Carbonate Mineral Effect on Surface Charge Change During Low-Salinity Imbibition

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix Feldmann ◽  
Emad W. Al-Shalabi ◽  
Waleed AlAmeri
Keyword(s):  
Zeta Potential ◽  
Surface Charge ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Sea Water ◽  
Spontaneous Imbibition ◽  
Formation Water ◽  
Carbonate Minerals ◽  
Low Salinity ◽  
Angle Measurements ◽  
Charge Change

Abstract Low-salinity waterflooding is a relatively simple and cheap improved oil recovery technique in which the reservoir salinity is optimized to increase oil recovery. Multivalent ion enriched as well as diluted brines have shown promising potential to increase oil production over conventional waterflooding. While the literature generally acknowledges that low-salinity improves oil recovery, the physical mechanisms behind low-salinity effects are still controversial. Surface charge change refers to a low-salinity mechanism in which modified brine is believed to cause a re-equilibrium of the carbonate surface potential. As a result of surface charge change, the rock wettability alters towards a more water-wetting state. This experimental study combines zeta potential, spontaneous imbibition, and contact angle measurements to highlight the effect of carbonate minerals on surface charge change. Initially, zeta potential measurements were conducted to compare the impact of five carbonate minerals (Indiana Limestone, Edward Limestone, Reservoir Limestone, Austin Chalk, and Silurian Dolomite) and brine compositions (Formation-water, Sea-water, and Diluted-sea-water) on carbonate surface charge. Moreover, the impact of potential determining ions (calcium, magnesium, and sulfate) on the mineral surface charge was investigated. The effect of carbonate minerals on spontaneous oil recovery was investigated by comparing the spontaneous imbibition of Formation-water, Sea-water, and Diluted-sea-water into the five carbonate minerals. Moreover, the wettability alteration during the spontaneous imbibition tests was quantified by conducting contact angle measurements. The brine-mineral zeta potential measurements were positive for Formation-water, slightly negative for Sea-water, and strongly negative for Diluted-sea-water. While calcium and magnesium ions promoted stronger positive electrical potentials, sulfate ions caused a zeta potential reduction. The magnitude of surface charge change was significantly different for the five tested carbonate minerals. Under the presence of Diluted-sea-water, the zeta potential measurements of Indiana Limestone and Austin Chalk resulted in strong negative electrical potentials. Reservoir Limestone and Edward Limestone showed less negative zeta potentials, while Silurian Dolomite and Diluted-sea-water resulted in slightly negative zeta potential results. Compared to Formation-water, Sea-water, and particularly Diluted-sea-water caused significant spontaneous oil recovery. The high spontaneous oil recovery of Diluted-sea-water and Indiana Limestone and Austin Chalk correlated with strong negative brine-mineral zeta potentials. Moderate spontaneous oil recovery was observed for the slightly negative zeta potential Sea-water and limestone/chalks systems. The contact angle measurements showed oil-wet contact angles under the presence of Formation-water, while the introduction of Sea-water and Diluted-sea-water promoted stronger water-wet contact angles. This work is one of the very few studies that investigates the effect of carbonate rock mineralogy on surface charge change and spontaneous oil recovery.

scholarly journals Impact of Brine Composition and Concentration on Capillary Pressure and Residual Oil Saturation in Limestone Core Samples

2019 ◽  
Vol 89 ◽  
pp. 02006
Author(s):  
F. Feldmann ◽  
A. M. AlSumaiti ◽  
S. K. Masalmeh ◽  
W. S. AlAmeri ◽  
S. Oedai
Keyword(s):  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Sea Water ◽  
Spontaneous Imbibition ◽  
Oil Saturation ◽  
Salinity Effect ◽  
Connate Water ◽  
Low Salinity ◽  
Remaining Oil ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Secondary Mode

