Tailored highly porous, templated polyurethane for sand consolidation

Abstract A novel polymeric resin formulation is developed to mitigate sand production from subterranean formations composed of unconsolidated or weakly consolidated sands via a chemical sand consolidation approach. The developed formulation aims to minimize the formation permeability loss commonly observed in a chemical sand consolidation treatment. The new formulation is a water‐in‐oil high internal phase emulsion with poly(ε‐caprolactone) polyol and isophorone diisocyanate monomer incorporated in the external oil phase. Highly porous, emulsion templated polyurethane forms through the reaction between polyol and isocyanate under elevated temperature. Additionally, CO 2 generated through the reaction between excess isocyanate monomer and water leads to the formation of more pores in the cross‐linked polymeric network. When the developed formulation is applied for sand consolidation treatment, the interconnected pores formed after resin curing act as “channels” in the consolidated products and allow the produced fluid such as oil, water, or gas to easily flow through, thereby limiting permeability reduction. The effectiveness of using porous polyurethane material for sand consolidation is evaluated through a compressive strength and permeability study of the consolidated sandpacks prepared with this chemistry.