Characterization of Wettability From Spontaneous Imbibition Measurements

Ma, Sai; Zhang, X.; Morrow, Norman R.; Zhou, Xiang

doi:10.2118/99-13-49

Cited by 106 publications

(83 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…The observation made by Tang and Morrow 89 on the variation in wettability towards increasing water-wetness also showed similar cluster of the endpoint wetting-state value using the spontaneous imbibition measurement of wettability discussed by Ma et al 27 . It is pertinent to note that there may be no basis for comparing the two results, in terms of the endpoint cluster of the wetting indices for the different cores, as the wettability determination methods used are based on two different approaches.…”

Section: Impact Of Low-salinity Waterflood (Ambient and Elevated Tempsupporting

confidence: 74%

“…This method proposed by Ma et al 27 addresses specific limitations of the Amott/Harvey and the USBM methods with respect to certain observed capillary pressure effects, namely (1) the inability of the Amott/Harvey index to discriminate between systems that attain residual non-wetting phase saturation without change in sign of the imbibition capillary pressure (usually for strongly wetted system; and (2) the inability of the USBM method to recognize variation in wetting behavior for contact angles ranging from 0° to 55°. Within this range, the area under the forced imbibition curve is zero.…”

Section: Spontaneous Imbibition Measurementmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Characterization and Alteration of Wettability States of Alaskan Reserviors to Improve Oil Recovery Efficiency (including the within-scope expansion based on Cyclic Water Injection - a pulsed waterflood for Enhanced Oil Recovery)

Dandekar¹,

Patil²,

Khataniar³

2008

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Numerous early reports on experimental works relating to the role of wettability in various aspects of oil recovery have been published. Early examples of laboratory waterfloods show oil recovery increasing with increasing water-wetness. This result is consistent with the intuitive notion that strong wetting preference of the rock for water and associated strong capillaryimbibition forces gives the most efficient oil displacement. This report examines the effect of wettability on waterflooding and gasflooding processes respectively. Waterflood oil recoveries were examined for the dual cases of uniform and non-uniform wetting conditions. Based on the results of the literature review on effect of wettability and oil recovery, coreflooding experiments were designed to examine the effect of changing water chemistry (salinity) on residual oil saturation. Numerous corefloods were conducted on reservoir rock material from representative formations on the Alaska North Slope (ANS). The corefloods consisted of injecting water (reservoir water and ultra low-salinity ANS lake water) of different salinities in secondary as well as tertiary mode. Additionally, complete reservoir condition corefloods were also conducted using live oil. In all the tests, wettability indices, residual oil saturation, and oil recovery were measured. All results consistently lead to one conclusion; that is, a decrease in injection water salinity causes a reduction in residual oil saturation and a slight increase in water-wetness, both of which are comparable with literature observations. These observations have an intuitive appeal in that water easily imbibes into the core and displaces oil. Therefore, low-salinity waterfloods have the potential for improved oil recovery in the secondary recovery process, and ultra low-salinity ANS lake water is an attractive source of injection water or a source for diluting the high-salinity reservoir water.As part of the within-scope expansion of this project, cyclic water injection tests using high as well as low salinity were also conducted on several representative ANS core samples. These results indicate that less pore volume of water is required to recover the same amount of oil as compared with continuous water injection. Additionally, in cyclic water injection, oil is produced even during the idle time of water injection. It is understood that the injected brine front spreads/smears through the pores and displaces oil out uniformly rather than viscous fingering.iii The overall benefits of this project include increased oil production from existing Alaskan reservoirs. This conclusion is based on the performed experiments and results obtained on lowsalinity water injection (including ANS lake water), vis-à-vis slightly altering the wetting conditions. Similarly, encouraging cyclic water-injection test results indicate that this method can help achieve residual oil saturation earlier than continuous water injection. If proved in field, this would be of great use, as more oil can be recovered through...

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Section: Impact Of Low-salinity Waterflood (Ambient and Elevated Tempsupporting

confidence: 74%

Section: Spontaneous Imbibition Measurementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization and Alteration of Wettability States of Alaskan Reserviors to Improve Oil Recovery Efficiency (including the within-scope expansion based on Cyclic Water Injection - a pulsed waterflood for Enhanced Oil Recovery)

Dandekar¹,

Patil²,

Khataniar³

2008

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“…Detailed studies on self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of hexadecanethiol and mercaptohexadecanoic acid on gold have been prepared to investigate deviations from the Cassie equation [53]. Hysteresis between advancing and receding conditions was greatest not for surfaces with alternating strips of high and low contact-angle material, but for smooth gold surfaces covered with a uniform monolayer that terminated in acid groups, perhaps due to a surface reconstruction process [54].…”

Section: Hysteresis Between Water-receding and Water-advancing Conditmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There has been an increasing tendency to measure recovery rate during the spontaneous imbibition steps of the Amott test. Imbibition curves for strongly water-wet conditions provide a basis for estimating the effect of wettability on the measured imbibition rates [53,54,55].…”

Section: Measurement Of Wettabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Wettability and Imbibition: Microscopic Distribution of Wetting and Its Consequences at the Core and Field Scales

