Low Salinity Water and Foam Flooding in Sandstone Reservoirs Bearing Heavy Oil

Abstract

This study investigates foam and water flooding (especially low salinity (LS) water flooding). Generally, injecting LS water alters sandstone wettability towards being more water-wet, is an effective EOR technique that improves oil recovery. Foams were also employed to enhance oil recovery due to its ability to increase residual oil mobility and sweep efficiency. Combining both LS water and foam into a novel attempt that takes advantage of the relative strengths of both EOR methods. This EOR combination was tested on Berea sandstone cores saturated with heavy oil. The ultimate outcome from this work is a “recipe” of EOR methods in combination, which utilizes LS water and foam to achieve recovery of over 72.65 percent of OOIP in core flooding tests. The core-flooding results showed that an increased heavy oil recovery was obtained by injecting foam and lowering water salinity. The contact angle and interfacial tension (IFT) measurements agreed with the core-flooding results.