Experimental Study of Low Salinity Water Flooding: The Effect of Polar Organic Components in Low-Permeable Sandstone Reservoir

Abstract

Low salinity (LS) water flooding in the sandstone reservoir is of pronounced interest of the prospective for improved oil recovery. In this study, laboratory experiments in low-permeable sandstone core plugs saturated with various crude oil containing different acid numbers were presented. Several low-permeable sandstone cores (1-3 mD) were taken from Bartlesville Sandstone Reservoir from Eastern Kansas were successively flooded with seawater and different LS water. The reservoir cores were cleaned and saturated with formation water (FW) and then aged in three kinds of crude oil (different acid numbers) for six weeks at 90°C. To evaluate LS water in the low-permeable reservoir core plugs, core flooding tests were performed. Contact angle and spontaneous imbibition tests were also carried out.

The results obtained from LS water flooding showed that an improvement in oil recovery up to 12% of the original oil in place when the acid number (AN) and core permeability were low. The water wetness, and in turn, the oil recovery reduced with increased crude oil's AN and as the permeability increased. The contact angle and spontaneous imbibition tests confirmed the appropriate wettability change is attainable with LS water flooding. The results were deliberated in relation to wettability change processes by LS Water.

Meeting Name

International Petroleum Technology Conference (2020: Jan. 13-15, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia)

Department(s)

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering

Document Type

Article - Conference proceedings

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2020 International Petroleum Technology Conference, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

15 Jan 2020

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