Buckley¹,

Morrow²,

Palmer³

et al. 2003

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The main objectives of this project are:(1) to quantify the microscopic distribution of altered wetting that occurs in oil reservoirs as crude oil components adsorb on rock surfaces, and (2) to apply quantitative descriptions of wetting at the microscopic level to interpretation of imbibition in mixed-wet porous media. AbstractThe questions of reservoir wettability have been approached in this project from three directions. First, we have studied the properties of crude oils that contribute to wetting alteration in a reservoir. A database of more than 150 different crude oil samples has been established to facilitate examination of the relationships between crude oil chemical and physical properties and their influence on reservoir wetting. In the course of this work an improved SARA analysis technique was developed and major advances were made in understanding asphaltene stability including development of a thermodynamic Asphaltene Solubility Model (ASM) and empirical methods for predicting the onset of instability. The CO-Wet database is a resource that will be used to guide wettability research in the future.The second approach is to study crude oil/brine/rock interactions on smooth surfaces. Contact angle measurements were made under controlled conditions on mica surfaces that had been exposed to many of the oils in the CO-Wet database. With this wealth of data, statistical tests can now be used to examine the relationships between crude oil properties and the tendencies of those oils to alter wetting. Traditionally, contact angles have been used as the primary wetting assessment tool on smooth surfaces. A new technique has been developed using an atomic forces microscope that adds a new dimension to our ability to characterize oil-treated surfaces.Ultimately we aim to understand wetting in porous media, the focus of the third approach taken in this project. Using oils from the CO-Wet database, experimental advances have been made in scaling the rate of imbibition, a sensitive measure of core wetting. Application of the scaling group to mixed-wet systems has been demonstrated for a range of core conditions. Investigations of imbibition in gas/liquid systems provided the motivation for theoretical advances as well.As a result of this project we have many new tools for studying wetting at microscopic and macroscopic scales and a library of well-characterized fluids for use in studies of crude oil/brine/rock interactions.iv Table of , where v p is precipitant molar volume. Fits to these linear trends are summarized in Table I relationship used is that for A-93+ α-MN (Fig. I-3.5) with a temperature adjustment of -0.0008 RI units/°C. Solution gas is estimated to be xiii composed of methane, ethane, and propane with mole fractions of 0.5, 0.4, and 0. Figure I-3.27. Measured and predicted onset conditions for flocculation from crude oils induced by precipitants from n-pentane to n-pentadecane. Asphaltene molar volume = 2500 ml/mol. Other model parameters are given in Figure II-2.8. Example of the "memo...

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“…These methods describe wettability in terms of numbers for the purpose of comparison between different systems. These methods include contact angle (Adamson 1982), Amott (Amott 1959), Amott-Harvey (Boneau and Clampitt 1977;Trantham and Clampitt 1977), USBM (Donaldson et al 1969), combined Amott/USBM (Sharma and Wunderlich 1985), relative imbibition rate (Denekas et al 1959), total capillary pressure curves (Longeron et al 1995), relative pseudo work of imbibition (Ma et al 1999), modified Amott (Zhou et al 2000), NMR relaxometry (Fleury and Deflandre 2003), chemical adsorption (Strand et al 2006) and the recent method by (in this study referred to as MPMS, after the initials in their last names).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Incorporation of viscosity scaling group into analysis of MPMS index for laboratory characterization of wettability of reservoir rocks

Mirzaei‐Paiaman

Saboorian‐Jooybari

Masihi

2016

J Petrol Explor Prod Technol

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Wettability is a key parameter affecting petrophysical properties of reservoir rocks. Mirzaei-Paiaman et al. (Energy Fuels 27:7360-7368, 2013) presented an index (referred to as MPMS) for laboratory characterization of wettability of native-or restored-state reservoir rock samples. To use this index two counter-current spontaneous imbibition (COUCSI) experiments are needed, one on the native-or restored-state core sample and another on the strongly water-wet (SWW) reference system. Slope analysis of recovery data in these two systems gives inputs for determination of MPMS index. The two systems must have the same pore structure, initial water saturation, and viscosity ratio. The case of high viscosity reservoir crude needs the reference COUCSI test to be performed using a high viscosity polar compounds-free oil. Such test could be very slow and time consuming. The purpose of this study is to remove the need for limiting condition of the same viscosity ratio between the two systems, so that the reference experiment could be performed using any viscosity ratio independent of viscosity ratio of the native-or restored-state system. Thus, in the case of high viscosity reservoir crude, the reference test can be conducted using a low viscosity oil. Such test is relatively very fast and time efficient. We do this by benefiting the viscosity scaling group (VSG) proposed by Mason et al. (J Pet Sci Eng 72:195-205, 2010). Using experimental data from three sets of mixed-wet systems, we show that applicability of this VSG is not limited to SWW systems only. This VSG is used to relax the need for the limiting condition of the same viscosity ratio between the native-or restored-state and reference systems in the MPMS method. Using two sets of experimental data, we show that acceptable results are observed when comparing the MPMS indices estimated by the proposed technique and the original MPMS method.

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Characterization of Wettability From Spontaneous Imbibition Measurements

Abstract: FIGURE 4: Effect of aging time on oil recovery by spontaneous imbibition vs. time. FIGURE 5: Oil recovery by spontaneious imbibition vs. dimensionless time.

Cited by 106 publications

References 20 publications

Characterization and Alteration of Wettability States of Alaskan Reserviors to Improve Oil Recovery Efficiency (including the within-scope expansion based on Cyclic Water Injection - a pulsed waterflood for Enhanced Oil Recovery)

Characterization and Alteration of Wettability States of Alaskan Reserviors to Improve Oil Recovery Efficiency (including the within-scope expansion based on Cyclic Water Injection - a pulsed waterflood for Enhanced Oil Recovery)

Wettability and Imbibition: Microscopic Distribution of Wetting and Its Consequences at the Core and Field Scales

Incorporation of viscosity scaling group into analysis of MPMS index for laboratory characterization of wettability of reservoir rocks

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