A Review about using of Polymer Gels in Water Shutoff Operation

A. Dadvand Koohi1, M. Vafaie Sefti 2, A. Zarrin Ghalam 3, H. Naderi4

Chemical Engineering Phd Student of Tarbiat Modarres University, Tehran, I.R.
IRAN, b_dadvand@yahoo.com
2
Associat Professor of chemical engineering department, Tarbiat Modares University,
zarrin@modares.ac.ir
3
Associat Professor of chemical engineering department, Tarbiat Modares University,
vafaiesm@modares.ac.ir
4
RIPI, Naderi1976@yahoo.com
1

Abstract
Unwanted water production in association with crude oil is one of the major production
difficulties for the petroleum industry, as more reservoirs become mature. Various chemicals
have been used as blocking and diverting agents to treat injection and production wells for
more than six decades. In this paper we provide a brief overview of some important chemical
water shut off systems such as Inorganic gel, resin, natural polymer, polymer gel and
ungelled polymers that are being used up to now. Finally, performance of different polymer
gels as water shut off system that nowadays widely is practiced to improve production of oil
and gas was evaluated.
Key Words: Water Shutoff; Polymer gel; Reservoir Condition
Introduction:
Excessive water production is a serious issue in maturing oil and gas reservoirs. It is one of
the main threats to the value of oil and gas wells. Total worldwide oil production averages
some 75 millions barrels per day and this is associated with the production of 300 to 400
millions barrels of water per day. These values of approximately 5 to 6 barrels of water for
every barrel of oil are quite conservative. In the United States, where many fields are
depleted, the ratio of water to oil production is closer to 9 to 1 [1]. In the Middle East more
than 7 million barrels of water are being produced in oil fields every day and this figure is
increasing [2]. Different ways to producing excessive water exist such as: casing leak,
perforation in aquifer, channel behind casing, water cone, encroaching oil/water contact, high
permeability streak from natural water drive, high permeability streak form injection
well, induced fracture into aquifer, induced fracture to vicinity of water injection well,
naturally fractured formation connected to water source, high permeability streak to aquifer
or producing well, induced fracture into aquifer or to vicinity of producing well and naturally
fractured formation connected to aquifer or producing well. Also, Excessive water production
could be led to increasing operation costs and may include the following: 1-Expenses to lift
produced fluids including additional cost of power to lift heavier and large volumes of fluid,

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investment for large lift equipment, increased well services and maintenance expenses, since
equipment is used under more demanding condition. 2- Costs to separate water from the oil,
including large tanks, separators, surface pumps, maintenance and power to operate these
facilities. 3- Disposal or re-injection costs for tanks, high pressure injection pump and
maintenance and poser to operate these facilities. 4- Charge for cleaning and chemically
treating water prior to disposal, including oil removal tanks and skimmers, filters,
flocculating agent and chemicals for corrosion, bacteria and scale control. 5- Corrosion due to
hydrogen sulfide or carbon dioxide by water production. 6- Sand production due to water
production [3].
Remediation techniques need to be applied to control the unwanted water production and
improve the reservoirs economic and productive life. These remediation techniques are
generally referred to as Conformance Control. Conformance control is not the treatment of a
single well but the analysis of the reservoir performance as a whole. A better understanding
of how and why water is produced will help to identify the best conformance solution [4].
Many different method and materials can be used as water shut-off to remedy unwanted
water production. Water shut-off solutions can be categorized as mechanical and chemical
methods. Mechanical means include drilling horizontal and multi-lateral wells, or placing a
liner to block water production. Mechanical means also include downhole separation
equipment such as hydrocyclones that were introduced over the last few years [5]. Chemical
options can be classified either by the type of chemicals used or by their functionality. The
detailed understanding of the chemicals is a bit demanding for a petroleum engineer with an
average background in chemistry. Therefore a classification system by the chemicals
functionality can be very useful and will help one get started before knowing the chemistry in
depth [6]. As follow Chemical materials that use in water shutoff explained.
1- Inorganic gel
These types of chemicals were discovered in the 1920s and have being used for plugging loss
circulation, zone squeezing and consolidation weak formations and water shutoff [7]. These
types of chemicals are simple inorganic chemicals which are water-thin. Most of them are
internally activated. They either use an activator, hardening agent or a catalyst for gelation.
These additives respond to temperature and initiate the gelation process. These can be
classified as colloidal silica gels and sodium silicate gels. Properties of colloidal silica gels
and sodium silicate gels are compared in Table 1.
Colloidal silica gels for water shut-off have been studied in detail [8-10]. These gels are
formed from stable aqueous dispersions of discrete nonporous particles of amorphous silicon
dioxide. These dispersions are called sols. Commercially available sols contain particles with
diameters from 4 to 200 nm. The SiO2 to Na2O mole ratios are greater than 50 to 1. Colloidal
silica solutions are stable at pH values of 9.5 to 10.5. Gelation time is at a minimum in the pH
range of 5 to 7. For field use, these sols are gelled by first reducing the pH to between 7 and
8.5 and then adding salt. Gelation time is controlled by varying the initial pH and the amount
of salt added [8]. Sodium silicate gels have also been used for water shut-off applications [11
and 12]. In field treatments, sodium silicate can form a gel by using an internal or external
activator which summarized by Krumrine et al. [13]. Internal activators (such as an organic
acid or an ammonium salt) work by decomposing to a species that can initiate gelation.
External activators, such as calcium and magnesium chloride solutions, work by precipitating
silicates when mixed with a so sodium silicate solution.

