Low salinity injection into asphaltenic-carbonate oil reservoir, mechanistical study

Lashkarbolooki, Mostafa; Riazi, Masoud; Hajibagheri, Farzad; Ayatollahi, Shahab

doi:10.1016/j.molliq.2016.01.051

Cited by 139 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…To understand the role of ion-complexing surface chemistry in LSW, a detailed understanding of the rock/aqueous-solution equilibria is mandatory. Fourth, the proposed "rock-dissolution" mechanism of LSW-improved oil recovery (Buckley and Morrow 2010;Hiorth et al 2010;Zahid et al 2012;Al-Shalabi et al 2014;Lashkarbolooki et al 2016) is not applicable (unless the injected brine completely dissolves the rock). Injected brine equilibrates with carbonate rock almost immediately after exiting the injection well.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This last observation engendered a large number of ancillary studies on silica, clay, and calcite/water interfaces and their ion-exchange behavior, especially recently (Lager et al 2008a;Sorbie and Collins 2010;Nasralla and Nasr-El-Din 2012;Alotaibi et al 2011;Alotaibi and Yousef 2015;Alshakhs and Kovscek 2015;Brady Myint and Firoozabadi 2015;Puntervold et al 2015;Qiao et al 2016). Fundamental studies (Ricci et al 2013;Alshakhs and Kovscek 2015;Brady et al 2015;Lashkarbolooki et al 2016;Mugele et al 2016) of the calcite/water interface, including molecular simulation (Kerisit and Parker 2004;Sakuma et al 2014;Qiao et al 2016), also garnered attention. These results generally support the surface-charge-recovery concepts of DLE and MIE.…”

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confidence: 97%

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Bulk and Surface Aqueous Speciation of Calcite: Implications for Low-Salinity Waterflooding of Carbonate Reservoirs

et al. 2017

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SummaryLow-salinity waterflooding (LSW) is ineffective when reservoir rock is strongly water-wet or when crude oil is not asphaltenic. Success of LSW relies heavily on the ability of injected brine to alter surface chemistry of reservoir crude-oil brine/rock (COBR) interfaces. Implementation of LSW in carbonate reservoirs is especially challenging because of high reservoir-brine salinity and, more importantly, because of high reactivity of the rock minerals. Both features complicate understanding of the COBR surface chemistries pertinent to successful LSW. Here, we tackle the complex physicochemical processes in chemically active carbonates flooded with diluted brine that is saturated with atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and possibly supplemented with additional ionic species, such as sulfates or phosphates.When waterflooding carbonate reservoirs, rock equilibrates with the injected brine over short distances. Injected-brine ion speciation is shifted substantially in the presence of reactive carbonate rock. Our new calculations demonstrate that rock-equilibrated aqueous pH is slightly alkaline quite independent of injected-brine pH. We establish, for the first time, that CO 2 content of a carbonate reservoir, originating from CO 2 -rich crude oil and gas, plays a dominant role in setting aqueous pH and rock-surface speciation.A simple ion-complexing model predicts the calcite-surface charge as a function of composition of reservoir brine. The surface charge of calcite may be positive or negative, depending on speciation of reservoir brine in contact with the calcite. There is no single point of zero charge; all dissolved aqueous species are charge determining. Rock-equilibrated aqueous composition controls the calcitesurface ion-exchange behavior, not the injected-brine composition. At high ionic strength, the electrical double layer collapses and is no longer diffuse. All surface charges are located directly in the inner and outer Helmholtz planes.Our evaluation of calcite bulk and surface equilibria draws several important inferences about the proposed LSW oil-recovery mechanisms. Diffuse double-layer expansion (DLE) is impossible for brine ionic strength greater than 0.1 molar. Because of rapid rock/brine equilibration, the dissolution mechanism for releasing adhered oil is eliminated. Also, fines mobilization and concomitant oil release cannot occur because there are few loose fines and clays in a majority of carbonates. LSW cannot be a low-interfacial-tension alkaline flood because carbonate dissolution exhausts all injected base near the wellbore and lowers pH to that set by the rock and by formation CO 2 . In spite of diffuse double-layer collapse in carbonate reservoirs, surface ion-exchange oil release remains feasible, but unproved.Introduction LSW refers to improved oil recovery achieved by waterflooding a reservoir with brine of lower salinity than that of the field brine. The process is alluring because of simplicity, favorable economics, and large potential. In some applications, seawater is inj...

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 97%

Bulk and Surface Aqueous Speciation of Calcite: Implications for Low-Salinity Waterflooding of Carbonate Reservoirs

et al. 2017

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“…The results of the asphaltene adsorption studies by contacting clay minerals with toluene solutions of asphaltene indicated that the adsorption of asphaltene is categorized as the monolayer adsorption of the Langmuir type . The adsorption of asphaltenes and resins is known as the chief reason for the wettability alteration of petroleum reservoir rocks …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental investigation of dynamic asphaltene adsorption on calcite packs: The impact of single and mixed‐salt brine films

Monjezi

Ghotbi

Behbahani³

et al. 2019

Can J Chem Eng

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In this study, the dynamic adsorption of asphaltene on a calcite surface is investigated. This study investigates the effect of mixed-salt brines on asphaltene adsorption. The results of this work can facilitate the understanding of the complex wettability behaviour of carbonate reservoirs. All experiments were performed in porous media, which were sand-packs filled with calcite powder, to study the influence of the type and concentration of salt on adsorption. The experiments were conducted with asphaltene concentration of 500 mg/L for brines of NaCl, Na 2 SO 4 , and a mixture of the two at various ionic strengths. In addition, two tests were performed with an asphaltene concentration of 2000 mg/L to observe the effect of increasing the asphaltene concentration on the adsorption. Moreover, the impact of brine film on asphaltene adsorption was investigated by conducting an additional experiment without brine saturation. The results show that by increasing the ionic strength, asphaltene adsorption increased at first owing to the reduction of electrostatic forces, then it reached its maximum, and it finally decreased as a result of the rise in the hydration force. The results show that in the presence of Na 2 SO 4 brine, the asphaltene adsorption is more than that of the NaCl brine. For the mixedsalt brine, as the ionic strength was increased, the asphaltene adsorption decreased at first and then it became constant. Furthermore, quadrupling the initial asphaltene concentration increased the adsorption up to 3.4 times. Additionally, the presence of brine film reduced the asphaltene adsorption by $80 %.

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“…Several mechanisms have been proposed to describe how the low salinity water (LSW) improves oil recovery: fines mobilization [16], limited release of mixed-wet particles [16], increased pH and reduced IFT similar to the alkaline flooding [17], multi-component ion exchange (MIE) [18][19][20][21], expansion of the double layer [22][23][24], salt-in effect [25], salting-out effect [26] and osmotic pressure [27]. However, all above mentioned studies have been carried out from core-scale to reservoir-scale.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extended DLVO-based estimates of surface force in low salinity water flooding

Xie

Saeedi

Pooryousefy

et al. 2016

Journal of Molecular Liquids

124

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Low salinity injection into asphaltenic-carbonate oil reservoir, mechanistical study

Cited by 139 publications

References 62 publications

Bulk and Surface Aqueous Speciation of Calcite: Implications for Low-Salinity Waterflooding of Carbonate Reservoirs

Bulk and Surface Aqueous Speciation of Calcite: Implications for Low-Salinity Waterflooding of Carbonate Reservoirs

Experimental investigation of dynamic asphaltene adsorption on calcite packs: The impact of single and mixed‐salt brine films

Extended DLVO-based estimates of surface force in low salinity water flooding

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