Water channeling, one of the primary reservoir conformance problems, is caused by reservoir heterogeneities that lead to the development of high-permeability streaks and fractures. These streaks and fractures prevent large amounts of oil from being recovered. The ultimate objective of this research was to provide comprehensive insight into designing better particle gel treatments intended for use in large openings, including open fractures, high permeability streaks, and conduits to increase oil recovery and reduce water production.

An intensive laboratory study was conducted to better understand the injection and placement mechanisms of millimeter and micron size preformed particle gels (PPGs) through thief zones. Core flooding experiments were also conducted to investigate the effectiveness of micron-size PPGs to correct the heterogeneity within reservoirs. The effectiveness of combined conformance control (gel), stimulation treatments (acid), and mobility control treatments (polymer) were examined for their ability to increase oil recovery from non-cross flow heterogeneity cores.

A PPG partially blocks a large channel rather than fully blocking it. A PPG pack permeability of oil was much more than PPG pack permeability of water. The gel formed a cake on the low-permeability layers, reducing their permeability. Fully swollen gel particles had better injectivity than did partially swollen particles with a larger diameter size. The PPG was used successfully used to correct both non-cross and cross flow heterogeneity problems. Combined PPG with either acid or polymer showed promise results of increasing oil recovery.

"--Abstract, page iii.