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Advantages
They are water-thin, and also are able to penetrate deep distance in the formation. They are
relatively cheap compared organic gels. Their temperature resistance is also significant (some
up to 325F) [6].
Disadvantages
One disadvantage for this type of chemicals is very rapid gelation time. Generally, inorganic
gels will react in acidic or basic environments and will loose gel strength (sometimes this
property could be advantage). Divalent ions can interfere with gelation and stability of gel,
and they could degrade the gel structure. These chemicals have low physical strength in
general [6].
Table 1: Composition of colloidal silica and silicate gels [10,14].
Parameter
SiO2 to Na2O ratio
Gel time at pH 9
Required SiO2 Concentration
Silica present as

Colloidal silica
>50 to 1
1000 days
6 to 15 wt.%
Particles, 4 to 200 nm

Sodium silicate
>4 to 1
1000 min
5 to 10 wt.%
Silica in solution

Gelation mechanism

Particles form a 3-D network

Silica particles form in solution

and then create a 3-D network

Disadvantages

Particles reduce injectivity into

low permeability zones, requires
higher silica concentration, more
expensive

Weaker gel

2- Resins/Elastomer
These types of chemicals are used for water and gas shutoff applications. The same types of
thermosetting are used for sand consolidation. Phenol-formaldehyde resins are more used [6].
They are prepared before using in field applications. They are stable at room temperature and
can be hold for two month or more if refrigerated. Before pumping to downhole a catalyst is
added to the gel solution, causes the liquid plastic to react at bottomhole temperature. The
catalyst may be an acid or base, depending upon phenolic used. When we have treatments
such as filling a channel or perforation then we should use sand or silica flour, gammaamino-propyltriethoxysilane as additives. These additives increase the strength of formed
resin. For increasing the adhesive property of our solution we can add epoxy to the solution.
So strength of epoxy is greater than phenolic but it is more expensive. Also, furfuryl alcohol
is used as a reactive solvent with phenolic and furan resins. This mixture polymerizes to a
thermoset, but weak, brittle plastic in presence of acid. A controlled catalyst system using
trichlorotoluene and pyridine with furfuryl alcohol allows safe, controlled water and gas
shutoff treatments [15-17].
Advantages
They have sufficient strength to block fluid movement in pores, fractures, vugs channels and
perforations. They are inert to all common downhole conditions and fluids and provide
complete, long term sealing if properly placed [6 and 18].

