Prospects of improved oil recovery related to wettability and brine composition

Morrow, Norman R.; Tang, Guiqian; Valat, Marc; Xie, Xiangyang

doi:10.1016/s0920-4105(98)00030-8

Cited by 285 publications

(160 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Readers may refer to Ref. 5,14,48,49 for more information. It is confident to say that the wettability of our modeled system is close to that of the real oil/brine/rock system.…”

Section: A Comparison With Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In recent twenty years, the successful practices of brine-modified flooding, including low salinity waterflooding (LSF) in sandstone [1][2][3][4][5][6] and seawater or modified seawater flooding in carbonate, 1,[7][8][9][10][11][12] have proved that ionic composition of the injected brine can significantly influence waterflooding efficiency. These new waterflooding strategies are economical and environment-friendly, and thus have attracted increasing interests from oil industry.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Molecular dynamics for ion-tuned wettability in oil/brine/rock systems

Tian

Wang

2017

AIP Advances

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The dependence of wettability on brine ionic composition in oil/brine/rock systems, which is denoted as ion-tuned wettability, has important applications in geoscience. Due to the involvement of non-continuum effects, molecular dynamics (MD) simulation is necessary to improve understanding of its mechanism. This work establishes a reliable molecular dynamics (MD) framework to study ion-tuned wettability. We prove that our model system can well represent the wettability of the real oil/brine/rock system, and that the wettability alteration from the MD results is qualitatively consistent with the EDL repulsion theory when ion-binding does not exist. In the process to establish the MD framework, our work suggests that adding counter ions to balance interface charges is good for studying concentration effect on wettability, and the contact angle defined from mass center coordinates is effective to measure the wettability of the nano-scale MD system. This work provides the basis for on-going studies using MD simulation to reveal the mechanism of ion-tuned wettability.

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“…Readers may refer to Ref. 5,14,48,49 for more information. It is confident to say that the wettability of our modeled system is close to that of the real oil/brine/rock system.…”

Section: A Comparison With Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Molecular dynamics for ion-tuned wettability in oil/brine/rock systems

Tian

Wang

2017

AIP Advances

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“…Numerous examples of the dependency of the efficiency oil recovery by waterflooding and spontaneous imbibition on brine composition have been reported (Jadhunandan and Morrow 1991, Yildiz and Morrow 1996, Yildiz, Valat and Morrow 1999, Tang and Morrow 1997, 1999a, 1999b, Morrow et al 1998. Increases in oil recovery of over 50% OOIP have been observed with change in brine composition.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improved Water Flooding through Injection Brine Modification

Robertson¹,

Thomas²,

Morrow³

2003

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Crude oil/brine/rock interactions can lead to large variations in the displacement efficiency of waterflooding, by far the most widely applied method of improved oil recovery. Laboratory waterflood tests show that injection of dilute brine can increase oil recovery. Numerous fields in the Powder River basin have been waterflooded using low salinity brine (about 500 ppm) from the Madison limestone or Fox Hills sandstone. Although many uncertainties arise in the interpretation and comparison of field production data, injection of low salinity brine appears to give higher recovery compared to brine of moderate salinity (about 7,000 ppm). Laboratory studies of the effect of brine composition on oil recovery cover a wide range of rock types and crude oils. Oil recovery increases using low salinity brine as the injection water ranged from a low of no notable increase to as much as 37.0% depending on the system being studied. Recovery increases using low salinity brine after establishing residual oil saturation (tertiary mode) ranged from no significant increase to 6.0%. Tests with two sets of reservoir cores and crude oil indicated slight improvement in recovery for low salinity brine. Crude oil type and rock type (particularly the presence and distribution of kaolinite) both play a dominant role in the effect that brine composition has on waterflood oil recovery. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTSThis work was funded by the

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“…With the purpose of enhancing oil recovery, low salinity water (LSW) with adequate composition and salinity is injected into the reservoir, which changes the wetting properties of the reservoir rock into that favoring oil recovery 2), 3) . There are many theories regarding the mechanisms of wettability alteration in presence of LSW which are fine migration 4) , the pH effects 3) , multiple-component ion exchange (MIE) 5) , and wettability modification due to double layer expansion 2), 6) . Ligthelm et al (2009) suggested that the application of LSW results in an expansion of the ionic electrical double layer between the clay and the oil interfaces.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Investigation into Effects of Crude Oil Acid and Base Number on Wettability Alteration by Using Different Low Salinity Water in Sandstone Rock

Shabib-Asl

Abdalla

Mohd

et al. 2015

J. Jpn. Petrol. Inst.

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In the last two decades, the level of investigation into low salinity water (LSW) flooding has sharply increased. LSW with adequate composition and salinity is injected into the reservoir, which changes the properties of the reservoir rock, thus improving oil recovery. However, for certain reservoirs there might be no improvement at all. This has led for further studies on what exactly governs the lack of improvement upon LSW injection in different reservoirs. Focus was placed on acidic and basic components present in crude oil. They are characterized by measuring total acid number (TAN) and total base number (TBN). This study investigates the wettability alteration of Berea sandstone rock with different crude oil acid and base numbers at specific LSW concentrations and compositions. For this purpose, the sessile drop method was used in specified times. Moreover, the experiments were conducted in two stages, which included crude oil A and B. The experimental results revealed that a significant change in wettability was experienced by the LSW composition of cations K and Na for the crude oil composition with lower acid number.

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Prospects of improved oil recovery related to wettability and brine composition

Cited by 285 publications

References 9 publications

Molecular dynamics for ion-tuned wettability in oil/brine/rock systems

Molecular dynamics for ion-tuned wettability in oil/brine/rock systems

Improved Water Flooding through Injection Brine Modification

Experimental Investigation into Effects of Crude Oil Acid and Base Number on Wettability Alteration by Using Different Low Salinity Water in Sandstone Rock

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