Numerical Simulation of Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) studies for aqueous Gemini Surfactant-Polymer-Nanoparticle systems

Abstract

The article investigates the efficacy of gemini surfactant/polymer/nanoparticle flooding on chemical EOR. Initially, physicochemical behavior of aqueous chemical fluids were investigated via interfacial tension reduction, wettability alteration, adsorption, viscosity moderation and oil displacement experiments. During compositional analysis, Cartesian model with specified grid properties, injection flow-rate, well pattern, and rock-fluid characteristics was developed using CMG-STARS tool. Contour map analyses showed that oil saturation decreased from˜80% (initial) to 31.96%, 30.68% and 29.30% after {14-6-14 GS + chase water}, {14-6-14 GS + PHPA + chase water} and {14-6-14 GS + PHPA + SiO2 chase water} flooding respectively. Tertiary recoveries of 15-19% were achieved, depending on injected fluid composition. Experimental data were history matched via CMOST tool to achieve good matching of simulated results. The CMG flooding simulator provides a holistic approach to investigate oil displacement profiles, assess flooding recovery capabilities with near-accuracy and predict the feasibility of proposed chemical EOR projects.

Structural and quantitative evolution of organic matters in oil shale during two different retorting processes

“…Of them, petroleum has been regarded as the principal source of energy for a long time, which alone provided 37.1% of the total energy consumption by the United States in 2017 4,5 . The massive use of petroleum has motivated many countries to explore unconventional oil resources 6‐8 . Oil shale (OS) is a fine‐grain sedimentary rock containing complex solid macromolecular organic matter called kerogen, 9 from which petroleum‐like shale oil can be extracted.…”