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Disadvantages
They are relatively expensive and very toxic. Zonal isolation is required for a selective
treatment. Also, these materials are sensitive to water formation, surfactant, caustic and acid
contamination before curing [6 and 18].
3- Natural Polymers
Natural polymers used for conformance controls are mainly include of Xanthan,
Polysaccharide, Lingnosulfonates (a by-product of paper industry), Guar, scleroglucan and
etc. [19-22]. Kumar et al. [19] reported on pH dependency of the gels produced with
lignosulfonates. Seright et al. [20] prepared a gel contained 3000 ppm xanthan as a
biopolymer and 50 ppm chromium acetate as a metallic crosslinker. The gel system had a half
life (the time required for the gel to shrink by 50% at the test conditions) of 50 days. Strom et
al. also [21] reported on a new extracellular biopolymer produced by Alcaligenes bacteria.
This polymer can be cross-linked with Cr III to produce firm gels stable at elevated
temperatures. It can also be gelled at 20004000 ppm polymer concentration in high salinity
brine, which is about 20% TDS, without the need for Cr III ions. Performed experiments in
brines of various salinity and hardness indicated that Na+ ions were a key factor in self-crosslinking of Alcaligenes biopolymer. Gel samples produced with this polymer have survived
over 2 years of aging at 74C and 93C. Sampath et al. [22] reported on the use of the new
Alcaligenes biopolymer in profile modification treatment of four injection wells in South East
Bradley "A" Unit in Oklahoma. In 1 year following the treatment, this project resulted in an
incremental oil recovery of approximately 25,000 bbls, corresponding to about 0.8 bbls of oil
per pound of polymer injected.
Advantages
These gels were found to reduce significantly the permeability of the watered-out zones,
without affecting the permeability of the oil-bearing zones. They are relatively insensitive to
divalent ions.
Disadvantages
Some of these polymers, however, are very expensive to produce and have not been tested in
actual well treatments. They are sensitive to microbial attack. They are also low temperature
resistant compared to gel prepared by synthetic polymers.
4- Polymer gels
The use of gelling systems as diverting agents and/or blocking agent is widely practiced
today to improve production of oil and gas. Several authors have discussed about gel
polymers in detail [23-31]. These systems, which are typically composed of a water soluble
polymer or copolymer and crosslinker are dissolved in water and injected into the target
zones. The crosslinker chemically linked polymer chains together. After allowing sufficient
time, the injected gelling solution, referred to as gelant, sets into a semi solid mass, which
behaves as flow diverting or blocking agent. Polymer gels are used in treatment of injection
and production wells [24]. In the injection well treatments, the gelling system is placed into
high permeability channels and/or fractures. This application is referred to as profile
modification, in which the injected gelant in target zones are set into a solid mass, diverting
the flow of injected water or gas to un-swept zones. Production well treatments involve
injection of the gelling system into the fractures or high-permeability zones that produce a lot
of water, thereby reducing oil production [27 and 32]. This application not only improves

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drawdown from the productive zones; it also reduces or eliminates the cost associated with
lifting, separation, treatment and disposal of produced water [28-29].
The most common polymers used for gel treatment of hydrocarbon reservoirs are
polyacrylamides with varying degrees of hydrolysis charge densities and molecular weights.
These polymers are typically inexpensive and can be crosslinked with metallic and organic
cross-linkers to produce suitable gels. The rate of cross-linking and gel formation strongly
depends on the charge density of the polymer as well as the source of crosslinking agent
(metallic and organic one). Other factors affecting the rate include temperature, pH, salinity
and the concentration of polymer and cross-linker.
At elevated temperatures more than 90 C the rate of gelation of high molecular weight
polymers with metallic crosslinker such chromium acetate is too fast to placing the gelant in
the target zones. Also, divalent cations have a negative effect on gel properties especially
when reservoir temperature is high. It seems that in high temperature condition acrylamide
groups from the polymer structure can be thermally hydrolyzed into carboxylate groups, and
this conversion produces additional crosslinking sites that interact with divalent cations that
typically present in water formation. Therefore, excessive crosslinking can occur between
additionally formed negative sites with the divalent cations. The process of excessive
crosslinking results in expulsion of water from the gel structure and significant shrinkage of
gel volume. This phenomenon is also referred to as gel syneresis which is considered as
instability of gel network. From the molecular point of view, the main cause of syneresis
could be related to noticeably increase the crosslinking density and decrease the space
between two crosslinked segments for water keeping in the gel network [29]. It seems that
syneresis is a function of brine salinity, pH, temperature, and gel composition. Although
syneresis could become a hindrance for the long-term effectiveness of the gel placement in
the fracture, in pore scale it does not have significant effect [30]. It suggests that gel syneresis
in treated matrix might not create a substantial problem. There are, however, cautions against
the use of the gels vulnerable to syneresis for treatment of fracture zones [28 and 31].
When gels reduces water permeability without affecting oil permeability, the expression
Disproportionate permeability reduction (DPR) or Relative permeability modifiers (RPM) is
attributed to these gels. The RPM pore scale mechanism is still controversial. There are eight
mechanisms (1- gels shrink in oil but swell in water, 2- gravity effects gel locations in pores,
3- lubrication effects (wall effect), 4- gelants or gels alter rock wettability, 5- in a given pore,
gels constrict water pathways more than oil path ways (fluid partitioning), 6- on a
microscopic scale, gelants follow water pathway more than oil pathways, 7- balance between
capillary forces and gel elasticity effects oil and water flow differently, 8- during brine
injection, polymer leaches from the gel and significantly decreases the brine mobility) [3334] that among of them one "fluid partitioning" and "wall effect" is dominant. The fluid
partitioning theory claims that there are segregated flow paths for oil and for water inside the
porous medium, and the polymer (gel) tends to invade water flow paths, thus reducing water
permeability preferentially. In the wall effect theory, the basic assumption is that after
polymer (gel) injection, a film covers the pore walls and changes dramatically two-phase
flow properties by wettability-, steric- and lubrication effects [34].
The crosslinker may be metal ions or metallic complexes that bond ionically or by chelating
to the polymer such as Al+3, Cr+6, Cr+3, Zirconium or organic molecules that bond covalently
such as phenolics and aldehydes and polyethyleneimine. Al+3 is applicable in pH range from
6-7 because of its sensetivity on pH. Also, Zr+4 is expensive and toxic. Organically
crosslinked gels require a high and significant capacity of polymer and crosslinker. Cr+3 has

