scholarly journals Brine-Dependent Recovery Processes in Carbonate and Sandstone Petroleum Reservoirs: Review of Laboratory-Field Studies, Interfacial Mechanisms and Modeling Attempts

Energies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 3020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adedapo Awolayo ◽  
Hemanta Sarma ◽  
Long Nghiem
Keyword(s):  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Carbonate Rocks ◽  
Ionic Composition ◽  
Field Studies ◽  
Field Trials ◽  
Process Efficiency ◽  
Wettability Alteration ◽  
Recovery Processes ◽  
Composition Modification ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms

Brine-dependent recovery, which involves injected water ionic composition and strength, has seen much global research efforts in the past two decades because of its benefits over other oil recovery methods. Several studies, ranging from lab coreflood experiments to field trials, indicate the potential of recovering additional oil in sandstone and carbonate reservoirs. Sandstone and carbonate rocks are composed of completely different minerals, with varying degree of complexity and heterogeneity, but wettability alteration has been widely considered as the consequence rather than the cause of brine-dependent recovery. However, the probable cause appears to be as a result of the combination of several proposed mechanisms that relate the wettability changes to the improved recovery. This paper provides a comprehensive review on laboratory and field observations, descriptions of underlying mechanisms and their validity, the complexity of the oil-brine-rock interactions, modeling works, and comparison between sandstone and carbonate rocks. The improvement in oil recovery varies depending on brine content (connate and injected), rock mineralogy, oil type and structure, and temperature. The brine ionic strength and composition modification are the two major frontlines that have been well-exploited, while further areas of investigation are highlighted to speed up the interpretation and prediction of the process efficiency.

scholarly journals  Brine-Dependent Recovery Processes (Smart-Water/Low-Salinity-Water) in Carbonate and Sandstone Petroleum Reservoirs: Review of Laboratory-Field Studies, Interfacial Mechanisms and Modeling Attempts

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adedapo N. Awolayo ◽  
Hemanta K. Sarma ◽  
Long X. Nghiem
Keyword(s):  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Carbonate Rocks ◽  
Ionic Composition ◽  
Recovery Process ◽  
Field Studies ◽  
Field Trials ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Wettability Alteration ◽  
Smart Water ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms

Brine-dependent recovery process has seen much global research efforts in the past two decades because of their benefits over other oil recovery methods. The process involves the tweaking of the ionic composition and strength of the injected water to improve oil production. In recent years, several studies ranging from laboratory coreflood experiments by many researchers to field trials by several companies admit to the potential of recovering additional oil in sandstone and carbonate reservoirs. Sandstone and carbonate rocks are composed of completely different minerals, with varying degree of complexity and heterogeneity, but wettability alteration has been widely considered as the consequence rather than the cause of brine-dependent recovery. However, there is no consensus on the cause as several mechanisms have been proposed to relate the wettability changes to the improved recovery. This review paper aims to provide a state-of-the-art development in published research and various efforts of the industry. This review outlines an overview of laboratory and field observations, descriptions of underlying mechanisms and their validity, the complexity of the oil-brine-rock interactions, modelling works, and comparison between sandstone and carbonate rocks. The provided information is intended to provide the reader with up-to-date information, point to relevant studies for those who are new and those implementing either laboratory- or field-scale projects to speed up the process of further investigations in this research area. Overall, the outcome of this review would potentially be of immense benefit to the oil industry.

Interfacial Viscoelasticity of Crude Oil/Brine: An Alternative Enhanced-Oil-Recovery Mechanism in Smart Waterflooding

SPE Journal ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (03) ◽  
pp. 803-818 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehrnoosh Moradi Bidhendi ◽  
Griselda Garcia-Olvera ◽  
Brendon Morin ◽  
John S. Oakey ◽  
Vladimir Alvarado
Keyword(s):  
Crude Oil ◽  
Water Chemistry ◽  
Enhanced Oil Recovery ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Interaction Mechanism ◽  
Field Trials ◽  
Wettability Alteration ◽  
Low Salinity ◽  
Injection Water

