Synergy of Polymer for Mobility Control and Surfactant for Interface Elasticity Increase in Improved Oil Recovery

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taniya Kar ◽  
Abbas Firoozabadi
Keyword(s):  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Sea Water ◽  
Synergistic Effects ◽  
Water Injection ◽  
Mobility Control ◽  
Residual Oil ◽  
Sweep Efficiency ◽  
Improved Oil Recovery ◽  
Low Salinity ◽  
Low Salinity Waterflooding

Abstract Improved oil recovery in carbonate rocks through modified injection brine has been investigated extensively in recent years. Examples include low salinity waterflooding and surfactant injection for the purpose of residual oil reduction. Polymer addition to injection water for improvement of sweep efficiency enjoys field success. The effect of low salinity waterflooding is often marginal and it may even decrease recovery compared to seawater flooding. Polymer and surfactant injection are often effective (except at very high salinities and temperatures) but concentrations in the range of 5000 to 10000 ppm may make the processes expensive. We have recently suggested the idea of ultra-low concentration of surfactants at 100 ppm to decrease residual oil saturation from increased brine-oil interfacial elasticity. In this work, we investigate the synergistic effects of polymer injection for sweep efficiency and the surfactant for interfacial elasticity modification. The combined formulation achieves both sweep efficiency and residual oil reduction. A series of coreflood tests is performed on a carbonate rock using three crude oils and various injection brines: seawater and formation water with added surfactant and polymer. Both the surfactant and polymer are found to improve recovery at breakthrough via increase in oil-brine interfacial elasticity and injection brine viscosification, respectively. The synergy of surfactant and polymer mixed with seawater leads to higher viscosity and higher oil recovery. The overall oil recovery is found to be a strong function of oil-brine interfacial viscoelasticity with and without the surfactant and polymer in sea water and connate water injection.

Continental-shelf freshwater water resources and improved oil recovery by low-salinity waterflooding

AAPG Bulletin ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 101 (01) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Person ◽  
John L. Wilson ◽  
Norman Morrow ◽  
Vincent E.A. Post
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Continental Shelf ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Improved Oil Recovery ◽  
Low Salinity ◽  
Low Salinity Waterflooding

scholarly journals Mysteries behind the Low Salinity Water Injection Technique

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emad Waleed Al-Shalabi ◽  
Kamy Sepehrnoori ◽  
Gary Pope
Keyword(s):  
Relative Permeability ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
History Matching ◽  
Water Injection ◽  
Residual Oil ◽  
Oil Saturation ◽  
Low Salinity ◽  
Low Salinity Water ◽  
Salinity Water ◽  
Low Salinity Water Injection

Low salinity water injection (LSWI) is gaining popularity as an improved oil recovery technique in both secondary and tertiary injection modes. The objective of this paper is to investigate the main mechanisms behind the LSWI effect on oil recovery from carbonates through history-matching of a recently published coreflood. This paper includes a description of the seawater cycle match and two proposed methods to history-match the LSWI cycles using the UTCHEM simulator. The sensitivity of residual oil saturation, capillary pressure curve, and relative permeability parameters (endpoints and Corey’s exponents) on LSWI is evaluated in this work. Results showed that wettability alteration is still believed to be the main contributor to the LSWI effect on oil recovery in carbonates through successfully history matching both oil recovery and pressure drop data. Moreover, tuning residual oil saturation and relative permeability parameters including endpoints and exponents is essential for a good data match. Also, the incremental oil recovery obtained by LSWI is mainly controlled by oil relative permeability parameters rather than water relative permeability parameters. The findings of this paper help to gain more insight into this uncertain IOR technique and propose a mechanistic model for oil recovery predictions.

