New approach for optimization of polymer flooding as an enhanced oil recovery method

Optimization of Enhance Oil Recovery (EOR) is important because a small improvement in oil recovery often translates to a huge profit and oil supplies are diminishing. Polymers may be injected to help improve the displacement efficiency of a water flood but can be quite costly. In this study we analyze the main components of a polymer flood including polymer viscosity and polymer slug size in the form of the time over which it is injected and how it tapers off. While recent studies have shown that the amount of polymer injected is the only important parameter controlling the economics, our optimized scenario suggests that the polymer concentration should decrease to one third of the initial value (taper scheme) while the oil recovery improved and the maximum possible profit increased 12% for 2 years less flood. The coupling of Eclipse, Eureqa and GA proved as to be an efficient and reliable method to solve highly non-linear computational problems. The strength of Eureqa for prediction of all possible type of equations helps GA to optimize many parameters at the same time and through the unique design. The optimization method showed its reliability to be applied in various EOR scenarios.