Events

Dr. Baojun Bai, Associate Professor, Missouri University of Science and Technology will give a talk entitled "Preformed Particle Gels for Conformance Control" as part of the Claude R. Hocott Graduate Seminar Series.

Abstract: Excess water production is a major issue that leads to early well abandonment and unrecoverable hydrocarbon for mature reservoirs. The average water to oil production ratio is greater than 7:1 in the USA. Gel treatment is a proven cost-effective method to improve sweep efficiency and reduce excess water production during hydrocarbon production. A newer trend in gel treatment is applying preformed particle gels for the purpose because the preformed gels can overcome some distinct drawbacks inherent in in-situ gelation systems. In this presentation, I will first introduce the advantage of preformed particle over traditional in-situ gels and current available particle gel products in the markets. Then I will discuss the transport behavior of different size particles through conventional porous media and opening fractures based on our extensive lab experimental results. Finally, I will present some field application and summarize the lessons we learned from more than 5,000 treatments.   

Bio: Baojun Bai is an Associate Professor, the Lester R. Birbeck Endowed Chair, at Missouri University of Science and Technology (formerly, University of Missouri-Rolla). Previously, he was a reservoir engineer and head of conformance-control team at the Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development (RIPED), PetroChina. Dr. Bai also was a post-Doctoral scholar at the California Institute of Technology and a graduate research assistant at the New Mexico Petroleum Recovery Research Center for EOR projects. He has nearly 20 years of experience in the area of EOR, especially in conformance control. He holds PhD degrees in Petroleum Engineering from New Mexico Tech and also in Petroleum Geology from China University of Geoscience-Beijing. Dr. Bai published nearly 100 papers in the area of EOR methods and applications. Dr. Bai served as the JPT Editorial Committee and was responsible for “EOR Performance and Modeling” features from 2007 to 2013. He is also a technical editor for SPEJ and SPEREE.