Peripheral Low Salinity Water Injection Handil Case Study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julfree Sianturi ◽  
Bayu Setyo Handoko ◽  
Aditya Suardiputra ◽  
Radya Senoputra
Keyword(s):  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Water Injection ◽  
Water Flooding ◽  
Residual Oil ◽  
Oil Saturation ◽  
Residual Oil Saturation ◽  
Low Salinity ◽  
Low Salinity Water ◽  
Salinity Water ◽  
Low Salinity Water Injection

Abstract Handil Field is a giant mature oil and gas field situated in Mahakam Delta, East Kalimantan Indonesia. Peripheral Low Salinity Water injection was performed since 1978 with an extraordinary result. The paper is intending to describe the success story of this secondary recovery by low salinity water injection application in the peripheral of Handil field main zone, which successfully increased the oil recovery and brought down the remaining oil saturation beyond the theoretical value of residual oil saturation number. Water producer wells were drilled to produce low salinity water from shallow reservoirs 400 - 1000 m depth then it was injected to main zone reservoirs where the main accumulation of oil situated. This low salinity water reacted positively with the rock properties and in-situ fluids which was described as wettability alteration in the reservoir. It is related to initial reservoir condition, connate water saturation, rock physics and connate water salinity. This peripheral scheme then observed having the sweeping effect on top of pressure maintenance due to long period of injection. The field production performance was indicating the important reduction of residual oil saturation in some reservoirs with continuous low salinity water injection. From static Oil in Place calculation, some reservoirs have high current oil recovery up to 80%. This was proved by in situ residual oil saturation measurement which was performed in 2007 and 2011. It was indicating the low residual saturation as low as 8% - 15%. This excellent result was embraced by a progressive development plan, where water flooding with pattern and chemical injection will be performed later on. The continuation of this peripheral injection is in an on-going development with patterns injection which is called water flooding development. An important oil recovery can be achieved with a simple scheme of low salinity injection, performed in a close network injection, where the water treatment is simple yet significant oil gain was recovered. This innovation technique brings more revenue with less investment compared to chemical EOR injection.

A Microvisual Study of the Displacement of Viscous Oil by Polymer Solutions

2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (03) ◽  
pp. 269-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.. Buchgraber ◽  
T.. Clemens ◽  
L. M. Castanier ◽  
A. R. Kovscek
Keyword(s):  
Polymer Solution ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Polymer Solutions ◽  
Pore Space ◽  
Polymer Concentration ◽  
Water Injection ◽  
Sweep Efficiency ◽  
Improved Oil Recovery ◽  
Associative Polymers ◽  
Displacement Front

Summary Of the various enhanced-oil-recovery (EOR) polymer formulations, newly developed associative polymers show special promise. We investigate pore and pore-network scales because polymer solutions ultimately flow through the pore space of rock to displace oil. We conduct and monitor optically water/oil and polymer-solution/oil displacements in a 2D etched-silicon micromodel. The micromodel has the geometrical and topological characteristics of sandstone. Conventional hydrolyzed-polyacrylamide solutions and newly developed associative-polymer solutions with concentrations ranging from 500 to 2,500 ppm were tested. The crude oil had a viscosity of 450 cp at test conditions. Our results provide new insight regarding the ability of polymer to stabilize multiphase flow. At zero and low polymer concentrations, relatively long and wide fingers of injectant developed, leading to early water break-through and low recoveries. At increased polymer concentration, a much greater number of relatively fine fingers formed. The width-to-length ratio of these fingers was quite small, and the absolute length of fingers decreased. At a larger scale of observation, the displacement front appears to be stabilized; hence, recovery efficiency improved remarkably. Above a concentration of 1,500 ppm, plugging of the micromodel by polymer and lower oil recovery was observed for both polymer types. For tertiary polymer injection that begins at breakthrough of water, the severe fingers resulting from water injection are modified significantly. Fingers become wider and grow in the direction normal to flow as polymer solution replaces water. Apparently, improved sweep efficiency of viscous oils is possible (at this scale of investigation) even after waterflooding. The associative- and conventional-polymer solutions improved oil recovery by approximately the same amount. The associative polymers, however, showed more-stable displacement fronts in comparison to conventional-polymer solutions.

