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US 8,789,592 B2Granted
Flooding operations employing chlorine dioxide
AssigneeSabre Intellectual Property Holdings LLC
InventorJohn Mason
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method includes introducing a treatment fluid including a first polymer gel into a subterranean formation to generate a production fluid having an aqueous portion and a hydrocarbon portion, treating the aqueous portion of the production fluid with chlorine dioxide to separate additional hydrocarbons from the aqueous portion, and adjusting the viscosity of the treated aqueous portion prior to introducing the treated aqueous portion back into the subterranean formation.
Claims18
A method comprising:
- introducing a treatment fluid comprising a first polymer gel into a subterranean formation to generate a production fluid comprising an aqueous portion and a hydrocarbon portion;
- treating at least the aqueous portion of the production fluid with chlorine dioxide to provide an additional hydrocarbon portion from the aqueous portion;
- and
- adjusting the viscosity of the treated aqueous portion prior to introducing the treated aqueous portion back into the subterranean formation;
- wherein adjusting the viscosity comprises forming a second polymer gel, wherein to reach a target viscosity of the second polymer gel an amount of polymer used to form the second polymer gel is reduced by about 25% to about 75%, relative to an untreated aqueous portion, when residual chlorine dioxide from the treating step is present during the adjusting step.
2 more elements
A method comprising:
- introducing a treatment fluid into a subterranean formation under conditions of a polymer flooding operation, the treatment fluid comprising:
- a polymer gel comprising a water-soluble polymer;
- a polymer gel-preserving amount of chlorine dioxide;
- and
- an aqueous base fluid;
- and
- generating a production fluid comprising an aqueous portion and a hydrocarbon portion, the method further comprising:
- treating at least the aqueous portion of the production fluid with chlorine dioxide to provide an additional hydrocarbon portion from the aqueous portion;
- and
- adjusting the viscosity of the treated aqueous portion prior to introducing the treated aqueous portion back into the subterranean formation, wherein adjusting the viscosity comprises forming a second polymer gel, wherein to reach a target viscosity of the second polymer gel an amount of polymer used to form the second polymer gel is reduced by about 25% to about 75%, relative to an untreated aqueous portion, when residual chlorine dioxide from the treating step is present during the adjusting step.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.