Development and blocking assessment of high softening point asphalt system

Yang Wang; Youlong Feng; Zijing Cui; Long Li; Le Guo; Yujie Zhang; Chenzhengzhe Yan

doi:10.1515/tsd-2024-2613

Article

Development and blocking assessment of high softening point asphalt system

Yang Wang
Yang Wang is a professor in the Department of Petroleum Engineering at Xi’an Shiyou University. His research interests focus on enhanced recovery and oil recovery chemistry.
, Youlong Feng
Youlong Feng is a postgraduate student at Xi’an Shiyou University. He is involved in the study of surfactants and enhanced oil and gas recovery.
, Zijing Cui
Zijing Cui is a postgraduate student at Xi’an Shiyou University. She is involved in the study of surfactants and oil and gas recovery enhancement.
, Long Li
Long Li is a postgraduate student at Xi’an Shiyou University. He is involved in the study of oil and gas field chemistry.
, Le Guo , Yujie Zhang and Chenzhengzhe Yan
Chenzhengzhe Yan holds a master’s degree in chemical engineering from Qingdao University of Science and Technology. His research interests focus on organic compound chemistry and petroleum engineering.

Published/Copyright: November 26, 2024

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From the journal Tenside Surfactants Detergents Volume 62 Issue 1

Abstract

The technology of oil and gas well plugging and profiling currently represents a favourable means of promoting the development of water injection and ensuring stable production from oil reservoirs in oil fields. The use of emulsified asphalt is significantly limited by several factors, including its insufficient resistance to high temperatures, demanding requirements for sealing strength, and susceptibility to destabilisation in high salinity conditions. Nevertheless, it presents favorable injection performance and does not cause soil contamination. To improve the selective water plugging in seam-hole reservoirs with high salt content and temperature, a novel high softening point emulsified asphalt blocker was developed in this work using petroleum asphalt powder, sodium lauryl diphenyl ether disulfonate, and propylene glycol alginate as the primary monomers. The stability of the system in terms of temperature and salt resistance as well as the sealing performance under different permeable seam hole layers were investigated. The studies showed that the novel blocking agent remained stable for at least 20 days at room temperature and remained fluid for at least 3 h at 130 °C. The system exhibited excellent salt resistance and maintained a suitable viscosity in highly mineralized conditions. With an injection volume of 1 PV and a permeability ranging from 2,014 mD to 3,321 mD, the slit reservoirs achieved an average blocking rate of 88.9 %.

Keywords: emulsified asphalt; water plugging; spectrophotometer; heat stability; blocking evaluation

Corresponding author: Yang Wang and Chenzhengzhe Yan, School of Xi’an Shiyou University, Xi’an 710000, Shanxi, China, E-mail: ywang@xsyu.edu.cn (Y. Wang), yanczz@xsyu.edu.cn (C. Yan)

About the authors

Yang Wang

Yang Wang is a professor in the Department of Petroleum Engineering at Xi’an Shiyou University. His research interests focus on enhanced recovery and oil recovery chemistry.

Youlong Feng

Youlong Feng is a postgraduate student at Xi’an Shiyou University. He is involved in the study of surfactants and enhanced oil and gas recovery.

Zijing Cui

Zijing Cui is a postgraduate student at Xi’an Shiyou University. She is involved in the study of surfactants and oil and gas recovery enhancement.

Long Li

Long Li is a postgraduate student at Xi’an Shiyou University. He is involved in the study of oil and gas field chemistry.

Chenzhengzhe Yan

Chenzhengzhe Yan holds a master’s degree in chemical engineering from Qingdao University of Science and Technology. His research interests focus on organic compound chemistry and petroleum engineering.

Research ethics: Not applicable.
Informed consent: Not applicable.
Author contributions: All authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.
Use of Large Language Models, AI and Machine Learning Tools: None declared.
Conflict of interest: The authors state no conflict of interest.
Research funding: National Natural Science Foundation of China (52374040, 52004218, 51934005, 52174031, 52174028) and Shaanxi Provincial Key R&D Programme (2024GX-YBXM-499, 2023-YBGY-155).
Data availability: The raw data can be obtained on request from the corresponding author.

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Received: 2024-07-13

Accepted: 2024-10-31

Published Online: 2024-11-26

Published in Print: 2025-01-29

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/tsd-2024-2613

Keywords for this article

emulsified asphalt; water plugging; spectrophotometer; heat stability; blocking evaluation