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AssigneesUniversity of Kansas, ConocoPhillips Company
InventorsCory BERKLAND, Huili GUAN, Ahmad MORADI-ARAGHI, Jenn-Tai LIANG, Terry M. CHRISTIAN, Riley B. NEEDHAM, James H. HEDGES, Min CHENG, Faye L. SCULLY
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The invention is directed to stable crosslinked swellable fluorescently tagged polymeric microparticles, methods for making same, and their various uses. A particularly important use is as an injection fluid in petroleum production, where the expandable polymeric particles are injected into target zone and when the heat and/or suitable pH of the target zone cause degradation of the labile crosslinker and the microparticles expand. The swelled polymer diverts water to lower permeability regions and improves oil recovery. The tags allow monitoring of the presence and concentration of the tagged microparticles and ultimately allow evaluation of the performance of such treatments. Detection of polymeric microparticles in producing wells can be instructive for teaching about the character and extent of thief zones in the subsurface. Better knowledge of the reservoir flow will enable improved application of the gel treatments, improved oil recovery, and allow improved forecasting using simulation modeling.
A composition comprising expandable polymeric particles, said particles having a covalently attached fluorescent tag and having anionic sites and being crosslinked with both labile crosslinkers and stable crosslinkers, said particles combined with a fluid and a cationic crosslinker that is capable of further crosslinking the particle on degradation of the labile crosslinker so as to form a gel.
A composition comprising highly crosslinked expandable hydrophilic polymeric particles having 10-100 ppm of fluorescent tag and 0.5-5 mole % anionic sites and an unexpanded volume average particle size diameter of about 0.1 to about 10 microns and a crosslinking agent content of from about 1,000 to about 200,000 ppm of labile crosslinkers and from 1 to about 300 ppm of stable crosslinkers, combined with a cationic crosslinker and a fluid comprising water.
A composition comprising expandable polymeric particles, said particles having a covalently attached fluorescent tag and being crosslinked with both labile crosslinkers and stable crosslinkers, said particles combined with a fluid.
A method of increasing the recovery of hydrocarbon fluids from a subterranean formation comprising injecting into the subterranean formation a composition comprising water, a cationic crosslinker, and a highly crosslinked expandable hydrophilic polymeric particle having fluorescent tags and anionic sites, wherein:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.