Thin liquid films in improved oil recovery from low-salinity brine

Myint, Philip C.; Firoozabadi, Abbas

doi:10.1016/j.cocis.2015.03.002

Cited by 266 publications

(229 citation statements)

References 41 publications

(52 reference statements)

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“…Because of buffering and especially because of the presence of reservoir CO 2 , pH values in the reservoir do not deviate much from approximately 8, no matter what pH is injected. The proposed saponification mechanism for LSW (i.e., activation of surfaceactive soaps) (Buckley and Morrow 2010;Sheng 2014;Myint and Firoozabadi 2015) is not expected to contribute at this low alkalinity. Because surface chemistry of the mineral interface is controlled by aqueous speciation, careful attention must be paid to actual ionic concentrations that evolve in the reservoir.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The surface charge of the mineral interfaces appears to play a critical role. 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.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several helpful reviews on LSW are available (Lager et al 2008a;Buckley and Morrow 2010;Morrow and Buckley 2013;Sheng 2014;Myint and Firoozabadi 2015). Fascinatingly, Sheng (2014) introduced 15 disparate physical mechanisms for LSW oil displacement.…”

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confidence: 99%

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

Yutkin¹,

Mishra²,

Radke³

et al. 2016

SPE Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Annual Technical Symposium and Exhibition

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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: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Yutkin¹,

Mishra²,

Radke³

et al. 2016

SPE Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Annual Technical Symposium and Exhibition

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“…Given that water chemistries play a significant role in the interaction of oil/brine/rock system [18], thereby wettability, aqueous ionic solutions (NaCl, CaCl 2 and MgCl 2 ) with concentrations (0.1, 1, and 5 wt %) were used to examine the zeta potential of oil/brines and brines/minerals. Prior to zeta potential tests, aqueous ionic solutions were filtered using an evacuator through two layers of filter papers to avoid impurity and any dissolved gas to affect the results.…”

Section: Brinesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drivers of Wettability Alteration for Oil/Brine/Kaolinite System: Implications for Hydraulic Fracturing Fluids Uptake in Shale Rocks

et al. 2018

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Abstract:Hydraulic fracturing technique is of vital importance to effectively develop unconventional shale resources. However, the low recovery of hydraulic fracturing fluids appears to be the main challenge from both technical and environmental perspectives in the last decade. While capillary forces account for the low recovery of hydraulic fracturing fluids, the controlling factor(s) of contact angle, thus wettability, has yet to be clearly defined. We hypothesized that the interaction of oil/brine and brine/rock interfaces governs the wettability of system, which can be interpreted using Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) and surface complexation modelling. To test our hypothesis, we measured a suit of zeta potential of oil/brines and brine/minerals, and tested the effect of ion type (NaCl, MgCl 2 and CaCl 2 ) and concentrations (0.1, 1, and 5 wt %). Moreover, we calculated the disjoining pressure of the oil/brine/mineral systems and compared with geochemical modelling predictions. Our results show that cation type and salinity governed oil/brine/minerals wettability. Divalent cations (Ca 2+ and Mg 2+ ) compressed the electrical double layer, and electrostatically linked oil and clays, thus increasing the adhesion between oil and minerals, triggering an oil-wet system. Increasing salinity also compressed the double layer, and increased the site density of oppositely charged surface species which made oil and clay link more strongly. Our results suggest that increasing salinity and divalent cations concentration likely decrease water uptake in shale oil reservoirs, thus de-risking the hydraulic fracturing induced formation damage. Combining DLVO and surface complexation modelling can delineate the interaction of oil/brine/minerals, thus wettability. Therefore, the relative contribution of capillary forces with respect to water uptake into shale reservoirs, and the possible impairment of hydrocarbon production from conventional reservoirs can be quantified.

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“…Nevertheless, it was recently reported [14] that certain mineral-water-oil systems, specifically mica-water-decane, display a transition from (almost) complete water wetting to partial wetting upon adding sufficient amounts of divalent Ca 2+ or Mg 2+ ions to the aqueous phase. This transition is believed to play an important role in modern enhanced oil recovery techniques, in particular, in so-called low salinity water flooding [18][19][20]. The experiments suggested that the transition is driven by a reversal of the charge of the mica-water interface upon adsorption of divalent cations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%