Xinjiang Nine-Six reservoir is a shallow and high-heterogeneity heavy oil reservoir. In the later stage of steam flooding

there are some problems such as high water cut

low oil-steam ratio

serious overlap and channeling of steam

low sweep efficiency and low oil recovery. In order to further enhance the oil recovery

the profile control performance through the application of in-situ gel system in the late stage of steam flooding has been studied. Firstly

the gelling strength

microstructure and temperature-resistance behavior of the in-situ gel have been estimated by frequency-elastic modulus scanning

electron microscope scanning and thermogravimetry（TG-DTG） respectively. Then the 3D physical simulation experiment has been carried out to investigate the gel’s profile controlling performance. The experimental results show that after the addition of thickened cellulose in the original system

the gel’s elastic modulus increases from 96.5 Pa to 316 Pa

indicating the great increase of gel strength. The microstructure of the gel is tighter

the cross-linking is stronger and the stability has been enhanced. Weight retention rate of the gel is higher than 90 % as the temperature increases to 160 ℃

and the temperature-resistance has been improved. In the later stage of steam flooding

after injection of gel solution into high-permeability layer and its transformation into gel

the injection pressure and the oil/steam ratio increase remarkably while the water cut reduces dramatically. The sweep efficiency increases by 31.96 % and the oil recovery by 14.07 %. The in-situ gel can cement oil sand

and block the channeling path of high-permeability layer

which effectively suppresses the steam channeling and overlap. Subsequently

the injected steam can easily enter the low-permeability layer to displace crude oil

resulting in the drastically increasing of sweep efficiency and oil recovery

and indicating the remarkable profile control performance in deep parts.