Low salinity water flooding (LSF) is a relatively simple and cheap EOR technique in which the salinit y of the injected water is optimized (by desalination and/or modification) to improve oil recovery over conventional waterflooding. Extensive laboratory experiments investigating the effect of LSF are available in the literature. Sulfate-rich as well as diluted brines have shown promising potential to increase oil production in limestone core samples. To quantify the low salinity effect, spontaneous imbibition and/or tertiary waterflooding experiments have been reported. For the first time in literature, this paper presents a comprehensive study of the centrifuge technique to investigate low salinity effect in carbonate samples. The study is divided into three parts. At first, a comprehensive screening was performed on the impact of different connate water and imbibition brine compositions/combinations on the spontaneous imbibition behavior. Second, the subsequent forced imbibition of the samples using the centrifuge method to investigate the impact of brine compositions on residual saturations and capillary pressure. Finally, three unsteady-state (USS) core floodings were conducted in order to examine the potential of the different brines to increase oil recovery in secondary mode (brine injection at connate water saturation) and tertiary mode (exchange of injection brine at mature recovery stage). The experiments were performed using Indiana limestone outcrops. The main conclusions of the study are spontaneous imbibition experiments only showed oil recovery in case the salinity of the imbibing water (IW) is lower than the salinity of the connate water (CW). No oil production was observed when the imbibing water had a higher salinity than the connate water or the salinity of the connate water and imbibing brine were identical. Moreover, the spontaneous imbibition experiments indicated that diluting the salinity of the imbibing water has a larger potential to spontaneously recover oil than the introduction of sulfate-rich sea water. The centrifuge experiments confirmed a connection between the overall salinity and oil recovery. As the salinity of the imbibing brines decreases, the capillary imbibition pressure curves showed an increasing water-wetting tendency and simultaneous reduction of the remaining oil saturation. The lowest remaining oil saturation was obtained for diluted sea water as CW and IW. The core flooding experiments reflected the results of the spontaneous imbibition and centrifuge experiments. Injecting brine at a rate of 0.05 cc/min, sea water and especially diluted sea water resulted in a significant higher oil recovery compared to formation brine. Moreover, when comparing secondary mode experiments, the remaining oil saturation after flooding by diluted sea water, sea water and formation water was 30.6 %, 35.5 % and 37.4 %, respectively. In tertiary injection mode, sea water did not lead to extra oil recovery while diluted sea water led to an additional oil recovery of 5.6 % in one out of two tertiary injection applications.

Synergistic Effects of Engineered Water-Nanoparticle on Oil/Brine/Rock Interactions in Carbonates

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ibraheem Salaudeen ◽  
Muhammad Rehan Hashmet ◽  
Peyman Pourafshary
Keyword(s):  
Contact Angle ◽  
Zeta Potential ◽  
Interfacial Tension ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Sea Water ◽  
Hybrid Methods ◽  
Carbonate Reservoir ◽  
Wettability Alteration ◽  
Combined Effects ◽  
Low Salinity