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been extensively used because of its high success rate and relatively low cost but it is toxic
quantitatively [31, 35-36]. In general four types gel polymer is used that are introduced in
following:
A- Crosslinked rigid polymer gel
When the different layers are clearly separated and work-over costs are acceptable, a water
shutoff treatment aims at sealing off the watered-out layer with a rigid (strong) gel that could
placed by mechanical tools (coil tubing, packers, etc). Rigid crosslinked gel is normally used
for total blocking.
Also it is possible to utilize these gels for cases of existing many fractures connecting to
aquifer. In this procedure the gelant solution is prepared in the surface in the form of inline
mixing and then is injected into reservoir. The solution which has yet a low viscosity can
extrude a long distance through fractures to cover a higher area (with high permeability). The
gel becomes rigid during shutting period and shuts off water paths. Sydansk R.D [24] showed
from the results of a field application in Wyoming's Big Horn field that the increase in oil
production was estimated around 45000 bbl for 7 injected wells during 5 months and 14000
bbl for two production wells and the efficiency was reported around 0.97 $/bbl during one
month
B- Preformed gels
In recent years, the study of preformed gel for conformance control has gained more interest
among gel-based enhanced oil recovery processes. The term "preformed gel" refers to any gel
state that does not flow into or through porous rock-whether it is a rigid gel, a "weak" elastic
gel, or a dispersion of gel aggregates. For example, a freshly prepared polymer solution with
a crosslinker may flow readily through porous rock until gel aggregates grow to become
trapped in pore throats. Thereafter, the crosslinked polymer (the preformed gel) does not flow
through porous rock at a significant rate (of course, preformed gels may extrude through
fractures). Injectability experiments in porous media involving the injection of both the
polymer and the crosslinker, mixed just at the entrance of the porous medium results in a
strong plugging after a given time. On the contrary, the injection of preformed microgel
solutions does not show any plugging tendency [38].
Seright et al. [39] studied some properties of preformed bulk gel (Cr III-acetate-HPAM)
through fractures and proved that preformed gel had better placement than in-situ gel and
could effectively reduce gel damage on low permeability unswept oil zones. Also, they
showed that during brine injection after gel placement, preformed gels were more resistant to
washout than gels formed in situ from gelants. Preformed gels showed an apparent shearthinning behavior during extrusion through fractures-gel resistance factors (pressure
gradients) decreased with increased flow rate. At high flow rates, the pressure gradient was
almost independent of gel injection rate. This behavior suggests that the gel experienced
"slip" when extuding through fractures at high rates [40].
C- Microgels as a RPM or DPR
However, what we know very clearly today is that injecting in a porous medium a polymer
solution containing a crosslinker before the end of crosslinking process, results in a very
severe plugging if injection is maintained for a long time. Two mechanisms, possibly acting
together, have been proposed to explain such a plugging. The first one is the bridging of pore
throats by microgels formed in-situ and growing in size as they move through the porous

