{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]],"date-time":"2026-09-30T21:22:56Z","timestamp":1790803376253,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":42,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"7","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,2]],"date-time":"2026-07-02T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1782950400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"CNOOC Key Laboratory of Offshore Heavy Oil Thermal Recovery Director\u2019s Fund Project","award":["KJQZ-2025-2009"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["KJQZ-2025-2009"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.mdpi.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Gels"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Offshore high-temperature steam flooding suffers severe steam channeling, uneven steam intake and low thermal efficiency, while conventional profile control agents fail to adapt to coupled harsh environments of 200\u2013350 \u00b0C high temperature, ultra-high salinity and continuous steam shear. Existing reviews mainly focus on onshore thermal reservoirs or single foam\/gel materials, lacking a targeted, gel-oriented systematic review matching unique offshore platform constraints. Guided by the integrated framework of \u201cflow control\u2013diversion\u2013enhanced sweep efficiency\u201d, this work establishes a six-dimensional quantitative screening standard and unified performance comparison database to systematically review foam, gel, particle, thermo-responsive and composite profile control systems. Differing from petroleum engineering-oriented summaries, this paper subdivides high-temperature gels into six categories from a polymer material perspective, elaborating their crosslinking mechanisms, thermal rheology and cyclic steam degradation rules; the inherent advantages, limitations and offshore applicable boundaries of each medium are quantitatively compared, with special emphasis on the unique \u201cdeep migration followed by in situ thermal activation\u201d mechanism of thermo-responsive materials. Composite systems relieve single-material defects via multi-mechanism synergy yet face complicated on-site deployment barriers. Three core bottlenecks restricting field application are identified: the irreconcilable trade-off between deep propagation and stable plugging, large deviation between static aging results and dynamic anti-scouring performance, and exclusive engineering limitations of offshore platforms. A dedicated standardized dynamic laboratory evaluation scheme for cyclic steam flooding is proposed to narrow lab-field performance gaps. Future research priorities include salt-resistant thermally responsive composite gel modification, low-cost multi-component compound formula optimization, unified dynamic evaluation criteria and staged material matching guidelines to realize balanced performance of high-temperature tolerance, deep delivery and offshore operability.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/gels12070586","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,2]],"date-time":"2026-07-02T14:43:14Z","timestamp":1783003394000},"page":"586","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Action Mechanism, Research Progress and Development Trend of High-Temperature Steam Flooding and Profile Control\/Flooding Systems"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"given":"Yigang","family":"Liu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"CNOOC Key Laboratory of Offshore Heavy Oil Thermal Recovery, Tianjin 300452, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jianhua","family":"Bai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CNOOC Key Laboratory of Offshore Heavy Oil Thermal Recovery, Tianjin 300452, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xiaodong","family":"Han","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CNOOC Key Laboratory of Offshore Heavy Oil Thermal Recovery, Tianjin 300452, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Qiuxia","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CNOOC Key Laboratory of Offshore Heavy Oil Thermal Recovery, Tianjin 300452, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hongwen","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CNOOC Key Laboratory of Offshore Heavy Oil Thermal Recovery, Tianjin 300452, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hongyu","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CNOOC Key Laboratory of Offshore Heavy Oil Thermal Recovery, Tianjin 300452, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jinxiang","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Enhanced Oil and Gas Recovery of Ministry of Education, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing 163318, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yifei","family":"Gao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Enhanced Oil and Gas Recovery of Ministry of Education, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing 163318, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xianpei","family":"Yin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Enhanced Oil and Gas Recovery of Ministry of Education, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing 163318, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,2]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Qin, X., Lei, S., Liu, H., Zeng, Y., Liu, Y., Pang, C., and Chen, J. 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