Summary Injection of water with a designed chemistry has been proposed as a novel enhanced-oil-recovery (EOR) method, commonly referred to as low-salinity (LS) or smart waterflooding, among other labels. The multiple names encompass a family of EOR methods that rely on modifying injection-water chemistry to increase oil recovery. Despite successful laboratory experiments and field trials, underlying EOR mechanisms remain controversial and poorly understood. At present, the vast majority of the proposed mechanisms rely on rock/fluid interactions. In this work, we propose an alternative fluid/fluid interaction mechanism (i.e., an increase in crude-oil/water interfacial viscoelasticity upon injection of designed brine as a suppressor of oil trapping by snap-off). A crude oil from Wyoming was selected for its known interfacial responsiveness to water chemistry. Brines were prepared with analytic-grade salts to test the effect of specific anions and cations. The brines’ ionic strengths were modified by dilution with deionized water to the desired salinity. A battery of experiments was performed to show a link between dynamic interfacial viscoelasticity and recovery. Experiments include double-wall ring interfacial rheometry, direct visualization on microfluidic devices, and coreflooding experiments in Berea sandstone cores. Interfacial rheological results show that interfacial viscoelasticity generally increases as brine salinity is decreased, regardless of which cations and anions are present in brine. However, the rate of elasticity buildup and the plateau value depend on specific ions available in solution. Snap-off analysis in a microfluidic device, consisting of a flow-focusing geometry, demonstrates that increased viscoelasticity suppresses interfacial pinch-off, and sustains a more continuous oil phase. This effect was examined in coreflooding experiments with sodium sulfate brines. Corefloods were designed to limit wettability alteration by maintaining a low temperature (25°C) and short aging times. Geochemical analysis provided information on in-situ water chemistry. Oil-recovery and pressure responses were shown to directly correlate with interfacial elasticity [i.e., recovery factor (RF) is consistently greater the larger the induced interfacial viscoelasticity for the system examined in this paper]. Our results demonstrate that a largely overlooked interfacial effect of engineered waterflooding can serve as an alternative and more complete explanation of LS or engineered waterflooding recovery. This new mechanism offers a direction to design water chemistry for optimized waterflooding recovery in engineered water-chemistry processes, and opens a new route to design EOR methods.

A Mechanistic Model for Wettability Alteration by Chemically Tuned Waterflooding in Carbonate Reservoirs

SPE Journal ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (04) ◽  
pp. 767-783 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.. Qiao ◽  
L.. Li ◽  
R.T.. T. Johns ◽  
J.. Xu
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Carbonate Rocks ◽  
Reactive Transport ◽  
Mechanistic Model ◽  
Contact Angles ◽  
Carbonate Reservoirs ◽  
Wettability Alteration ◽  
Physical Parameters ◽  
Minor Effect

Summary Injection of chemically tuned brines into carbonate reservoirs has been reported to enhance oil recovery by 5–30% original oil in place (OOIP) in coreflooding experiments and field tests. One proposed mechanism for this improved oil recovery (IOR) is wettability alteration of rock from oil-wet or mixed-wet to more-water-wet conditions. Modeling of wettability-alteration experiments, however, is challenging because of the complex interactions among ions in the brine and crude oil on the solid surface. In this research, we developed a multiphase and multicomponent reactive transport model that explicitly takes into account wettability alteration from these geochemical interactions in carbonate reservoirs. Published experimental data suggest that desorption of acidic-oil components from rock surfaces make carbonate rocks more water-wet. One widely accepted mechanism is that sulfate (SO42−) replaces the adsorbed carboxylic group from the rock surface, whereas cations (Ca2+, Mg2+) decrease the oil-surface potential. In the proposed mechanistic model, we used a reaction network that captures the competitive surface reactions among carboxylic groups, cations, and sulfate. These reactions control the wetting fractions and contact angles, which subsequently determine the capillary pressure, relative permeabilities, and residual oil saturations. The developed model was first tuned with experimental data from the Stevns Klint chalk and then used to predict oil recovery for additional untuned experiments under a variety of conditions where IOR increased by as much as 30% OOIP, depending on salinity and oil acidity. The numerical results showed that an increase in sulfate concentration can lead to an IOR of more than 40% OOIP, whereas cations such as Ca2+ have a relatively minor effect on recovery (approximately 5% OOIP). Physical parameters, including the total surface area of the rock and the diffusion coefficients, control the rate of recovery, but not the final oil recovery. The simulation results further demonstrate that the optimum brine formulations for chalk are those with relatively abundant SO42− (0.096 mol/kg water), moderate concentrations of cations, and low salinity (total ionic strength of less than 0.2 mol/kg water). These findings are consistent with the experimental data reported in the literature. The new model provides a powerful tool to predict the IOR potential of chemically tuned waterflooding in carbonate reservoirs under different scenarios. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first model that explicitly and mechanistically couples multiphase flow and multicomponent surface complexation with wettability alteration and oil recovery for carbonate rocks specifically.

scholarly journals Nanotechnology Applied to Thermal Enhanced Oil Recovery Processes: A Review