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medium. The second one is a pore throat bridging resulting from the progressive increase in
thickness of a gelled surface layer. Its thickness increases by new crosslinks between the free
flowing macromolecules and that which are directly adsorbed or previously fixed by
crosslinking [41]. When a gelling system consisting of a polymer solution containing a
crosslinker is subjected to a constant shear rate flow, a real gel can never be formed. Indeed,
the microgels the size of which increases with time as a consequence of the creation of new
intermolecular or inter-aggregate bonds, will be broken up by shear stresses as soon as their
size is large enough for the stress imposed by shear flow to overcome the internal resistance
of the newly formed aggregates [42]. G. Chauveteau et al. [42] studied some properties of
microgels of Zr(Lactate)-HPAM formed under shear and showed that viscosity and microgel
size, can be easily calculated from simple shear viscosity measurments. They proposed that
the crosslinking under shear could be divided to four successive steps process: a) induction
period, b) pregel period, 3) microgel size limitation period, and d) microgel consolidation
period. Also, they derived a very simple equation linking final viscosity and microgel size to
initial polymer characteristics as well as applied shear rate.
D- Preformed particle gels as a RPM
In recent years, the study of preformed gel for conformance control has gained more interest
among gel based enhanced oil recovery processes. It is strength- and size-controlled,
environment-friendly and not sensitive to reservoir minerals and formation water salinity.
Preformed particle gel (PPG) is another kind of preformed gel in which bulk gel synthesized
in surface facilities is cut into particles and is dried to form xerogel particle at a higher
temperature. It can swell many times its original size.This process provides a product that is
more easily packed and saved transport cost [43]. The process we got the xerogel are as
follows:
(1) Prepare water solution of acrylamide, crosslinker, initiator and some other additives
according to some ratio;
(2) Make the solution crosslink to form bulk gel under some temperature;
(3) Crush the bulk gel into particles and dry them at high temperature.
Some advantages of PPG can be summarized as following:
1- PPG, synthesized on surface facilities, can overcome some distinct drawbacks inherent in
in-situ gelation systems, such as lack of gelation time, uncertainness of gelling due to shear,
degradation, chromatographic of gelation compositions, dilution by formation water;
2- PPG is strength and size controlled, environment-friendly, and its thermostability not
sensitive to reservoirs minerals and formation water salinity;
3- PPG can resist high temperature (120C) and high salinity (300,000mg/L);
4- PPG can be carried by produced water into wells, which can save fresh water and protect
the environment;
5- Operation process and surface facilities are simple, which can reduce operation and labor
costs. [44].
The transport behavior of PPG particles through pore throats can be summarized as six
patterns as follow:
1) Direct pass: a particle can move through the pore throat by the displacement of water. It
often happens when a particle is smaller than a pore throat.
2) Adsorption and retention: some particles were adsorbed onto porous media surface.
Adsorption often happens when the particle is so small that the attraction force between rock

