Investigation of Wettability Alteration and Oil-Recovery Improvement by Low-Salinity Water in Sandstone Rock

Nasralla, Ramez A.; Bataweel, Mohammed; Nasr‐El‐Din, Hisham A.

doi:10.2118/146322-pa

Cited by 172 publications

(89 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…For all dispersions, the zeta potential becomes more negative (there is more double-layer expansion) at lower salinities. Nasralla et al have observed similar results for a more diverse variety of systems [32]. In addition to the same three brines studied by Alotaibi et al, Nasralla et al have also examined aquifer water diluted by a factor of ten and deionized water.…”

Section: Zeta Potential Contact Angle Oil Recovery and Afm Measurementioning

confidence: 72%

“…At 1 mM, the zeta potential for all three brine/silica dispersions is − 33 mV so that the change with salinity is more pronounced for the larger cations. At the same concentration, the brine/rock and brine/oil zeta potentials tend to be more negative if the brine contains monovalent cations as opposed to divalent cations [29,32,27]. This may be because divalents have a stronger influence on the ionic strength and electrostatic screening as evident in Eq.…”

Section: Zeta Potential Contact Angle Oil Recovery and Afm Measurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Contact angle measurements suggest that Scioto is more oil-wet (less waterwet) in low-salinity aquifer water than in high-salinity seawater. Similarly, Nasralla et al find that even though seawater's salinity is significantly lower than that of formation brine, it produces a more oil-wet state and yields less secondary-mode oil recovery than formation brine [32]. An important, but unresolved issue is whether lowsalinity brine is more efficient than deionized water for LSW.…”

Section: Limitations Of Dle and The Chemical Mechanismsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Thin liquid films in improved oil recovery from low-salinity brine

Myint

Firoozabadi

2015

Current Opinion in Colloid & Interface Science

270

214

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Low-salinity waterflooding is a relatively new method for improved oil recovery that has generated much interest. It is generally believed that low-salinity brine alters the wettability of oil reservoir rocks towards a wetting state that is optimal for recovery. The mechanism(s) by which the wettability alteration occurs is currently an unsettled issue. This paper reviews recent studies on wettability alteration mechanisms that affect the interactions between the brine/oil and brine/rock interfaces of thin brine films that wet the surface of reservoir rocks. Of these mechanisms, we pay particular attention to double-layer expansion, which is closely tied to an increase in the thickness and stability of the thin brine films. Our review examines studies on both sandstones and carbonate rocks. We conclude that the thin-brine-film mechanisms provide a good qualitative, though incomplete, picture of this very complicated problem. We give suggestions for future studies that may help provide a more quantitative and complete understanding of low-salinity waterflooding.

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Section: Zeta Potential Contact Angle Oil Recovery and Afm Measurementioning

confidence: 72%

Section: Zeta Potential Contact Angle Oil Recovery and Afm Measurementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Limitations Of Dle and The Chemical Mechanismsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Thin liquid films in improved oil recovery from low-salinity brine

Myint

Firoozabadi

2015

Current Opinion in Colloid & Interface Science

270

214

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“…recovery modes (Webb et al 2005;Zhang et al 2007;Lager et al 2007;Agbalaka et al 2009) while others showed no improvement in tertiary mode (Rivet et al 2010;Nasralla et al 2011). Extensive studies have been conducted to determine the LSW recovery mechanisms, and debatable conclusions were proposed.…”

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confidence: 99%

Efficiency of enhanced oil recovery using polymer-augmented low salinity flooding

AlQuraishi

AlHussinan

AlYami

2017

J Petrol Explor Prod Technol

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Oil recovery from heavy oil resources has always been a challenging task. This work is aimed at investigating the recovery efficiency of polymer-augmented low salinity waterflooding in heavy oil reservoirs. The main recovery mechanism behind low salinity waterflooding is wettability alteration to more water-wet state. On the other hand, polymer flooding is performed to control fluids mobility and hence improve displacement efficiency. Combining both recovery methods is expected to add to recovery efficiency obtained by individual methods, and the aim of this work is to explore this experimentally. In this study, several laboratory experiments were conducted using Berea and Bentheimer sandstone cores starting with base runs of continuous secondary seawater and tertiary twice and 10 times diluted seawaterflooding (low salinity). Significant incremental oil recovery was obtained when flooded with low salinity water, and 10 times diluted seawater was determined to be used as low salinity water. Contact angle and Zeta potential measurements indicate wettability alteration due to clay detachment as the main recovery mechanism. Synergy of water secondary flooding and polymer tertiary flooding at different water salinity levels proved the efficiency of hybrid low salinity polymer flooding process in Berea sandstone. Low water salinity during secondary injection mode played a major role on ultimate recovery with less contribution to tertiary polymer slug injection. High salinity waterflooding provided lower secondary recovery leaving more residual oil for polymer slug to act on at that cycle. Smaller polymer slug of 0.1 pore volume was found to be sufficient in tertiary flooding with low salinity water but with slightly slower recovery rate. Bentheimer sandstones known for its low clay content were subjected to polymer-augmented waterflooding at high and low salinity levels. Close secondary and tertiary recoveries were obtained for the two salinity levels with slower recovery rate for low salinity run. Minute clay content and water-wet characteristic as determined by contact angle measurements may explain the lack of water salinity effect on recovery. The lack of salinity role and the two shock fronts with connate water bank in between known to exist during low salinity flooding may explain the slower recovery rate encountered. Comparison of both sandstones indicates that less ultimate recovery from Berea rocks, and this can be attributed to their initial intermediate wet state in contrast to the water-wet Bentheimer sandstone rocks.

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“…Furthermore, there is direct evidence that wettability altered to more water-wet during low salinity water flooding [9], [10]. Accordingly, initial and final wettability's are key indices which have been evaluated.…”

Section: Wettability Effects and Its Alterationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Low Salinity as New Technique of Enhanced Oil Recovery

Abdalla¹,

Sun²,

Tang³

et al. 2017

IJCEA

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Abstract-Low salinity water flooding is a very promising EOR method in recent years in which chemistry play major role in improving oil recovery. Several studies shown that oil recovery significantly increase by low salinity water flooding (LSWF) in sandstone. However, the mechanisms of oil recovery improvement are still controversial, its considered to be decrease of residual oil saturation and alteration of rock wettability, the solution and surface chemistry as well as rock/fluid interactions have important roles that can be attributed to reservoir minerals being sensitive to small changes in solution properties. This paper provides a comprehensive review of low salinity water flooding. Attempt is made to cover all aspects and features of low salinity water flooding to shed light on critical and challengeable features and clear the gaps and deficiencies of conducted studies. The proposed mechanisms are discussed and their success and failure are explained. Analytical and numerical modeling of low salinity water flooding is presented. Secondary and tertiary low salinity water flooding are compared in the term of additional oil recovered. Surfaces forces and rock/fluid/brine interaction and its relationship to wettability are discussed. Results of combined low salinity and EOR methods are described which includes simultaneous use of low salinity with polymer flooding, surfactant flooding. Accordingly, low salinity water flooding EOR methods have great potential for enhanced oil recovery in the future.Index Terms-Low salinity water flooding, oil recovery, secondary recovery, tertiary recovery.

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Investigation of Wettability Alteration and Oil-Recovery Improvement by Low-Salinity Water in Sandstone Rock

Cited by 172 publications

References 19 publications

Thin liquid films in improved oil recovery from low-salinity brine

Thin liquid films in improved oil recovery from low-salinity brine

Efficiency of enhanced oil recovery using polymer-augmented low salinity flooding

Low Salinity as New Technique of Enhanced Oil Recovery

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