Abstract Nano particle-assisted engineered water is one of the newest hybrid methods of Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) that is gaining attention in the oil and gas industry. This is attributed to the low cost of the technique and environmental friendliness of the materials involved. Low salinity and ions adjustment of the injection brine has been reported to be very useful for improving oil production in carbonates, and application of nanoparticles (NPs) to improve oil recovery via different mechanisms such as wettability alteration, interfacial tension reduction, disjoining pressure and viscosity modification. This paper therefore investigates the combined effects of these two techniques on oil-brine-rock (OBR) interactions in carbonate reservoirs. Caspian Sea Water salinity of 13000 ppm was synthesized in the laboratory, potential determining ions such as Mg2+, Ca2+ and SO42- were adjusted to obtain the desired engineered waters used as dispersant for SiO2 nanoparticle. A series of experiments were performed ranging from zeta potential, interfacial tension, contact angle, electron scanning environmental imaging, pH analysis and particle size to determine the optimum formulation of engineered low salinity brine and nanoparticle. The salinities and concentration of NP considered in this experimental study ranges between (3,250 - 40,000) ppm and (0.05 - 0.5) wt.%, respectively. It was observed that optimum homogenization time for achieving stability of the chosen nanofluid without using stabilizer is 45 minutes. Four times sulphate and calcium ions in the engineered water reduced the contact angle from 163 to 109 and 151 to 118 degrees respectively. However, in the presence of NP, the contact angle further reduced to a very low values of 5 and 41 degrees. This confirms the combined effects of EW and that of nanofluid (NF) in altering wettability from the hydrophobicity state to hydrophilicity one that rapidly improves oil recovery in carbonate reservoir. IFT measurements were made between oil and formation brine as well as between oil and different EWs at room temperature. The Formation water has the least value of interfacial tension- 15mN/m. Four times diluted sea water spiked with four times sulphate is denoted as 4dsw4S. The zeta potential values showed dsw4S-NF to be the most stable, whereas EW-NF spiked with 4 times Mg2+ show detrimental effects on NF stability. The nanoparticles sizes were measured to be less than 50 nm. Rheological studies of the EW-NF at different temperatures (25, 40, 60 and 80 degrees Celsius) shows similar trend of Newtonian and non-Newtonian behavior at shear rate less than 100 and above 100 per seconds respectively. We conclude that spiking calcium ion and sulphate ion into the injected brine in combination with 0.1wt% NP yielded the wettability alteration in carbonate rock samples. The significant reduction in wettability is attributed to the combined effects of the active mechanisms present in the hybrid method and is considerably better than each standalone technique.

A Comparison of Different Nanoparticles' Effect on Fine Migration by Low Salinity Water Injection for Oil Recovery: Introducing an Optimum Condition

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Madadizadeh ◽  
Alireza Sadeghein ◽  
Siavash Riahi
Keyword(s):  
Porous Media ◽  
Zeta Potential ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Fine Particles ◽  
Production Equipment ◽  
Water Flooding ◽  
Sand Production ◽  
Low Salinity ◽  
Low Salinity Water ◽  
Salinity Water

Abstract Today, enhance oil recovery (EOR) methods are attracting more attention to increase the petroleum production rate. Some EOR methods such as low salinity water flooding (LSW) can increase the amount of fine migration and sand production in sandstone reservoirs which causes a reduction in permeability and inflict damages on to the reservoir and the production equipment. One of the methods to control fine migration is using nanotechnology. Nanoparticles (NPs) can reduce fine migration by various mechanisms such as reducing the zeta potential of fine particles' surfaces. In this paper, three NPs including SiO2, MgO, and Al2O3 's effects on controlling fine migration and sand production were investigated in two scenarios of pre-flush and co-injection by using sandpack as a porous media sample. When NPs are injected into the porous media sample, the outflow turbidity and zeta potential of particles decreases. Experiments showed that SiO2 has the best effect on controlling fine migration in comparison with other NPs and it could reduce fine migration 69% in pre-flush and 75% in co-injection. Also, MgO and Al2O3 decreased fine migration 65% and 33% in the pre-flush scenario and 49%,13% in the co-injection scenario, respectively.

Phase Behavior, Wettability Alteration, and Oil Recovery of Low-Salinity Surfactant Solutions in Carbonate Reservoirs

SPE Journal ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (04) ◽  
pp. 1784-1802 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sepideh Veiskarami ◽  
Arezou Jafari ◽  
Aboozar Soleymanzadeh
Keyword(s):  
Phase Behavior ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Wettability Alteration ◽  
Study Phase ◽  
Low Salinity ◽  
Angle Measurements ◽  
Contact Angle Measurements ◽  
Favorable State ◽  
Phase Behaviors ◽  
The Impact

