Dreaming Big “Surfactant Injection in a Giant Offshore Carbonate Field”, From Successful Injection Trials to Pilot Design and Implementation

Pal, Mayur; Tarsauliya, G.; Patil, Pramod; Rohilla, Neeraj; Mounzer, Hamza; Bacaud, B.; Gilani, S. Furqan; Katiyar, Amit; Rozwski, P.

doi:10.3997/2214-4609.201900069

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…The preferred rock wettability toward oil is due to the adsorption of organic compounds from the oil onto the rock surface. , The change of rock wettability toward more water-wet is likely due to the partial desorption of these compounds through low-salinity water flooding. The injection of surfactants at low concentration can also induce a change in wettability of the rock to a more water-wet state due to the desorption of the adsorbed crude oil components by formation of ion-pairs or to the adsorption of the surfactant molecules on the rock surface. − These low-concentration surfactant injections have been successfully implemented on the field . In all cases, the change in rock wettability can therefore be a marker of the efficiency of the chemically tuned injection brine to increase the oil recovery.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Straightforward Assessment of Wettability Changes by Washburn Capillary Rise: Toward a Screening Tool for Selecting Water Compositions for Improved Oil Recovery

Molinier,

Pauliet,

Klimenko

et al. 2024

ACS Omega

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Evaluating the wettability state of reservoir rocks is key for understanding and optimizing waterflooding and improved oil recovery techniques that imply the use of low-salinity water. Aside from established petrophysical techniques, such as Amott imbibition tests, we evaluated the Washburn capillary rise method as a low-cost, easy-to-implement, and rapid screening tool for probing the wettability state of rock samples. The well-known limitations of this method are discussed and circumvented. We show that measuring the capillary rise of two liquids �brine and n-octane�is required to assess the evolution of the wettability state of a material induced by various treatments. The wettability state is quantified by the adhesion tension of brine to the solid. The higher the adhesion tension of brine, the more water-wet the sample. An increase in oil-wetness is observed when the sample is contacted with a crude oil or its released waters; an increase in water-wetness is obtained by postcontacting the oil-wet sample with low-salinity brine or surfactant solutions. The Washburn capillary rise is revealed to be a robust method for screening wettability alteration. With a typical duration of 1−10 min, it allows reproducibility check and screening of a wide range of brine compositions in a reasonable time frame. Therefore, it is a relevant tool to identify the most favorable brine compositions to be tested afterward with more time-consuming techniques, such as Amott tests and corefloods.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…6−8 These low-concentration surfactant injections have been successfully implemented on the field. 9 In all cases, the change in rock wettability can therefore be a marker of the efficiency of the chemically tuned injection brine to increase the oil recovery.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Straightforward Assessment of Wettability Changes by Washburn Capillary Rise: Toward a Screening Tool for Selecting Water Compositions for Improved Oil Recovery

Molinier,

Pauliet,

Klimenko

et al. 2024

ACS Omega

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“…In addition to LSW, surfactant addition to the injected water may increase oil recovery through a reduction of the residual oil saturation from water displacement; the process has been widely investigated. 14 The surfactants may significantly reduce the water−oil interfacial tension. 15 Often, reduction is many orders of magnitude.…”

Section: ■ Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improved Oil Recovery in Carbonates by Ultralow Concentration of Functional Molecules in Injection Water through an Increase in Interfacial Viscoelasticity

et al. 2020

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Injection of sea water is the most common practice to displace oil in porous media in subsurface formations. In numerous studies, conventional surfactants at concentrations in a range of one weight percent have been proposed to be added to the injected water to improve oil recovery. Surfactants accumulate at the oil–water interface and may reduce the interfacial tension by three orders of magnitude or more, resulting in higher oil recovery. Recently, we have proposed the addition of ultralow concentration of a non-ionic surfactant to the injected water to increase interface viscoelasticity as a new process. The increase in interface viscoelasticity increases oil recovery from porous media. This alternative approach requires only a concentration of 100 ppm (two orders less than the conventional improved oil recovery) and therefore is potentially a much more efficient process. In this work, we present a comprehensive report of the process in an intermediate-wet carbonate rock. There is very little adsorption of the functional molecules to the rock surface. Because the critical micelle concentration is low (around 30 ppm), most of the molecules move to the fluid–fluid interface to form molecular structures, which give rise to an increase in interface elasticity. We also demonstrate that interface elasticity has a non-monotonic behavior with the salt concentration of injected brine, and an optimum salinity exists for maximum oil recovery.

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A New Process for Improved Oil Recovery from Water Injection by a Functional Molecule at 100 ppm Concentration

Kar

Chávez-Miyauchi²,

Firoozabadi

et al. 2019

Day 3 Wed, October 02, 2019

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Low salinity water injection when effective in increasing oil recovery is often thought to be through increase in water wetting. Recently, oil-water interfacial rheology has been suggested to be related to oil recovery from low salinity water flooding. We have also discovered that addition of a very small amount of a functional molecule in the injection brine increases oil recovery significantly. Quantitative effect of interfacial elasticity and the effect of rock on oil recovery is investigated at 100 ppm concentration in this work for the first time. A light crude oil is used in four sets of waterflooding experiments in a carbonate rock. The injection brine is modified by adding 100 ppm of a non-ionic surfactant. To understand the recovery performances, interfacial viscoelasticity, interfacial tension and contact angle measurements are performed using brines of varying salinities. In interfacial rheology the effect of equilibration of the aqueous phase with the rock is also investigated. Additionally, adsorption of the surfactant in the carbonate rock is investigated for various aqueous phases via UVvis spectrometry. Crude oil, calcite and reservoir brine show moderate oil-wetting behavior. Addition of surfactant molecules makes the system more water-wet, however, the change is not pronounced. From coreflooding experiments, addition of surfactant in high salinity brine increases recovery by over 20% which we interpret to be due increase in interface elasticity. The phase angle which is a direct measure of interface elasticity decreases by 70% in an aqueous phase at about 4 wt% salt due to the surfactant. High interface elasticity reduces oil snap off and increases oil recovery. An effective molecule dissolved in water can increase the interface elasticity significantly. In relation to low salinity water injection we have established that there is an optimum salt concentration for high oil recovery. The injection of an aqueous phase without salt gives a lower recovery than injection of say 0.1 wt% salt in the injected water. We have introduced a new IOR process based on interface elasticity which requires a very low concentration of a non-ionic surfactant. The process is neither through wettability alteration nor through significant change in IFT. The chemical we have used is environmentally friendly and of low cost. It has very low adsorption onto the rock surface.

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Dreaming Big “Surfactant Injection in a Giant Offshore Carbonate Field”, From Successful Injection Trials to Pilot Design and Implementation

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

Straightforward Assessment of Wettability Changes by Washburn Capillary Rise: Toward a Screening Tool for Selecting Water Compositions for Improved Oil Recovery

Straightforward Assessment of Wettability Changes by Washburn Capillary Rise: Toward a Screening Tool for Selecting Water Compositions for Improved Oil Recovery

Improved Oil Recovery in Carbonates by Ultralow Concentration of Functional Molecules in Injection Water through an Increase in Interfacial Viscoelasticity

A New Process for Improved Oil Recovery from Water Injection by a Functional Molecule at 100 ppm Concentration

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