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Potential Applications of Welan Gum in Upstream Petroleum Industry

Received: 3 May 2016     Published: 4 May 2016
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Abstract

Welan gum (WLG) has been widely used in food industry as thickener. This paper studies its potential applications in upstream petroleum industry. Welan gum was added to drilling mud, and rheology tests were conducted to evaluate mud performance. Experiments demonstrate welan gum effectively boosts mud viscosity. WLG mud also shows strong stability under high temperature and high concentrations of salts. Welan gum has good potential as mud thickener. Rheology tests were also carried out for the aqueous solution of welan gum. Viscosity of WLG solution remained high after addition of sodium chloride and calcium chloride. Long term heating has limited effect on its viscosity. Recovery tests show welan gum can improve oil recovery, and speed up recovery process. Welan gum has good potential for enhanced oil recovery.

Published in International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Engineering (Volume 4, Issue 2)
DOI 10.11648/j.ogce.20160402.12
Page(s) 16-23
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2016. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Welan Gum, Drilling Mud, Oil Recovery, Polymer Rheology

References
[1] Rabia, H., 1985. Oilwell Drilling Engineering. Graham and Trotman. London, UK. 105-130.
[2] Sheng, J., 2010. Modern Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery: Theory and Practice. Gulf Professional Publishing. Oxford, UK. 101-111.
[3] Gao, C., Shi, J., Zhao, F., 2014. Successful polymer flooding and surfactant-polymer flooding projects at Shengli Oilfield from 1992 to 2012. Journal of Petroleum Exploration and Production Technology. 4(1), 1-8.
[4] Gao, C., 2011. Scientific research and field applications of polymer flood in heavy oil recovery. Journal of Petroleum Exploration and Production Technology. 3(1), 65-70.
[5] Gao, C., 2013. Viscosity of partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide under shearing and heat. Journal of Petroleum Exploration and Production Technology. 3(3), 203-206.
[6] Rakitsky, W., Richey, D., 1992. Rapidly hydrating Welan gum. United States Patent 5175277.
[7] Chen, F., 2007. Study of factors affecting property of Welan gum solution. Food Science. 28 (9), 49-52.
[8] Allen, F., Best, G., Lindroth, T., 1991. Welan gum in cement compositions. United States Patent 5004506.
[9] Hoskin, D., Mitchell, T., Shu, P., 1991. Oil reservoir permeability profile control with cross linked welan gum biopolymers. United States Patent 4991652.
[10] Bourgoyne, A., Chenevert, M., Millheim, K., Yang, F., 1986. Applied Drilling Engineering. SPE Textbook Series. Richardson, USA. 40-50.
[11] Gao, C., Bellout, A., 2013. An Evaluation for Two Bacillus Strains in Improving Oil Recovery in Carbonate Reservoirs. Petroleum Science and Technology. 31(11), 1168-1174.
[12] Gao, C., 2014. Empirical correlations for viscosity of partially hydrolyzed Polyacrylamide. Journal of Petroleum Exploration and Production Technology. 4(2), 209-213.
[13] Xu, L., Xu, G., Yu, L., Gong, H., Dong, M., 2014. The displacement efficiency and rheology of welan gum for enhanced oil recovery. Polymers for Advanced Technologies. DOI: 10.1002/pat.3364.
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  • APA Style

    Changhong Gao. (2016). Potential Applications of Welan Gum in Upstream Petroleum Industry. International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Engineering, 4(2), 16-23. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ogce.20160402.12

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    ACS Style

    Changhong Gao. Potential Applications of Welan Gum in Upstream Petroleum Industry. Int. J. Oil Gas Coal Eng. 2016, 4(2), 16-23. doi: 10.11648/j.ogce.20160402.12

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    AMA Style

    Changhong Gao. Potential Applications of Welan Gum in Upstream Petroleum Industry. Int J Oil Gas Coal Eng. 2016;4(2):16-23. doi: 10.11648/j.ogce.20160402.12

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ogce.20160402.12,
      author = {Changhong Gao},
      title = {Potential Applications of Welan Gum in Upstream Petroleum Industry},
      journal = {International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Engineering},
      volume = {4},
      number = {2},
      pages = {16-23},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ogce.20160402.12},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ogce.20160402.12},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ogce.20160402.12},
      abstract = {Welan gum (WLG) has been widely used in food industry as thickener. This paper studies its potential applications in upstream petroleum industry. Welan gum was added to drilling mud, and rheology tests were conducted to evaluate mud performance. Experiments demonstrate welan gum effectively boosts mud viscosity. WLG mud also shows strong stability under high temperature and high concentrations of salts. Welan gum has good potential as mud thickener. Rheology tests were also carried out for the aqueous solution of welan gum. Viscosity of WLG solution remained high after addition of sodium chloride and calcium chloride. Long term heating has limited effect on its viscosity. Recovery tests show welan gum can improve oil recovery, and speed up recovery process. Welan gum has good potential for enhanced oil recovery.},
     year = {2016}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Potential Applications of Welan Gum in Upstream Petroleum Industry
    AU  - Changhong Gao
    Y1  - 2016/05/04
    PY  - 2016
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ogce.20160402.12
    DO  - 10.11648/j.ogce.20160402.12
    T2  - International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Engineering
    JF  - International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Engineering
    JO  - International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Engineering
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    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ogce.20160402.12
    AB  - Welan gum (WLG) has been widely used in food industry as thickener. This paper studies its potential applications in upstream petroleum industry. Welan gum was added to drilling mud, and rheology tests were conducted to evaluate mud performance. Experiments demonstrate welan gum effectively boosts mud viscosity. WLG mud also shows strong stability under high temperature and high concentrations of salts. Welan gum has good potential as mud thickener. Rheology tests were also carried out for the aqueous solution of welan gum. Viscosity of WLG solution remained high after addition of sodium chloride and calcium chloride. Long term heating has limited effect on its viscosity. Recovery tests show welan gum can improve oil recovery, and speed up recovery process. Welan gum has good potential for enhanced oil recovery.
    VL  - 4
    IS  - 2
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Sinopec Shengli E&P Research Center, Dongying, Shandong, China

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