Critical review of low-salinity waterflooding

Low-salinity enhanced oil recovery (EOR) effects have for a long time been associated with sandstone reservoirs containing clay minerals. Recently, a laboratory study showing low-salinity EOR effects from composite carbonate core material was reported. In the present paper, the results of oil recovery by low-salinity water flooding from core material sampled from the aqueous zone of a limestone reservoir are reported. Tertiary low-salinity effects, 2–5% of original oil in place (OOIP), were observed by first flooding the cores with high-saline formation water (208 940 ppm) and then with 100× diluted formation water or 10× diluted Gulf seawater at 110 °C. It was verified by flooding the core material with distilled water that the core samples contained small amounts of anhydrite, CaSO4(s). The oil recovery was tested under forced displacement using different injection brines and oils with different acid numbers, 0.08, 0.34, and 0.70 mg of KOH/g. The low-salinity effect depended upon mixed wet conditions, a...

Conditions for a Low-Salinity Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) Effect in Carbonate Oil Reservoirs

The low-salinity effect (LSE) in carbonate rock has been less explored in comparison to sandstone rock. Laboratory experiments have shown that brine composition and (somewhat reduced) salinity can have a positive impact on oil recovery in carbonates. However, the mechanism leading to improved oil recovery in carbonate rock is not well understood. Several studies showed that a positive low-salinity flooding (LSF) effect might be associated with dissolution of rock; however, because of equilibration, dissolution may not contribute at reservoir scale, which would make LSF for carbonate rock less attractive for field applications. This raises now the question whether calcite dissolution is the primary mechanism of the LSF effect. In this paper, we aim to first demonstrate the positive response of carbonate rock to low salinity and then to gain insight into the underlying mechanism(s) specific to carbonate rock. We followed a similar methodology as in sandstone rock [Mahani, H.; Berg, S.; Ilic, D.; Bartels, W....

Insights into the Mechanism of Wettability Alteration by Low-Salinity Flooding (LSF) in Carbonates

Review of the litterature available outside the petroleum industry concerning wettability. This litterature discusses surface forces and their effects on wettability, including van der Waal and electrostatic forces. Hydrogen bonding and ion/water interactions, are also discussed. Advancing and receding contact angles for oil/water/mineral systems in terms of these surface forces are described.

Wettability : fundamentals and surface forces

Significance The simultaneous flow of multiple fluid phases through a porous solid occurs in many natural and industrial processes—for example, rainwater infiltrates into soil by displacing air, and carbon dioxide is stored in deep saline aquifers by displacing brine. It has been known for decades that wetting—the affinity of the solid to one of the fluids—can have a strong impact on the flow, but the microscale physics and macroscopic consequences remain poorly understood. Here, we study this in detail by systematically varying the wetting properties of a microfluidic porous medium. Our high-resolution images reveal the fundamental control of wetting on multiphase flow, elucidate the inherently 3D pore-scale mechanisms, and help explain the striking macroscopic displacement patterns that emerge. Multiphase flow in porous media is important in many natural and industrial processes, including geologic CO2 sequestration, enhanced oil recovery, and water infiltration into soil. Although it is well known that the wetting properties of porous media can vary drastically depending on the type of media and pore fluids, the effect of wettability on multiphase flow continues to challenge our microscopic and macroscopic descriptions. Here, we study the impact of wettability on viscously unfavorable fluid–fluid displacement in disordered media by means of high-resolution imaging in microfluidic flow cells patterned with vertical posts. By systematically varying the wettability of the flow cell over a wide range of contact angles, we find that increasing the substrate’s affinity to the invading fluid results in more efficient displacement of the defending fluid up to a critical wetting transition, beyond which the trend is reversed. We identify the pore-scale mechanisms—cooperative pore filling (increasing displacement efficiency) and corner flow (decreasing displacement efficiency)—responsible for this macroscale behavior, and show that they rely on the inherent 3D nature of interfacial flows, even in quasi-2D media. Our results demonstrate the powerful control of wettability on multiphase flow in porous media, and show that the markedly different invasion protocols that emerge—from pore filling to postbridging—are determined by physical mechanisms that are missing from current pore-scale and continuum-scale descriptions.

Wettability control on multiphase flow in patterned microfluidics

Laboratory Investigation of the Impact of Injection-Water Salinity and Ionic Content on Oil Recovery From Carbonate Reservoirs

This paper described a core flooding laboratory study conducted using composite rock samples from a carbonate reservoir. The aim of the study was to investigate the impact of salinity and ionic composition on oil, brine and rock interactions. Experimental parameters and procedures were designed to replicate reservoir conditions and current field injection practices. Results of the study demonstrated that alterations in the salinity and ionic composition of injected water can have a significant impact on the wettability of the rock surface. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) studies confirmed that injecting different salinity slugs of seawater in carbonate core samples can cause a significant alteration in the surface charges of the rock, and lead to increased interactions with water molecules. The constant reduction of pressure drop across the composite cores with the injection of different diluted versions of water also provided proof of brine, oil and rock alterations. Results of the study indicated that the driving mechanism for waterflooding recovery processes is wettability alteration, which can be triggered by alterations in carbonate rock surface charges, and improvements in the connectivity between rock pore systems that coexist in carbonate rock samples. 41 refs., 8 tabs., 16 figs.

Ali A. Yousef

Papers

Laboratory Investigation of the Impact of Injection-Water Salinity and Ionic Content on Oil Recovery From Carbonate Reservoirs

Laboratory Investigation of Novel Oil Recovery Method for Carbonate Reservoirs

Improved/Enhanced Oil Recovery from Carbonate Reservoirs by Tuning Injection Water Salinity and Ionic Content

Smart Waterflooding: Industry

New Recovery Method for Carbonate Reservoirs through Tuning the Injection Water Salinity: Smart WaterFlooding