Influence of the Clay Content and Type of Algerian Sandstone Rock Samples on Water–Oil Relative Permeabilities

Abstract

The objective of this work is to study the effect of certain factors on oil−water relative permeability curves following a considerable drop in the production of certain oil wells at the Hassi Messaoud field in southern Algeria. In the present study, oil−water relative permeability experiments and irreducible water (S wi ) and residual oil (S or ) saturations have been investigated. The effect of the clay particle content in the samples (such as illite and kaolinite) on oil recovery is investigated. Indeed, other factors, such as injected pressure, wettability alteration, and petrophysical properties, of the reservoir rock interact with each other and, particularly, in the presence of injected Albian water. Results of the waterflooding experiments show that oil recovery (IOP) increases with increasing clay content, namely, kaolinite and illite type; this IOP is clearly higher for plugs containing more kaolinite than illite. The tested samples have water-wetting behavior, showing a decrease in S or and an increase in S wi , and are characterized by a strong presence of clays, 70% kaolinite and 30% illite, with a breakthrough from about 40 to 50%.

The Characteristics of Gas-Water Two-Phase Radial Flow in Clay-Silt Sediment and Effects on Hydrate Production

“…The flow capacity of the tight sandstone gas reservoir is weak. By comparison, it can be found that, in the gas-water relative permeability curve of the clay-silt sediment, the irreducible water saturation is much higher than that of other reservoirs, which is determined by the high clay content of the clay-silt sediment [24]. It also directly determines that the mobile gas porosity in the clay-silt sediment is very low.…”

Experimental study of the low salinity water injection process in the presence of scale inhibitor and various nanoparticles

“…However, the main factor is the change in wettability. In general, the greatest increase in oil recovery factor by LSWI occurs when the content of salts in the injection water is less than in the formation water (Al-Shalabi and Sepehrnoori 2016; Akkal et al 2019). During the LSWI process, the clay swelling phenomenon can be observed, after which the clay particles can dissolve in brine, then migrate, settle, and get stuck in the pores (Sameni et al 2015;Garcia-Olvera and Alvarado 2017).…”