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Wettability is the ability of a fluid to stick to a solid surface in the presence of other immiscible fluids. Wettability alteration is crucial as it affects the amount of oil recovered from a given reservoir. The majority of enhanced oil recovery mechanisms purposefully alter the wettability of the reservoir rock from oil-wet to water-wet; to increase the amount of oil recovered from it. This study investigates the effect of various nanomaterials on the wettability, and particularly the brine phase contact angle, of a sand stone reservoir. The nanomaterials used are Magnesium/Aluminum Layered Double Hydroxide, Silica/Zirconia, and a combination of 80.0% Magnesium/Aluminum Layered Double Hydroxide (Mg/Al-LDH) and 20.0% Silica/Zirconia (Zi/Zr). The results suggest that a concentration of 4.0 g/L of Magnesium/Aluminum Layered Double Hydroxide (Mg/Al-LDH) decreases the brine phase contact angle, in the presence of oil, from 66˚ to 60˚ in 0.033 minute as opposed to Silica/Zirconia which increases the brine phase contact angle to 68˚ in the same time interval. The combination of both nanoparticles results in a decrease of 1.0˚ in the brine phase contact angle indicating that Silica/Zirconia (Zi/Zr) lowers the efficiency of Magnesium/Aluminum Layered Double Hydroxide's adsorption to the sandstone surface.

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Seeking ways to diminish Egypt's dependency on foreign oil imports, we had to look for the obvious resources to exploit. Oil shale is one of Egypt's resources that are left abandoned and not used. This project is aiming at introducing both experimental analysis for oil shale in Egypt and the best production technique for it. This study is about experimentally analyzing different samples of potential oil shale fields in Egypt. Samples that are analyzed in this project are from two locations in Egypt: Quseir-Safaga and Abu-Tartur Western Desert, and they are compared to one of the best oil shale fields in the world, which is from Green River Formation Colorado. The experiments were done using AUC lab retort to experimentally determine the critical temperature that will lead to the maximum production using sudden and gradual change in temperatures, which turned out to be sudden change at 500˚C. Thereafter, the degree of API gravity was calculated for each run. Then the oil samples were determined for impurities and liquid chromatography results in the Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute. Part two of the study plan has been included to determine the ultimate ways of producing efficiently, ecologically and economically.

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