Low Salinity Waterflood at Reduced Capillarity

Spildo, Kristine; Johannessen, Annette Meland; Skauge, Arne

doi:10.2118/154236-ms

Cited by 55 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…The results showed that significantly more oil was mobilised by the hybrid process (IFT reduction and low salinity) compared to what is expected from a sole reduction in IFT (increase in capillary number) due to the added surfactant. This has later been confirmed by Spildo et al (2012) and Johannessen and Spildo (2013).…”

Section: Low Salinity Surfactant Injectionsupporting

confidence: 52%

“…The studies have shown a moderate increase in oil recovery during injection of low salinity brine (0.2-0.5 wt% NaCl). Some, but not all, of these experiments have included observations indicating fines migration (see for example Alagic and Skauge, 2010;Gamage and Thyne, 2011;Alagic et al, 2011;Spildo et al, 2012). The factors controlling whether or not fines migration and possible formation damage occurs are not fully understood.…”

Section: Effect Of Salinity On Clay Stability and Surfactant Retentionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Strategy for Low Cost, Effective Surfactant Injection

Spildo¹,

Djurhuus²,

Sun³

et al. 2011

Proceedings

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Keywords: surfactant solubility phase behaviour microemulsion interfacial tension retention a b s t r a c t Ideally, in a chemical flooding process, one would like to inject a surfactant solution that has good solubility at the relevant conditions, ultralow interfacial tension (efficient oil mobilisation) and low loss of surfactant (better economics) in the porous medium. The key question is -can you have low loss of surfactant, i.e. low retention, at ultralow interfacial tension?To answer this question, we have undertaken a systematic study of surfactant solubility, phase behaviour, interfacial tension and retention as a function of salinity for a given surfactant formulation. The idea is to explore the interrelationship between these properties and find the best condition(s) for combined low interfacial tension and low retention in a surfactant flooding process.For the investigated surfactant formulation, ultra-low interfacial tensions ( o0.01 mN/m) can be found in the Winsor III region at optimal salinity. The aqueous solution at optimal salinity is, however, turbid, and retention values are high. On the other hand, for light oils, there are regions in the Winsor I area where (i) interfacial tensions are low (0.01 mN/m o IFT o0.1 mN/m), but not ultralow, (ii) aqueous solutions are clear and (iii) retention is 10 times lower than at optimal salinity. The search for an optimum surfactant formulation has to consider solution properties and retention in addition to the low interfacial tension. Based on our result, we therefore propose that Winsor I phase behaviour is the best option for a compromise between the properties in question.

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Section: Low Salinity Surfactant Injectionsupporting

confidence: 52%

Section: Effect Of Salinity On Clay Stability and Surfactant Retentionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Strategy for Low Cost, Effective Surfactant Injection

Spildo¹,

Djurhuus²,

Sun³

et al. 2011

Proceedings

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“…to be an economical process 4) . Nowadays because of environmental fates, natural based surfactants can be used instead of industrial surfactants and many researchers have studied on these kinds of surfactants in recent years.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Natural Leaf-derived Surfactants on Wettability Alteration and Interfacial Tension Reduction in Water-oil System: EOR Application

Rahmati

Mashayekhi

Songolzadeh

et al. 2015

J. Jpn. Petrol. Inst.

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In this study, two types of plants based natural cationic surfactants, named Mulberry and Henna are introduced and the application of these natural surfactants in wettability alteration of reservoir rock and reducing the interfacial tension of water-oil system is investigated. For this purpose, two natural-based surfactants were extracted from the leaves of the trees of addressed plants and then the interfacial tension (IFT) values between oil and natural surfactant solution and also the contact angle values between natural surfactant solution and rock sample were measured. The results demonstrated that Mulberry extract was able to lower the interfacial tension between oil and distilled water from 43.9 to 4.01 mN/m, while Henna extract could reduce the IFT from 43.9 to 3.05 mN/m. These natural surfactants were also able to reduce the contact angle of rock/fluid system which shows the wettability is altering to water wet system and so it may increase recovery factor by reducing residual oil saturation and Henna extract could reduce the contact angle more than that of Mulberry leaf extract. According to these results in addition to the low price of generating natural surfactants, the feasibility of using these kinds of surfactants in future oil recovery processes is of major concern.

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“…It is reported that the degree of oil recovery improvement relies on multicomponent ion exchange, clay contents, formation water composition, oil composition and initial water saturation. A few mechanisms have been proposed to explain the positive effect, including: migration of fines (Tang and Morrow, 1999), interfacial tension reduction (McGuire and Chatham, 2005), multicomponent ionic exchange (Lager et al, 2008), PH driven wettability change (Lager et al, 2008;McGuire and Chatham, 2005), double-layer expansion (Ligthelm et al, 2009), desorption of organic material from clay surface (Austad et al, 2010), wettability alternation (Yousef et al, 2012), mineral dissolution (Aksulu et al, 2012), and microscopically diverted flow (Skauge 2008;Spildo et al 2012). These mechanisms lead to modification of rock wettability from oil-wet or intermediate/water wet; therefore, residual oil saturation is reduced, and ultimate oil recovery is improved.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coupling Low Salinity Water Flooding and Preformed Particle Gel to Enhance Oil Recovery for Fractured Carbonate Reservoirs

Alhuraishawy

Imqam

Wei

et al. 2016

SPE Western Regional Meeting

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The recovery of oil from carbonate reservoirs is usually low due to their extreme heterogeneity caused by natural fractures and the nature of the oil-wet matrix. Low salinity water flooding (LSWF) and preformed particle gels (PPGs) control conformance are two novel technologies that have recently drawn great interest by the oil industry. We developed a cost-effective, novel, enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technology for carbonate reservoirs by coupling the two technologies into one process. The objective of this paper is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the combined technology and to test through laboratory experiments the extent to which the coupling method can improve oil recovery. The laboratory experiments showed that the optimum water salinity for the application of the coupled method was 0.1 wt. % NaCl under experimental conditions. The water residual resistance factor (Frrw) increased as the water salinity and the fracture width decreased. The oil-wet carbonate cores provided a higher improved oil recovery than a water-wet carbonate cores during LSWF. The decrease in fracture width resulted in a higher oil recovery factor. Compared to traditional bulk gel treatments, PPG forms stronger plugging but will not form an impermeable cake in the fracture surface; therefore, PPG allows low salinity water to penetrate into the matrix to modify its wettability, thus producing more oil from the matrix. Results also show that oil recovery increased by 10 % during LSWF after the second waterflooding. Additionally, when PPG was injected, another 8 % of oil recovery was gained. As a result, combined the LSWF and PPG increased oil recovery by 18%. LSWF can increase only displacement efficiency but has little or no effect on sweep efficiency, while particle gels can plug fractures or in high-permeable channels to improve sweep efficiency but have little effect on displacement efficiency. The coupled method bypasses the limitations of each method when used individually and improve both the displacement and the sweep efficiency.

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Low Salinity Waterflood at Reduced Capillarity

Cited by 55 publications

References 69 publications

A Strategy for Low Cost, Effective Surfactant Injection

A Strategy for Low Cost, Effective Surfactant Injection

Effect of Natural Leaf-derived Surfactants on Wettability Alteration and Interfacial Tension Reduction in Water-oil System: EOR Application

Coupling Low Salinity Water Flooding and Preformed Particle Gel to Enhance Oil Recovery for Fractured Carbonate Reservoirs

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