Tracer compositions
AssigneeSaudi Arabian Oil Company
InventorsShitong Sherry Zhu, Ayrat Gizzatov, Nermeen Saadoun
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present disclosure relates to tracing gas flow in a hydrocarbon reservoir with compositions including a degradable polymer and a detectable component. An exemplary method includes introducing a tracer composition at a first location in the reservoir, contacting the tracer composition with the reservoir to hydrolyze the degradable polymer, and detecting a degraded tracer composition including the hydrolyzed polymer and the detectable component in a gas sample collected at a second location in the reservoir.
Claims23
A method of tracing gas flow in a hydrocarbon reservoir, comprising:
- introducing a tracer composition at a stimulation site in a surface of a subterranean formation, the subterranean formation including the hydrocarbon reservoir, wherein the tracer composition comprises a degradable polymer and a detectable component;
- contacting the tracer composition with the hydrocarbon reservoir to hydrolyze the degradable polymer to yield a degraded tracer composition that is carried by the gas flow through the hydrocarbon reservoir to a gas pipeline in fluid communication with a producing site at the surface of the subterranean formation;
- and
- detecting the degraded tracer composition in a gas sample flowing through the gas pipeline collected at the producing site in the subterranean formation to trace a gas flow pattern between the stimulation site and the producing site of the subterranean formation, wherein the degraded tracer composition comprises a hydrolyzed polymer and the detectable component;
- wherein the detectable component comprises:
- a particulate metal oxide;
- a fluorescent dye, disposed on a surface of the particulate metal oxide;
- wherein the tracer composition comprises:
- from about 0.001 wt % to about 0.1 wt % of the fluorescent dye;
- from about 10 wt % to about 60 wt % of the particulate metal oxide;
- and
- from about 40 wt % to about 90 wt % of the degradable polymer.
A method of tracing gas flow in a hydrocarbon reservoir, comprising:
- introducing a tracer composition at a first location in the reservoir, wherein the tracer composition comprises a degradable polymer and a detectable component;
- contacting the tracer composition with the reservoir to hydrolyze the degradable polymer;
- and
- detecting a degraded tracer composition in a gas sample collected at a second location in the reservoir, wherein the degraded tracer composition comprises the hydrolyzed polymer and the detectable component;
- wherein the detectable component comprises:
- a particulate metal oxide;
- and
- a fluorescent dye, disposed on a surface of the particulate metal oxide;
- and
- wherein the fluorescent dye is covalently bound to the surface of the particulate metal oxide by a dehydration reaction of the fluorescent dye with an —OH group present on the surface of the particulate metal oxide, wherein the fluorescent dye comprises rhodamine B and the particulate metal oxide comprises aluminum hydroxide.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.