An Experimental Investigation into the Impact of Sulfate Ions in Smart Water to Improve Oil Recovery in Carbonate Reservoirs

Awolayo, Adedapo; Sarma, Hemanta Kumar; AlSumaiti, Ali M.

doi:10.1007/s11242-015-0616-4

Cited by 83 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…In another test, the core was saturated with initial brine (formation water), aged in dead oil, and flooded with the same initial brine, followed by sequential injection of various seawater with sulphate increment . The first flooding cycle recovered 66.6 % oil and a total of 9.7 % was recovered for subsequent flooding cycles (see Figure a).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this section, we compared the prediction of concentration histories from the analytical solution, developed in the previous section, with published experimental data to validate the model's formulation in predicting the ion species transport during chemically-tuned waterflooding at an elevated temperature. [7,10,[34][35][36] In the transport experiments, the active ions were varied, and for the two-phase flow, incremental oil recoveries were observed as a function of the variations in active ions. The effluent concentration profile of the ion species, especially the active ions, were sampled at regular intervals and compared with the injected concentration to capture the wettability change profile.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The normalized effluent concentration profile displays the changes experienced by each ion species as its normalized concentration is expected to be equal to 1 if no reaction (such as sorption, ion‐exchange, mineral alteration, etc.) occurred . All parameters in Equation are available experimentally, except the two parameters ( P e and R ) controlling the transport processes that were estimated by comparing the observed concentration distributions with the distributions predicted by the model, and then selecting the parameter values that best fit the experimental curve.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…occurred. [7] All parameters in Equation (19) are available experimentally, except the two parameters (P e and R) controlling the transport processes that were estimated by comparing the observed concentration distributions with the distributions predicted by the model, and then selecting the parameter values that best fit the experimental curve. The estimation was achieved by using a nonlinear regression approach.…”

Section: Analytical Solutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These studies also emphasize the higher degree of complexity associated with the process in carbonate rocks as compared to sandstone rocks. [6,7] Hence, there have been significant R&D efforts and initiatives to investigate the potential of this process in improving oil recovery from deep carbonate reservoirs, primarily because they hold huge oil reserves. In carbonate rocks, several approaches have been tested and proven.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An Analytical Solution to Interpret Active Ion Transport During Chemically‐Tuned Waterflooding Process in High‐Temperature Carbonate Rocks

Awolayo

Sarma

2018

Can J Chem Eng

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Recent studies on carbonate reservoirs suggest that modifying the injected brine chemistry leads to a competition amongst ions at the rock surface sites, causing alteration in the rock wettability. As such, the potential increase in oil recovery heavily relies on the relationship between the ion transport and chemical reaction. In this work, we highlighted the three processes that govern this relationship as advection by fluid transport, hydrodynamic dispersion resulting in spreading, and sorption of the ions to the rock. An analytical solution to the mathematical equations describing solute reactive transport was derived based on the advection‐reaction‐dispersion equation (ARDE). Our model was first used to replicate produced ion histories from single phase experiments to emphasize the impact of the active ions on rock surface sites. We then studied the movement of the active ions by predicting the breakthrough composition of different ions during oil‐brine displacement experiments and evaluated the impact of the transport and reaction parameters on the wettability change. The wettability change profile was captured in terms of the sorbed ion concentration, where a high retardation was observed for the active ions. The observed oil recoveries in a data set of two‐phase experiments were correlated to the resultant effect of the rock surface chemistry. This study highlights the importance of rock surface chemistry on wettability change and oil production from carbonate rocks.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Analytical Solutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An Analytical Solution to Interpret Active Ion Transport During Chemically‐Tuned Waterflooding Process in High‐Temperature Carbonate Rocks

Awolayo

Sarma

2018

Can J Chem Eng

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Charging behaviour at the carbonate rock‐water interface in low‐salinity waterflooding: Estimation of zeta potential in high‐salinity brines

et al. 2021

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The study of zeta potential using electro‐kinetic analyzers that measure streaming potential has limitations of measurements to relatively low ionic strength solutions (<0.1 mol/L) due to the threshold limit of streaming potential signal above a certain limit of ionic strength. The objective of this study is to indirectly estimate the zeta potential for higher salinity brine using the zeta potential measurements for low salinity brine, develop an understanding of electrostatic shielding as predicted by the electric double layer (EDL) model, and overcome the limitation of the apparatus. Zeta potential become less negative as ionic strength increases, as per the Gouy–Chapman–Stern theory. It explains the suppression of electro‐kinetic phenomena due to the gradual compression of the diffuse layer. Our calculations show that the zeta potential and the Debye length become nearly constant at higher ionic strength. The ability to estimate zeta potential by the Gouy‐Chapman‐Stern theory at increasing ionic strength is limited. This theory predicts that the concentration of counter‐ions in the Stern layer increases with increasing ionic strength of the brine until the surface charge becomes neutralized and the diffuse layer collapses. However, it ignores the spatial extension of ions. It considers them as a point charge and may not accurately predict the zeta potential at higher ionic strength. The extent of diffuse layer compression is thus limited to the size of the hydrated counter‐ion. It is very unlikely that the measured zeta potential will become zero at higher ionic strength of brines and our calculations show the same.

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Compatibility evaluation of modified seawater for EOR in carbonate reservoirs through the introduction of polyphosphate compound

2019

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Waterflood-assisted oil recovery with sulfate-spiked seawater would cause incompatibility scaling in carbonate reservoirs and reduce economic benefits. This research investigated the benefits of polyphosphate compounds in reducing scaling potential as well as its effect on oil recovery when mixed in high sulfate flood water. Severity of scaling potential of sulfate-spiked water in a carbonate reservoir environment was measured, followed by systematic screening of a polyphosphate compound, which successfully inhibited the sulfate scale precipitation at concentration as low as 100 ppm. The new formulation (seawater with four times sulfate and phosphate, SW4SP) was evaluated and compared with benchmark formulation (modified seawater with four times sulfate, SW4S). Contact angle, ζ-potential and drainage studies show that SW4SP changed the rock wettability from oil wet to water wet to a larger degree compared to SW4S. Improved recovery efficiency of SW4SP was confirmed through a set of core flooding studies in the tertiary and quaternary flood modes. Whereas SW4S recovered 7.7% of original oil in place (OOIP), SW4SP recovered about 8% of OOIP in the tertiary mode under approximately identical flow conditions. Flooding with SW4SP in the quaternary mode following a tertiary flood with SW4S on the same core resulted in 1.7% additional oil recovery, showing improved efficiency of the new flood water formulation.

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An Experimental Investigation into the Impact of Sulfate Ions in Smart Water to Improve Oil Recovery in Carbonate Reservoirs

Cited by 83 publications

References 28 publications

An Analytical Solution to Interpret Active Ion Transport During Chemically‐Tuned Waterflooding Process in High‐Temperature Carbonate Rocks

An Analytical Solution to Interpret Active Ion Transport During Chemically‐Tuned Waterflooding Process in High‐Temperature Carbonate Rocks

Charging behaviour at the carbonate rock‐water interface in low‐salinity waterflooding: Estimation of zeta potential in high‐salinity brines

Compatibility evaluation of modified seawater for EOR in carbonate reservoirs through the introduction of polyphosphate compound

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