Is Wettability Alteration the Main Cause for Enhanced Recovery in Low- Salinity Waterflooding?

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Kafili Kasmaei ◽  
D.N. Rao
Keyword(s):  
Enhanced Recovery ◽  
Wettability Alteration ◽  
Low Salinity ◽  
Low Salinity Waterflooding

Optimal slug size for enhanced recovery by low-salinity waterflooding due to fines migration

2019 ◽  
Vol 177 ◽  
pp. 766-785 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Chequer ◽  
K. Al-Shuaili ◽  
L. Genolet ◽  
A. Behr ◽  
P. Kowollik ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Enhanced Recovery ◽  
Fines Migration ◽  
Low Salinity ◽  
Low Salinity Waterflooding

scholarly journals Effect of salinity on oil production: review on low salinity waterflooding mechanisms and exploratory study on pipeline scaling

2020 ◽  
Vol 75 ◽  
pp. 50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tao Zhang ◽  
Yiteng Li ◽  
Chenguang Li ◽  
Shuyu Sun
Keyword(s):  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Preliminary Investigation ◽  
Petroleum Industry ◽  
Phase Field Model ◽  
Scale Formation ◽  
Wettability Alteration ◽  
Reservoir Properties ◽  
Low Salinity ◽  
Low Salinity Waterflooding

The past decades have witnessed a rapid development of enhanced oil recovery techniques, among which the effect of salinity has become a very attractive topic due to its significant advantages on environmental protection and economical benefits. Numerous studies have been reported focusing on analysis of the mechanisms behind low salinity waterflooding in order to better design the injected salinity under various working conditions and reservoir properties. However, the effect of injection salinity on pipeline scaling has not been widely studied, but this mechanism is important to gathering, transportation and storage for petroleum industry. In this paper, an exhaustive literature review is conducted to summarize several well-recognized and widely accepted mechanisms, including fine migration, wettability alteration, double layer expansion, and multicomponent ion exchange. These mechanisms can be correlated with each other, and certain combined effects may be defined as other mechanisms. In order to mathematically model and numerically describe the fluid behaviors in injection pipelines considering injection salinity, an exploratory phase-field model is presented to simulate the multiphase flow in injection pipeline where scale formation may take place. The effect of injection salinity is represented by the scaling tendency to describe the possibility of scale formation when the scaling species are attached to the scaled structure. It can be easily referred from the simulation result that flow and scaling conditions are significantly affected if a salinity-dependent scaling tendency is considered. Thus, this mechanism should be taken into account in the design of injection process if a sustainable exploitation technique is applied by using purified production water as injection fluid. Finally, remarks and suggestions are provided based on our extensive review and preliminary investigation, to help inspire the future discussions.

scholarly journals Novel insights into pore-scale dynamics of wettability alteration during low salinity waterflooding

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rimsha Aziz ◽  
Vahid Joekar-Niasar ◽  
Pedro J. Martínez-Ferrer ◽  
Omar E. Godinez-Brizuela ◽  
Constantinos Theodoropoulos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wettability Alteration ◽  
Pore Scale ◽  
Low Salinity ◽  
Low Salinity Waterflooding

Surfactant-Aided Low-Salinity Waterflooding for Low-Temperature Carbonate Reservoirs

SPE Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Yue Shi ◽  
Chammi Miller ◽  
Kishore Mohanty
Keyword(s):  
Low Temperature ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Anionic Surfactants ◽  
Surfactant Solution ◽  
Carbonate Reservoirs ◽  
Spontaneous Imbibition ◽  
Wettability Alteration ◽  
Low Salinity ◽  
Low Salinity Waterflooding ◽  
Original Oil In Place

Summary Carbonate reservoirs tend to be oil-wet/mixed-wet and heterogeneous because of mineralogy and diagenesis. The objective of this study is to improve oil recovery in low-temperature dolomite reservoirs using low-salinity and surfactant-aided spontaneous imbibition. The low-salinity brine composition was optimized using ζ-potential measurements, contact-angle (CA) experiments, and a novel wettability-alteration measure. Significant wettability alteration was observed on dolomite rocks at a salinity of 2,500 ppm. We evaluated 37 surfactants by performing CA, interfacial-tension (IFT), and spontaneous-imbibition experiments. Three (quaternary ammonium) cationic and one (sulfonate) anionic surfactants showed significant wettability alteration and produced 43–63% of original oil in place (OOIP) by spontaneous imbibition. At a low temperature (35°C), oil recovery by low-salinity effect is small compared with that by wettability-altering surfactants. Coreflood tests were performed with a selected low-salinity cationic surfactant solution. A novel coreflood was proposed that modeled heterogeneity and dynamic imbibition into low-permeability regions. The results of the “heterogeneous” coreflood were consistent with that of spontaneous-imbibition tests. These experiments demonstrated that a combination of low-salinity brine and surfactants can make originally oil-wet dolomite rocks more water-wet and improve oil recovery from regions bypassed by waterflood at a low temperature of 35°C.

