Applications of Gels for Enhanced Oil Recovery

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue, “Applications of Gels for Enhanced Oil Recovery”, focuses on the recent progress of utilizing gels in enhanced oil recovery. Within this context, all the preparations, percolations, characterizations, etc., of gels meet the requirements of this Special Issue.

With the development of reservoirs, their heterogeneity has become more and more serious, especially in fractured reservoirs. The displacing phase is prone to channeling along high-permeable channels, such as artificial or natural fractures. As a result, the oil recovery efficiency is dramatically decreased due to the reduction in sweep efficiency. In recent decades, various gels have been developed to control the phenomenon of channeling. The gel preferentially flows into the highly permeable channels and then increases the seepage resistance. Then, subsequent fluids are diverted into smaller pores and throats to enhance oil recovery. In addition, the gel can also be injected into reservoirs from production wells to decrease the water cut. However, reservoir conditions (temperature, salinity, etc.) are becoming more demanding with the continual development of old oil fields and the discovery of unconventional oil fields. Many gels lose their properties when they are injected into the reservoirs. Thus, it is urgent that innovative gels should be developed to adapt to the present harsh formation conditions. Additionally, the percolation behaviors of gel in enhanced heterogeneous reservoirs should be restudied to be better understood. Furthermore, nanomaterials have great application potential in improving gel properties. Finally, we look forward to the submission of new results on the applications of gels for EOR. The submission of both theoretical and experimental studies is welcome.

Dr. Ming Qu
Dr. Tuo Liang
Prof. Mingguo Peng
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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