Snorre Low-Salinity-Water Injection—Coreflooding Experiments and Single-Well Field Pilot

2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (02) ◽  
pp. 182-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
K.. Skrettingland ◽  
T.. Holt ◽  
M.T.. T. Tweheyo ◽  
I.. Skjevrak
Keyword(s):  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Water Injection ◽  
Low Pressure ◽  
Tracer Test ◽  
Core Material ◽  
Improved Oil Recovery ◽  
Oil Saturation ◽  
Low Salinity ◽  
Remaining Oil ◽  
Single Well

Summary Low-salinity (lowsal) waterflooding has been evaluated for increased oil recovery (IOR) at the Snorre field. Coreflooding experiments and a single-well chemical tracer-test (SWCTT) field pilot have been performed to measure the remaining oil saturation after seawaterflooding and after lowsal flooding. The laboratory coreflooding experiments conducted at reservoir and low-pressure conditions involved core material from the Upper and Lower Statfjord and Lunde formations. The core material from the Statfjord formations gave incremental recovery in the order of 2% of original oil in place (OOIP) by injection of diluted seawater. Similar amounts were produced during following NaCl-based lowsal injections. The same trend was observed in the high- and low-pressure experiments. No significant response to lowsal flooding was observed for Lunde cores. No response was normally observed during alkaline injection. The SWCTT field pilot was carried out in the Upper Statfjord formation. The average oil saturations after seawater injection, after lowsal seawater injection, and after a new seawater injection were determined; no significant change in the remaining oil saturation was shown. The measured in-situ value of remaining oil saturation after seawaterflooding was in agreement with previous special core analysis (SCAL) experiments. The measured effect of tertiary lowsal flooding from core experiments was in agreement with the SWCTT. Both measurements indicated only low or no effect from lowsal injection. It has been suggested that lowsal flooding has a potential for improved oil recovery in all clayey sandstone formations containing crude oil. The results from this work indicate that the initial wetting condition is a crucial property for the effect of lowsal injection.

Microfluidic Investigation of Low-Salinity Effects During Oil Recovery: A No-Clay and Time-Dependent Mechanism

SPE Journal ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (06) ◽  
pp. 2841-2858 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yujing Du ◽  
Ke Xu ◽  
Lucas Mejia ◽  
Peixi Zhu ◽  
Matthew T. Balhoff
Keyword(s):  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Pore Network ◽  
Time Dependent ◽  
Pore Scale ◽  
Residual Oil ◽  
Sweep Efficiency ◽  
Salinity Effect ◽  
Low Salinity ◽  
Network Scale ◽  
Incremental Oil Recovery

Summary We present a study of the low–salinity effect during oil recovery using microfluidics experiments in an attempt to narrow the gap between pore–scale observations and porous–media–flow mechanisms, and to explain one type of low–salinity effect with delayed oil recovery and without the presence of clay. A microfluidic toolbox is used, including single–pore–scale microchannels, a pore–network–scale (approximately 102 pores) micromodel, and a reservoir–on–a–chip model (approximately 104 pores with heterogeneity), all with 2D connectivity. Experiments at the single–pore scale reveal a time–dependent oil dewetting and swelling behavior when a crude–oil droplet is in contact with low–salinity water. An interplay between water chemical potential and oil–phase polar compounds explains this pore–scale observation well. Experiments at the pore–network scale illustrate that the dewetting and swelling of residual oil in the swept region increase the water–flow resistance, modifying the flow field and thus redirecting the flooding liquid into unswept regions. This pore–network–scale effect is re–expressed into a macroscale model as a sweep–efficiency improvement derived from the change of relative permeabilities, which requires time to develop. Finally, experiments on our “reservoir–on–a–chip” model show significant incremental oil recovery during tertiary low–salinity waterflooding and confirm that late–time sweep–efficiency improvement contributes to most of the incremental oil recovery. On the basis of this microfluidic framework, we emphasize the following three findings: Low–salinity tertiary waterflooding can improve oil recovery by an improvement of sweep efficiency, which is a consequence of residual–oil dewetting and swelling.The low–salinity effect can occur without the existence of clay.The wettability alteration and oil swelling are time–dependent processes and should be expressed as a function of oil/water contact time rather than dimensionless time [pore volume (PV)], which explains some observations from previous coreflood experiments.

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