no. 2; pp. 479 - 494
• Main Authors: Zhu, Dao-Yi, Fang, Xing-Yu, Sun, Ren-Xian, Xu, Zeng-Hao, Liu, Yang, Liu, Ji-Yang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Beijing China University of Petroleum (Beijing) 01-04-2021; KeAi Publishing Communications Ltd
• Subjects: Acrylamide; Degradation; Drilling; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Economics and Management; Energy Policy; Gels; High temperature; Industrial and Production Engineering; Industrial Chemistry/Chemical Engineering; Mineral Resources; Oil and gas fields; Oil fields; Oil wells; Original Paper; Particulate composites; Performance degradation; Petroleum; Plugging; Porous media; Pressure gradients; Sodium chloride; Swelling ratio; Petroleum production; Degradable PPG; Temporary plugging agents; Petroleum drilling; Pre-formed particle gel (PPG)
• ISSN: 1672-5107; 1995-8226
• DOI: 10.1007/s12182-020-00535-w

Temporary plugging agent (TPA) is widely used in many fields of petroleum reservoir drilling and production, such as temporary plugging while drilling and petroleum well stimulation by diverting in acidizing or fracturing operations. The commonly used TPA mainly includes hard particles, fibers, gels, and composite systems. However, current particles have many limitations in applications, such as insufficient plugging strength and slow degradation rate. In this paper, a degradable pre-formed particle gel (DPPG) was developed. Experimental results show that the DPPG has an excellent static swelling effect and self-degradation performance. With a decrease in the concentration of total monomers or cross-linker, the swelling volume of the synthesized DPPG gradually increases. However, the entire self-degradation time gradually decreases. The increase in 2-acrylamide-2-methylpropanesulfonic acid (AMPS) in the DPPG composition can significantly increase its swelling ratio and shorten the self-degradation time. Moreover, DPPG has excellent high-temperature resistance (150 °C) and high-salinity resistance (200,000 mg/L NaCl). Core displacement results show that the DPPG has a perfect plugging effect in the porous media (the plugging pressure gradient was as high as 21.12 MPa), and the damage to the formation after degradation is incredibly minor. Therefore, the DPPG can be used as an up-and-coming TPA in oil fields.