TY - JOUR
T1 - The effect of carbonate rock wettability on the performance of low salinity waterflooding
T2 - an experimental approach
AU - Zekri, Abdulrazag
AU - Nantongo, Hildah
AU - Boukadi, Fathi
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was funded by Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations (ADCO). Under the project no. 21R011.
Funding Information:
The authors would like to acknowledge the ADCO Oil Co., Khalifa University, UAEU Research Affairs, and National Water and Energy Center (project no. 21R011) for their financial support. Special thanks go for Engineers Essa Lwisa and Jassim Abubaker Ponnambathayil for conducting the laboratory work part covering contact angle and IFT measurements used in this study.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - While the “low salinity waterflooding” (LSWF) has been praised for enhancing oil recovery from different core rocks, the performance of the technique in different wettability environments remains unclear. The consensus is that LSWF does not work well in water-wet carbonate oil reservoirs. The main research objective was to determine the effect of LSWF on the displacement efficiency (DE) in different wettability environments. Carbonate core flooding experiments on rocks with different wettabilities were performed at in-situ reservoir conditions using seawater as a “base water”. Seawater was sequentially diluted 10 to 50 times and spiked 2 and 6 times with sulfate. Following sequential flooding with four different waters, the DEs were measured for different wettabilities. Five different sequential brine floodings were performed on carbonate rocks. Results indicated that optimum low salinity water is a function of system wettability. Seawater (≈ 50,000 ppm) is the optimum brine for oil-wet and intermediate-wettability systems. Sequential flooding consisting of seawater followed by diluted seawater in a water-wet system yielded the highest DE of 88%. Besides, low-salinity brine followed by sulfate performed better in a water-wet environment than in oil- and intermediate-wettability systems.
AB - While the “low salinity waterflooding” (LSWF) has been praised for enhancing oil recovery from different core rocks, the performance of the technique in different wettability environments remains unclear. The consensus is that LSWF does not work well in water-wet carbonate oil reservoirs. The main research objective was to determine the effect of LSWF on the displacement efficiency (DE) in different wettability environments. Carbonate core flooding experiments on rocks with different wettabilities were performed at in-situ reservoir conditions using seawater as a “base water”. Seawater was sequentially diluted 10 to 50 times and spiked 2 and 6 times with sulfate. Following sequential flooding with four different waters, the DEs were measured for different wettabilities. Five different sequential brine floodings were performed on carbonate rocks. Results indicated that optimum low salinity water is a function of system wettability. Seawater (≈ 50,000 ppm) is the optimum brine for oil-wet and intermediate-wettability systems. Sequential flooding consisting of seawater followed by diluted seawater in a water-wet system yielded the highest DE of 88%. Besides, low-salinity brine followed by sulfate performed better in a water-wet environment than in oil- and intermediate-wettability systems.
KW - Core flooding
KW - Displacement efficiency
KW - Low-salinity water
KW - Modified water
KW - Sequential flooding
KW - Wettability alteration
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U2 - 10.1007/s13202-021-01309-9
DO - 10.1007/s13202-021-01309-9
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85115719115
SN - 2190-0558
VL - 11
SP - 4325
EP - 4338
JO - Journal of Petroleum Exploration and Production Technology
JF - Journal of Petroleum Exploration and Production Technology
IS - 12
ER -