| Cold production is a primary non-thermal recovery method for heavy oil in unconsolidated formations. The oil is believed to be drained from the reservoir through highly permeable channels (wormholes), which often break into water zones leading to premature abandonment of many wells. An experimental set-up was designed to simulate the blocking of a wormhole in a formation using a 10 cm diameter, 1.2 meter long, screened pipe surrounded by a sand annulus.; The sandy polymer gel system developed for blocking a wormhole could resist a pressure gradient of at least 230 kPa/m. On a field perspective, the plug could block an aquifer pressure of 4 MPa over a length of 20 meters. The viscosity, settling and shear degradation of the sandy polyacrylamide slurries were measured at different sand concentrations in order to design gel treatments in the field. |