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surface and PPG surface is dominant. Retention happens when the particle is much bigger
than the pore throat.
3) Trap: particle block pore throat and stop forwarding.
4) Deform and pass: a particle changes its shape by the displacement force of following
water and passes through throat, and then reverts to its original shape.
5) Shrink and pass: some water is squeezed from a swollen particle by the displacement force
of following water, which results in the shrinkage of the particle and passing through throat.
After the shrunk particle enters the pore, it can reabsorb some lost water and reverts to its
original size.
6) Snapp-off and pass: a particle was broken into smaller particles by pore throat, and the
decrescent particles continue to pass through pore throat.
The last four patterns happen when a particle is larger than a pore throat. In practice, several
patterns can occur simultaneously when particles pass through pore throats. It is difficult to
observe a single mechanism in effect. It is also found that which pattern is dominant mainly
depends on the diameter ratio of swollen PPG and pore throat, the strength of PPG and the
driving force of following fluid. But In macroscopic scale, PPG propagation through porous
media can be described by three patterns: pass, broken and pass, and plug [44]. Based on
laboratory experiments, the following results will show that: (1) PPG strength and swelling
capacity can be controlled by adjusting gelant compositios; (2) certain additives can improve
PPG stability at elevated temperatures (120C); (3) increasing temperature will increase the
swelling ratio and the swelling rate of PPG, and increasing salinity will reduce the swelling
capacity of PPG and will increase PPG strength; (4) the swelling capacity of PPG is
insensitive to pH; (5) PPG is insoluble in water, but absorbs it, swelling up to 20-200 ti,es of
its original size [43]. PPG is not a catholicon for each reservoir. It should be well known that
it can not be injected into normal porous media without fracture or channel. For those
reservoirs with sever channels or super fractures, the PPG can not be applied either because it
will be flushed out from producers. Preformed particle gel has been successfully applied to
correct in-depth reservoir permeability heterogeneity in most china mature oilfields, such as
Daqing, Zhongyuan, Liaohe, Shengli, Tuha, Dagang, Jidong, and so on. The studies showed
that injection of PPG to two wells of Zhongyuan oilfield cause to 1) Injection pressure was
increased; 2) Vertical injection flow profile was modified; 3) The water cut decreased from
about 80% to about 70% and the oil production increased from 40 tons/day to 60 tons/day; 4)
The useful life of PPG is more than 6 months. In second field study these gels used in
Xingbei oilfield (Daqing), and injection wells and their corresponding producers showed the
following results after the treatment: 1) The injection pressure increased from initial 5.0 MPa
to 11.6 MPa; 2) Potential test results showed that the areal hetregeneity was effectively
controlled. 3) 4200 tons of oil increment was obtained with 8% watert cut decrease; 4) The
useful life of PPG is more than 6 months.
4- Ungelled polymers or weakly crosslinked gel systems
Due to the increasing need for bullhead treatments (i.e. treatments without zonal isolation),
oilfield operators have focused on self-selective systems (Treatment B), i.e. systems that can
be pumped downhole into the existing completion without zone isolation, and which reduce
selectively the permeability to water with respect to the permeability to oil or to gas. Due to
this property these polymers or weak gels were thought to be magic products that could be
used in all situations. The relatively low rate of success of DPR bullhead treatments
(literature reports something around 40%) shows that reality is less favorable [45]. The

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technique consists of bullhead (injection without isolation) injection of polymer solutions into
existing completions. The polymer can be swelled or weakly crosslinked in situ to increase
permeability reduction to water. A short description of the processes is given hereafter:
Process A: Applicable in low-salinity, low-temperature matrix reservoirs. Hydrolyzed
polyacrylamides are injected in high-salinity brine. After production release, low-salinity
formation water replaces progressively injection brine and swells the polymer adsorbed on
pore walls. Advantages are a low viscosity during injection, a large adsorption and a high
permeability reduction to water without the risk of well impairment by gels [46].
Process B: Depending on produced brine salinity, nonionic polyacrylamides are injected with
either a caustic swelling agent (that hydrolyzes the polymer in situ) or an organic crosslinker.
For higher temperatures acrylamide copolymers can be crosslinked by zirconium lactate (up
to 120 C) [47-48].
Process C: Applicable in high-temperature matrix reservoirs. It uses scleroglucan, a
polysaccharide with strong shear-thinning rheology and excellent thermal stability. Polymer
swelling can be simply obtained by the release of shear forces between highinjection rates
and low production rates. The polymer can be weakly crosslinked by zirconium lactate [4950]. In Fig. 1 showed a temperature/salinity diagram indicating the application domains of
the processes.
120
Temperatur e o C

Process C

80
60

Process B
Process A

20

0
5
Salinity ( g / L )
200
Fig 1: Field of application of water shutoff treatments versus formation temperature and
salinity [51]

Grattoni, C.A. et al. [52] Studied the role of polyacrylamide adsorption in micro-scale glass
flow model. They showed that the adsorbed polymer thickness is on the order of 50-250 nm,
depending on the polymer molecular weight, concentration and on the polymer/surface
charges. The adsorbed polymer layer did not significantly modify the brine hydraulic
conductivity of the capillary tubes. However, during the polymer flow a continuous decrease
of conductivity was observed, which is due to the dynamic formation of thick polymer layers.
The rate of formation and maximum thickness (up to several microns) depends on the
molecular weight of the polymer. The maximum thickness of these layers is shear rate,
dependent. The mechanism of adsorption can be described as follow [52]:
1- Adsorption of polymer, generating a layer of a few hundred nanometers, with some of the
polymer loops or tails sticking out from the surface into the solution;
2- Physical attachment (entanglement) of some of the flowing polymer onto the adsorbed
polymer, by the tails or by protruding ends from flowing molecule onto the adsorbed
molecules.