Pore-Scale Imaging of Tertiary Low Salinity Waterflooding in a Heterogeneous Carbonate Rock at Reservoir Conditions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed M. Selem ◽  
Nicolas Agenet ◽  
Martin J. Blunt ◽  
Branko Bijeljic
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Capillary Pressure ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
High Salinity ◽  
Wettability Alteration ◽  
Micro Ct ◽  
Pore Scale ◽  
Low Salinity ◽  
Low Salinity Waterflooding ◽  
Fluid Configuration

Abstract We investigated pore-scale oil displacement and rock wettability in tertiary low salinity waterflooding (LSW) in a heterogeneous carbonate sample using high-resolution three-dimensional imaging. This enabled the underlying mechanisms of the low salinity effect (LSE) to be observed and quantified in terms of changes in wettability and pore-scale fluid configuration, while also measuring the overall effect on recovery. The results were compared to the behavior under high salinity waterflooding (HSW). To achieve the wetting state found in oil reservoirs, an Estaillades limestone core sample was aged at 11 MPa and 80°C for threeweeks. The moderately oil-wet sample was then injected with high salinity brine (HSB) at a range of increasing flow rates, namely at 1, 2,4, 11, 22 and 42 µL/min with 10 pore volumes injected at each rate.Subsequently, low salinity brine (LSB) was injected following the same procedure. X-ray micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) was usedto visualize the fluid configuration in the pore space.A total of eight micro-CT images, with a resolution of 2.3 µm/voxel, wereacquired after both low salinity and high salinity floods.These high-resolution images were used to monitor fluid configuration in the porespace and obtain fluid saturations and occupancy maps. Wettabilitywascharacterized by measurements of in situ contactanglesand curvatures. The results show that the pore-scale mechanisms of improved recovery in LSW are consistent with the development of water micro-dropletswithin the oil and the expansion of thin water films between the oil and rock surface. Before waterflooding and during HSW, the measured contact angles were constant and above 110°, while the meancurvature and the capillary pressure values remained negative, suggesting that the HSB did not change the wettability state of the rock. However, with LSW the capillary pressure increased towards positive values as the wettability shifted towards a mixed-wet state. The fluidoccupancy analysis reveals a salinity-induced change in fluid configuration in the pore space. HSB invaded mainly the larger pores and throats, but with LSW brine invaded small-size pores and throats.Overall,our analysis shows that a change from a weakly oil-wet towards a mixed-wet state was observed mainly after LSW, leading to an incremental increase in oil recovery. This work established a combined coreflooding and imaging methodology to investigate pore-scale mechanisms and wettability alteration for tertiary LSW in carbonates.It improves our understanding of LSW asan enhanced oil recovery (EOR) method for potential field-scale applications. The data provides a valuable benchmark for pore-scale modelling as well as an insight into how even modest wettability changes can lead to additional oil recovery.

Wettability Alteration During Low-Salinity Waterflooding in Carbonate Reservoir Cores

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Waleed Alameri ◽  
Tadesse Weldu Teklu ◽  
Ramona M. Graves ◽  
Hossein Kazemi ◽  
Ali M AlSumaiti
Keyword(s):  
Carbonate Reservoir ◽  
Wettability Alteration ◽  
Low Salinity ◽  
Low Salinity Waterflooding

scholarly journals Wettability Alteration Induced by Surface Roughening During Low Salinity Waterflooding

2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (5) ◽  
pp. 635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taufan Marhaendrajana ◽  
Muhammad Ghifari Ridwan ◽  
Maulana Insan Kamil ◽  
Pudji Permadi
Keyword(s):  
Wettability Alteration ◽  
Surface Roughening ◽  
Low Salinity ◽  
Low Salinity Waterflooding
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document