Summary Recent investigations have shown that treatment with injected brine composition can improve oil production. Various mechanisms have been suggested to go through the phenomenon; nevertheless, wettability alteration is one of the most commonly proposed mechanisms in the literature. Wettability alteration of the porous media toward a more favorable state reduces the capillary pressure, consequently contributing to the oil detachment from pore walls. In this study, phase behavior, oil recovery, and wettability alteration toward a more favorable state were investigated using a combination of formulations of surfactant and modified low-salinity (LS) brine. Phase behaviors of these various formulations were examined experimentally through observations on relative phase volumes. Experiments were performed in various water/oil ratios (WORs) in the presence of two different oil samples, namely C1 and C2. These experiments were conducted to clarify the impact of each affecting parameter; in particular, the impact of resin and asphaltene of crude oil on the performance of LS surfactant (LSS) flooding. Hereafter, the optimal formulation was flooded into the oil-wet micromodel. Optimum formulations increased the capillary number more than four orders of magnitude higher than that under formation brine (FB) flooding, thus causing oil recovery rates of 61 and 67% for oil samples C1 and C2, respectively. Likewise, the wettability alteration potential of optimized formulations was studied through contact angle measurements. Results showed that LS and LSS solutions could act as possible wettability alternating methods for oil-wet carbonate rocks. Using the optimum formulation resulted in a wettability alteration index (WAI) of 0.66 for sample C1 and 0.49 for sample C2, while using LS brine itself ended in 0.51 and 0.29 for oil samples C1 and C2, respectively.

scholarly journals Enhancing the spontaneous imbibition process using biosurfactants produced from bacteria isolated from Al-Rafidiya oil field for improved oil recovery

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 3767-3777
Author(s):  
Asaad Faraj Hamzah ◽  
Mohammed Idrees Al-Mossawy ◽  
Wijdan Hussein Al-Tamimi ◽  
Fahad M. Al-Najm ◽  
Zainab Mohsen Hameed
Keyword(s):  
Bacillus Cereus ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Agar Plate ◽  
Enterobacter Aerogenes ◽  
Oil Field ◽  
Spontaneous Imbibition ◽  
Formation Water ◽  
Rock Permeability ◽  
Phenotypic Properties ◽  
Improved Oil Recovery

Abstract Among 64 bacterial strains isolated in this study, the best two of biosurfactant-producing bacteria were selected and identified based on the phenotypic properties and molecular approach based on 16S rRNA having 100% similarity to the gram-negative Enterobacter aerogenes B19 strain bacteria and rode gram-positive strain Bacillus cereus ISU-02 in the Nucleotide database of the National Center for Biotechnology Information. The study showed that two selected isolates gave the highest positive results that were used to investigate the biosurfactant production including: interfacial reduction, foaming activity, hemolytic activity, CTAB agar plate, drop collapse assay, oil displacement test and emulsification index E24%. Both Bacillus cereus ISU-02 strain and Enterobacter aerogenes B19 strain have reduced the interfacial tension to 27.61 and 28.93, respectively. Biosurfactants produced from both isolates were tested for oil recovery using spontaneous imbibition process. Bacillus cereus ISU-02 strain gave the highest oil recovery of 66.9% for rock permeability of 843 mD, followed by Enterobacter aerogenes B19 strain with oil recovery of 34% for rock permeability 197 mD, while the lowest rate of oil recovery was 12.1% for FW with permeability of 770 mD. An additional oil rate reached to 7.9% has been recovered from the residual oil when the core plug that was treated with formation water alone was retreated with the cell free biosurfactant supernatant. Use of the new biosurfactants has improved oil recovery better than use of formation water alone or formation water with the commercial surfactant SDS.

Chelating-Agent Enhanced Oil Recovery for Sandstone and Carbonate Reservoirs

SPE Journal ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (03) ◽  
pp. 483-495 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. A. Mahmoud ◽  
K. Z. Abdelgawad
Keyword(s):  
Zeta Potential ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Chelating Agents ◽  
Water Injection ◽  
Chelating Agent ◽  
Carbonate Reservoirs ◽  
Low Salinity ◽  
Low Salinity Water ◽  
Salinity Water ◽  
Core Permeability

