Hybrid EOR Methods Utilizing Low-Salinity Water

Pourafshary, Peyman; Moradpour, Nikoo

doi:10.5772/intechopen.88056

Cited by 13 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…The aim of a hybrid approach is to recover more oil in an economical way via post-secondary flooding from porous media. Some authors [ 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 ] have reported hybrid schemes involving LSW, such as LSW gas flooding, LSW surfactant flooding, LSW polymer flooding, and LSW NF methods. The use of a combination of techniques and the activation of an individual mechanism typically results in a higher oil recovery rate than standalone techniques.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The use of a combination of techniques and the activation of an individual mechanism typically results in a higher oil recovery rate than standalone techniques. Pourafshary and Moradpour [ 53 ] reviewed the synergistic effects of different hybrid methods involving LSWF, and concluded that the incremental recovery of up to 30% of the original oil in place can be achieved. Shirazi et al [ 33 ] performed various different experiments and tests to study the synergistic effects of smart water and TiO 2 NP.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Pourafshary and Moradpour [ 55 ] also carried out an experimental investigation of the performance of hybrid LSW NF on dolomite carbonate rocks. A core flooding experiment showed an increase in oil recovery of 5.4% using LSW NF, due to the activation and initiation of weak mechanisms in the standalone method.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Catalytic Effects of Temperature and Silicon Dioxide Nanoparticles on the Acceleration of Production from Carbonate Rocks

2021

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The use of engineered water (EW) nanofluid flooding in carbonates is a new enhanced oil recovery (EOR) hybrid technique that has yet to be extensively investigated. In this research, we investigated the combined effects of EW and nanofluid flooding on oil-brine-rock interactions and recovery from carbonate reservoirs at different temperatures. EW was used as dispersant for SiO2 nanoparticles (NPs), and a series of characterisation experiments were performed to determine the optimum formulations of EW and NP for injection into the porous media. The EW reduced the contact angle and changed the rock wettability from the oil-wet condition to an intermediate state at ambient temperature. However, in the presence of NPs, the contact angle was reduced further, to very low values. When the effects of temperature were considered, the wettability changed more rapidly from a hydrophobic state to a hydrophilic one. Oil displacement was studied by injection of the optimised EW, followed by an EW-nanofluid mixture. An additional recovery of 20% of the original oil in place was achieved. The temperature effects mean that these mechanisms are catalytic, and the process involves the initiation and activation of multiple mechanisms that are not activated at lower temperatures and in each standalone technique.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Catalytic Effects of Temperature and Silicon Dioxide Nanoparticles on the Acceleration of Production from Carbonate Rocks

2021

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“…The CDC is a plot of ROS versus the capillary number, where it is one of the most important input parameters in reservoir simulation software for EOR (Oughanem et al 2013) and is influenced by the wettability and the PSD of the porous medium. Figure 1 presents a schematic of the CDC, where the logarithmic x-axis is representative of the capillary number, and the normal y-axis shows the residual saturation of the non-wetting phase.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Capillary desaturation curve: does low salinity surfactant flooding significantly reduce the residual oil saturation?

Zivar

Pourafshary

Moradpour

2021

J Petrol Explor Prod Technol

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Different oil displacement experiments conducted on sandstone and carbonate samples show that low salinity water (LSW) injection can reduce the residual oil saturation (ROS). Recently, surfactant flooding (SF) in combination with low salinity water (known as low salinity surfactant (LSS) flooding) is proposed as a potentially promising hybrid enhanced oil recovery (EOR) process. A lower ROS is reported for a LSS process compared to that seen in SF or with LSW at the same capillary number. The capillary desaturation curve (CDC) is a well-known tool to study the effect of viscous and capillary forces on ROS for different EOR techniques. In this study, ROS data of various LSW, SF, and LSS flooding experiments at different capillary numbers are collected to develop a CDC to analyze the performance of the hybrid LSS method. This can help to analyze the effect of the hybrid method on an extra improvement in sweep efficiency and reduction in residual oil. A lower ROS is observed for LSS compared to LSW and SF in the same capillary number range. Our study shows different behaviors of the hybrid method at different ranges of capillary numbers. Three regions are identified based on the capillary number values. The difference in ROS is not significant in the first region (capillary number in the range of 10−7–10−5), which is not applicable in the presence of surfactant due to the low interfacial tension value. A significant reduction in ROS is observed in the second region (capillary number in the range of 10−5–10−2) for LSS compared to SF. This region is the most practical range for SF and LSS flooding. Hence, the application of LSS provides a noticeable benefit compared to normal EOR techniques. In the third region (capillary numbers greater than 10−2), where the surfactant flooding is a better performer, the difference in ROS is negligible.

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“…The effect of injecting diluted sea water, synthetic low-salinity brines, ion-treated brines [known as controlled ions water (CIW)], and the controlling parameters on the microscopic water sweep efficiency has been investigated by many experimental and modeling works in both sandstone and carbonate rocks. 4 A considerable number of the hydrocarbon-bearing reservoirs in the world, nearly 60%, are in carbonate rocks. 5 On the other hand, the available research literature and pilot tests for low-salinity water (LSW) flooding in carbonates are limited, compared to sandstones, because of the increased complexity encountered when dealing with geochemical interactions in heterogeneous carbonate rocks.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Slug Size, Soaking, and Injection Schemes on the Performance of Controlled Ions Water Flooding in Carbonates

et al. 2020

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The results of many previous studies on low salinity/controlled ions water (CIW) flooding suggest that future laboratory and modeling investigations are required to comprehensively understand and interpret the achieved observations. In this work, the aim is co-optimization of the length of the injected slug and soaking time in the CIW flooding process. Furthermore, the possibility of the occurrence of several governing mechanisms is studied. Therefore, the experimental results were utilized to develop a compositional model, using CMG GEM software, in order to obtain the relative permeability curves by history matching. It was concluded that CIW slug injection, concentrated in the potential-determining ion, can increase oil recovery under a multi ion exchange (MIE) mechanism. The wettability of the carbonate rocks was changed from a mixed or oil wet state toward more water wetness. However, there is a CIW slug length, beyond which extending the length does not significantly improve the rock wettability, and consequently, the oil production, which is known as the optimum slug size. This implies that the optimization of the injection process, by minimizing the slug size, can decrease the need for the CIW supply, therefore lowering the process expenditure. Moreover, if the exposure time of the rock and CIW is increased (soaking), a higher level of ion substitution is probable, leading to more oil detachment and production. Rock dissolution/precipitation (leading to a pH change) was found to have a negligible contribution.

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Hybrid EOR Methods Utilizing Low-Salinity Water

Cited by 13 publications

References 61 publications

Catalytic Effects of Temperature and Silicon Dioxide Nanoparticles on the Acceleration of Production from Carbonate Rocks

Catalytic Effects of Temperature and Silicon Dioxide Nanoparticles on the Acceleration of Production from Carbonate Rocks

Capillary desaturation curve: does low salinity surfactant flooding significantly reduce the residual oil saturation?

Effects of Slug Size, Soaking, and Injection Schemes on the Performance of Controlled Ions Water Flooding in Carbonates

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