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (24) ◽  
pp. 4671 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oscar E. Medina ◽  
Carol Olmos ◽  
Sergio H. Lopera ◽  
Farid B. Cortés ◽  
Camilo A. Franco
Keyword(s):  
Enhanced Oil Recovery ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Enhanced Recovery ◽  
Thermal Recovery ◽  
Wettability Alteration ◽  
Crude Oils ◽  
Recovery Processes ◽  
Heavy Crude ◽  
Eor Processes

The increasing demand for fossil fuels and the depleting of light crude oil in the next years generates the need to exploit heavy and unconventional crude oils. To face this challenge, the oil and gas industry has chosen the implementation of new technologies capable of improving the efficiency in the enhanced recovery oil (EOR) processes. In this context, the incorporation of nanotechnology through the development of nanoparticles and nanofluids to increase the productivity of heavy and extra-heavy crude oils has taken significant importance, mainly through thermal enhanced oil recovery (TEOR) processes. The main objective of this paper is to provide an overview of nanotechnology applied to oil recovery technologies with a focus on thermal methods, elaborating on the upgrading of the heavy and extra-heavy crude oils using nanomaterials from laboratory studies to field trial proposals. In detail, the introduction section contains general information about EOR processes, their weaknesses, and strengths, as well as an overview that promotes the application of nanotechnology. Besides, this review addresses the physicochemical properties of heavy and extra-heavy crude oils in Section 2. The interaction of nanoparticles with heavy fractions such as asphaltenes and resins, as well as the variables that can influence the adsorptive phenomenon are presented in detail in Section 3. This section also includes the effects of nanoparticles on the other relevant mechanisms in TEOR methods, such as viscosity changes, wettability alteration, and interfacial tension reduction. The catalytic effect influenced by the nanoparticles in the different thermal recovery processes is described in Sections 4, 5, 6, and 7. Finally, Sections 8 and 9 involve the description of an implementation plan of nanotechnology for the steam injection process, environmental impacts, and recent trends. Additionally, the review proposes critical stages in order to obtain a successful application of nanoparticles in thermal oil recovery processes.

scholarly journals Wettability alteration analysis of smart water/novel functionalized nanocomposites for enhanced oil recovery

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 1318-1328
Author(s):  
Sara Habibi ◽  
Arezou Jafari ◽  
Zahra Fakhroueian
Keyword(s):  
Enhanced Oil Recovery ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Ionic Composition ◽  
Water Flooding ◽  
Wettability Alteration ◽  
Core Flooding ◽  
Sulfate Ions ◽  
Smart Water ◽  
Eor Processes ◽  
Co Precipitation

Abstract Smart water flooding, as a popular method to change the wettability of carbonate rocks, is one of the interesting and challenging issues in reservoir engineering. In addition, the recent studies show that nanoparticles have a great potential for application in EOR processes. However, little research has been conducted on the use of smart water with nanoparticles in enhanced oil recovery. In this study, stability, contact angle and IFT measurements and multi-step core flooding tests were designed to investigate the effect of the ionic composition of smart water containing SO42− and Ca2+ ions in the presence of nanofluid on EOR processes. The amine/organosiloxane@Al2O3/SiO2 (AOAS) nanocomposite previously synthesized using co-precipitation-hydrothermal method has been used here. However, for the first time the application of this nanocomposite along with smart water has been studied in this research. Results show that by increasing the concentrations of calcium and sulfate ions in smart water, oil recovery is improved by 9% and 10%, respectively, compared to seawater. In addition, the use of smart water and nanofluids simultaneously is very effective on increasing oil recovery. Finally, the best performance was observed in smart water containing two times of sulfate ions concentration (SW2S) with nanofluids, showing increased efficiency of about 7.5%.

scholarly journals Alteration wettability of carbonate rocks by Nano fluids and comparison with PEG and SDS

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 54-68
Author(s):  
Dr. Rana R Jalil ◽  
Dr. Hussein Qasim Hussein
Keyword(s):  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Carbonate Rocks ◽  
Saline Water ◽  
Sodium Dodecyl ◽  
Silica Nanoparticle ◽  
Wettability Alteration ◽  
Limestone Rock ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Enhance Oil Recovery ◽  
Sds Surfactant

This work was conducted to study limestone rock wettability alteration to enhance oil recovery by flooding using different Nano silica (NS) sizes suspended in saline water and compared with flooding solution of polyethylene glycol (PEG) polymer and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) surfactant, the stability of nanofluids measured by zeta potential. In the flooding system, the secondary recovery by silica nanofluids (0.01 wt. % NS concentration) achieved an oil recovery of 35vol. % and 26.08 vol. % for 10, 52 nm after primary recovery respectively, while PEG polymer and SDS surfactant achieved oil recovery of 5 vol. % and 10 vol. % only respectively. The stability of pressure difference approved that silica nanoparticle never causes any plug or damage for the carbonate rocks

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