Summary Recently low-salinity waterflooding was introduced as an effective enhanced-oil-recovery (EOR) method in sandstone and carbonate reservoirs. The recovery mechanisms that use low-salinity-water injection are still debatable. The suggested possible mechanisms are: wettability alteration, interfacial-tension (IFT) reduction, multi-ion exchange, and rock dissolution. In this paper, we introduce a new chemical EOR method for sandstone and carbonate reservoirs that will give better recovery than the low-salinity-water injection without treating or diluting seawater. In this study, we introduce a new chemical EOR method that uses chelating agents such as ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), hydroxyethylethylenediaminetriacetic acid (HEDTA), and diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA) at high pH values. This is the first time for use of chelating agents as standalone EOR fluids. Coreflood experiments, interfacial and surface tensions, and zeta-potential measurements are performed with DTPA, EDTA, and HEDTA chelating agents. The chelating-agent concentrations used in the study were prepared by diluting the initial concentration of 40 wt% with seawater and injecting it into Berea-sandstone and Indiana-limestone cores of a 6-in. length and a 1.5-in. diameter saturated with crude oil. The coreflooding experiments were performed at 100°C and a 1,000-psi backpressure. Low-salinity-water and seawater injections caused damage to the reservoir because of the calcium sulfate scale deposition during the flooding process. The newly introduced EOR method did not cause calcium sulfate precipitation, and the core permeability was not affected. The core permeability was measured after the flooding process, and the final permeability was higher than the initial permeability in the case of chelating-agent injection. The coreflooding effluent was analyzed for cations with the inductively coupled plasma (ICP) spectroscopy to explain the dissolution-recovery mechanism. The effect of iron minerals on the rock-surface charge was investigated through the measurements of zeta potential for different rocks containing different iron minerals. HEDTA and EDTA chelating agents at 5 wt% concentration prepared in seawater were able to recover more than 20% oil from the initial oil in place from sandstone and carbonate cores. ICP measurements supported the rock-dissolution mechanism because the calcium, magnesium, and iron concentrations in the effluent samples were more than those in the injected fluids. The IFT-reduction mechanism was confirmed by the low IFT values obtained in the case of chelating agents. The type and concentration of chelating agents affected the IFT value. Higher concentrations yielded lower IFT values because of the increase in carboxylic-group concentration. We found that the high-pH chelating agents increased the negative value of zeta potential, which will change the rock toward more water-wet.

Effect of Chlorite Clay-Mineral Dissolution on the Improved Oil Recovery From Sandstone Rocks During Diethylenetriaminepentaacetic Acid Chelating-Agent Flooding

SPE Journal ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (05) ◽  
pp. 1880-1898 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed Ahmed El-Din Mahmoud
Keyword(s):  
Contact Angle ◽  
Surface Charge ◽  
Clay Minerals ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Chelating Agent ◽  
Oil Reservoirs ◽  
Diethylenetriaminepentaacetic Acid ◽  
Improved Oil Recovery ◽  
Angle Measurements ◽  
Contact Angle Measurements

Summary Sandstone oil reservoirs consist of different clay minerals, such as kaolinite, illite, and chlorite. While these clay minerals can highly affect oil recovery from sandstone oil reservoirs, no attention has been given to investigating the effects of clay minerals during such oil recovery, and no solution has been introduced to alleviate the effects. In this study, and for the first time, the effect of chlorite clay-mineral content on the improved oil recovery (IOR) from different sandstone rock samples was investigated. A new solution was proposed to eliminate the effect of chlorite on the oil recovery from sandstone rocks. Different sandstone cores were used, such as Berea (BSS), Bandera (BND), Kentucky (KSS), and Scioto (SCS) sandstone rocks with different clay minerals. ζ-potential measurements were used to investigate the surface charge of the different clays and different sandstone rocks with different fluids. Fluids such as seawater (SW), low-salinity water (LSW), fresh water, and chelating agents were used. Diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA) chelating agent was introduced to mitigate the chlorite effect on oil recovery from sandstone rocks. The wettability was evaluated using contact-angle measurements and the Amott test for different solutions and different rocks in the presence of actual crude oil. Coreflooding experiments were conducted using these fluids with different sandstone rocks to identify the effect of chlorite on the oil recovery. Coreflooding experiments showed that sandstone cores with high chlorite content yielded the lowest oil recovery when SW and LSW were used. The effect of chlorite on the oil recovery from the two sandstone rocks was minimized with 3 wt% DTPA chelating agent. More oil was recovered in the case of DTPA because of the iron chelation from chlorite. ζ-potential showed that sandstone with high chlorite content has a surface charge close to zero in the case of SW and fresh water. In addition, contact-angle measurements showed that samples with high chlorite content have less water-wetness, which will reduce oil recovery. Contact-angle measurements on chlorite sheets showed that chlorite is oil-wet compared with mica at the same conditions. The addition of high-pH DTPA chelating agent sequestered the iron from the chlorite clay minerals and changed the surface charge to very high negative value, and the contact angle confirmed that the rock changed to water-wet after adding the chelating agent. The Amott index showed that adding DTPA increased the water-wetness for SCS that contains 4 wt% chlorite.