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Several factors have to be taken into account for RPM candidate well selection, Such as: 1heterogeneity 2- crossflow 3- production mode 4- technical constraints 5- economical
constraints 6- origin of water production 7- logs [51]. In Table 2 showed three types of field
study of these polymers as RPM method. Table 3 lists the polymers and copolymers which in
general are used alone or as a crosslinking agent attaining this purpose.
]
Table 2: three types of field study of water shutoff with ungelled polymers [51]
Oil Field (well)

Kind of Treatment

Results

Pelican Lake :
Pelican Lake and south Winter
fields (Western Canada)

Process B
(PAM+KOH)

Two offshore wells in the Gulf

Coast (Chgirtsk), Russia
Carbonate wells in
Kudryachevo (Russia)

Process B (Polymer
+Crosslinker)
Process B (Polymer
+Crosslinker)

WaterCut after 2 years :85 90 50 70

South W int er :
WaterCut after 2 months : 95 80
Average Incremental Oil (tons in 13 months):
4500
Average Incremental Oil (tons in 9 months):
5522

Table3: different types of polymers and copolymers used for gel treatment.
(MW: Molecular weight, DH: Degree of Hydrolysis, HPAM: Hydrolized Polyacrylamide, PatBA: Copolymer of Polyacrylamide and tert-butyl acrylate, PEI: Polyethyleneimine)
Polymer (Copolymer)
HPAM (MW=6E+6, DH=10%)

Crosslinker
Commerical Solid Chitson +
Water

HPAM (MW=5-11E+6, DH=2, 30%)

Cr (III) or CrCl3

Polyacrylamide (DH<1%)

PEI

Polyacrylamide (cationic)
Polyacrylamides, high Mw
HPAM (MW=2-10E+6, DH=2-10%)

-----Phenol and formaldehyde

PAt-BA
(MW=250,000-Viscosity=25cp)
HPAM (MW=5-34E+6, DH=31%)
HPAM (MW=5-6E+6, DH=1-15%) and
AMPS
Copolymer of (96% acrylamide groups, 2%
sulfonates 2% acrylates), (MW=3-5E+6)
Copolymer of vinylpyrrolidone (VP) and
acrylamide (AM), (MW=2.5E+6)
Copolymer of AMPSA and N,N-DMA
terpolymer of vinyl-sulfunated/vinyl
amide/acrylamide (MW=1E+6,5E+5)
PAM-AMP, poly(acrylamido-co-acrylamido3-propane sulfonic acid)
Acrylamide, sodium peroxydisulate, NH4Cl
HPAM (MW=13E+6, DH=30%)

PEI
(MW=70,000-pH=11.7)
------

Chromium (III) acetate

Cr (malonate)3
Zirconium Lactate

Reference
Reddy B.R. et al, [53]
Sydansk R.D. et al.[29]
Al-Muntasheri G. A. et
al. [54]
Zaitoun et al. [45]
Albonico, P. et al. [55]
Seright et al. [39] and
Green et al. [28]
Al-Muntasheri G. A. et
al. [54]
Prud'homme et al. [57]
Lockhart T. P. et al.
[58]
Hardy et al. [59] and
Chauveteau et al. [41]

------

Doe, P. H. et al. [60]

PEI

J. Vasquez et al. [61]

-----

M. Ranjbar et al. [62]

Chromium (III) acetate

M. Bartosek et al. [63]

N,N-methylenebisacrylamide
Chromium (III) acetate

Baojun et al. [43]

Simjoo et al. [65]

Conclusions:
There is a lot of chemical option as water shut off systems that should be selected in a
rational way. The choice of the chemical system depends on the reservoir lithology,
temperature, salinity, pH of the formation and mixing brines, and H2S content. Chemical

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interactions between various ions present in the formation brine and the components of the
chemical treatments are a major factor that determines the success of these treatments. On the
other hand, for the gelling system reservoir temperature strongly affects on the gelation time
and gel stability. Gel placement also depends on the ratio of vertical to horizontal
permeabilities. Moreover, zone isolation is usually recommended to ensure proper gel
placement.

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