scholarly journals Comparative Study of Using Sea-Water for Enhanced Oil Recovery in Carbonate and Sandstone Reservoirs: Effects of Temperature and Aging Time on Oil Recovery

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Madi Abdullah Naser ◽  
Mohamed Erhayem ◽  
Ali Hegaig ◽  
Hesham Jaber Abdullah ◽  
Muammer Younis Amer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Aging Time ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Sea Water ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Recovery Process ◽  
Spontaneous Imbibition ◽  
Effect Of Temperature ◽  
Injection Process ◽  
Reservoir Conditions ◽  
The Impact

Oil recovery process is an essential element in the oil industry, in this study, a laboratory study to investigate the effect of temperature and aging time on oil recovery and understand some of the mechanisms of seawater in the injection process. In order to do that, the sandstone and carbonate cores were placed in the oven in brine to simulate realistic reservoir conditions. Then, they were aged in crude oil in the oven. After that, they were put in the seawater to recover, and this test is called a spontaneous imbibition test. The spontaneous imbibition test in this study was performed at room temperature to oven temperature 80 oC with different sandstone and carbonate rock with aging time of 1126 hours. The result shows that the impact of seawater on oil recovery in sandstone is higher than carbonate. At higher temperature, the oil recovery is more moderate than low temperature. Likewise, as the aging time increase for both sandstone and carbonate rocks the oil recovery increase. 

Enhanced Oil Recovery using Smart Water Injection

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (8) ◽  
pp. 40
Author(s):  
Hussain Ali Baker ◽  
Kareem A. Alwan ◽  
Saher Faris Fadhil
Keyword(s):  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Water Injection ◽  
Deionized Water ◽  
Water Flooding ◽  
Wettability Alteration ◽  
Formation Water ◽  
Low Salinity ◽  
Smart Water ◽  
Low Salinity Water ◽  
Salinity Water

Smart water flooding (low salinity water flooding) was mainly invested in a sandstone reservoir. The main reasons for using low salinity water flooding are; to improve oil recovery and to give a support for the reservoir pressure. In this study, two core plugs of sandstone were used with different permeability from south of Iraq to explain the effect of water injection with different ions concentration on the oil recovery. Water types that have been used are formation water, seawater, modified low salinity water, and deionized water. The effects of water salinity, the flow rate of water injected, and the permeability of core plugs have been studied in order to summarize the best conditions of low salinity water flooding. The result of this experimental work shows that the water without any free ions (deionized water) and modified low salinity water have improved better oil recovery than the formation water and seawater as a secondary oil process. The increase in oil recovery factor related to the wettability alteration during low salinity water flooding which causes a decrease in the interfacial tension between the crude oil in porous media and the surface of reservoir rocks. As well as the dissolution of minerals such as calcite Ca+2 was observed in this work, which causes an increase in the pH value. All these factors led to change the wettability of rock to be more water-wet, so the oil recovery can be increased.  

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