Mohammad Saki; Ali Reza Khaz'al
Abstract
The chemical surfactant flooding can mobilize the trapped oil by lowering the interfacial tension between oil and brine and in some cases altering the reservoir rock wettability. In this work, the effect of surfactants on oil/brine interfacial tension was experimentally investigated. First, the effect ...
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The chemical surfactant flooding can mobilize the trapped oil by lowering the interfacial tension between oil and brine and in some cases altering the reservoir rock wettability. In this work, the effect of surfactants on oil/brine interfacial tension was experimentally investigated. First, the effect of surfactants concentration was surveyed. Afterwards, the effect of salinity on surfactant behavior was studied. The experiments were carried out at ambient and reservoir temperatures (all at reservoir pressure) to clarify that we cannot generalize the ambient experimental results to reservoir ones and the experiments must be done in reservoir conditions to attain more certainty. Sodium dodecyl sulfonate, cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide and Triton X-100 were used as the surfactants. The oil and brine samples of the Iranian Asmari reservoir were used. Pendant drop method was used to measure oil/brine interfacial tension. Based on the results, it is concluded that the anionic surfactant (SDS) has a better performance at reservoir and ambient temperatures. The superiority of SDS is more emphatic at reservoir temperature than ambient temperature. At reservoir temperature, the SDS solution lowers the interfacial tension significantly (0.4 mN/m) even when a very low concentration of SDS (0.04 wt.%) is added to brine.
Mohammad Hasan Badizad; Ahmad Reza Zanganeh; Amir Hossein Saeedi Dehaghani
Abstract
Fracture reservoirs contain most of the oil reserves of the Middle East. Such reservoirs are poorly understood and recovery from fractured reservoirs is typically lower than those from conventional reservoirs. Many efforts have been made to enhance the recovery and production potential of these reservoirs. ...
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Fracture reservoirs contain most of the oil reserves of the Middle East. Such reservoirs are poorly understood and recovery from fractured reservoirs is typically lower than those from conventional reservoirs. Many efforts have been made to enhance the recovery and production potential of these reservoirs. Fractured reservoirs with high matrix porosity and low matrix permeability need a secondary or EOR technique to achieve the maximum production. One of the effective EOR approaches is surfactant flooding, which reduces interfacial tension and alters wettability. Due to the complexity and uncertainty associated with such reservoirs, implementing a simulation and numerical analysis is primarily necessary to evaluate the effect of key engineering parameters on ultimate reservoir performance. This study assesses and provides a good insight into surfactant injection into fractured reservoirs using ECLIPSE software as a numerical simulator. The influences of fracture-matrix permeability ratio, initial water saturation, and the number of grids on reservoir performance were assessed and a sensitivity analysis was carried out. This study takes surfactant-related phenomena such as adsorption, surface tension reduction, and wettability alteration into account. The simulation results demonstrate that fracture-matrix permeability ratio is an important screening quantity for the selection of surfactant flooding as an EOR agent and that uncertainty in the initial water saturation of matrix has a great influence on the simulation outputs.
Jaber Esmaeeli Azadgoleh; Riyaz Kharrat; Nasim Barati; Ameneh Sobhani
Abstract
Nanotechnology has various applications in oil and gas industry such as enhanced oil recovery (EOR). The main challenge in using nanoparticles in EOR processes is their stability in harsh conditions such as high temperature, high pressure, and intermediate to high salinity. However, most of the recent ...
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Nanotechnology has various applications in oil and gas industry such as enhanced oil recovery (EOR). The main challenge in using nanoparticles in EOR processes is their stability in harsh conditions such as high temperature, high pressure, and intermediate to high salinity. However, most of the recent experimental works have been performed under unrealistic conditions such as the use of distilled water as the injected fluid and room temperature. The main objective of this work is to study the effect of these factors on the stability of nanoparticle dispersions through several methods such as direct observation, optical absorption measurement, and nanoparticle effective diameter in different periods of time. The critical salt concentration (CSC) was determined for two kinds of monovalent electrolytes in various particle concentrations and temperatures. The results have shown that CSC for potassium chloride (KCl) is less than sodium chloride (NaCl) and it decreases as nanoparticle concentration and temperature increase. Moreover, the influence of two types of surfactants on the stability of silica dispersions was studied and the results revealed that an anionic surfactant increases the CSC, while a nonionic surfactant leads to the instability of dispersion even at low electrolyte concentrations.
Mohsen Seid Mohammadi; Jamshid Moghadasi; Amin Kordestany
Abstract
Wettability alteration is an important method for increasing oil recovery from oil-wet carbonate reservoirs. Chemical agents like surfactants are known as wettability modifiers in carbonate systems. Oil can be recovered from initially oil-wet carbonate reservoirs by wettability alteration from oil-wet ...
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Wettability alteration is an important method for increasing oil recovery from oil-wet carbonate reservoirs. Chemical agents like surfactants are known as wettability modifiers in carbonate systems. Oil can be recovered from initially oil-wet carbonate reservoirs by wettability alteration from oil-wet to water-wet condition with adding dilute surfactant and electrolyte solutions. This paper investigates the effects of brine concentration, surfactant concentration, and the pH of injection water on the wettability alteration of carbonate reservoirs by different class of surfactants. Scanning electron microscopy images verified the formation of surfactant layer surfaces and the adsorption of surfactant molecules on the rock. The results revealed that TX-100, as a nonionic surfactant, and CTAB, as a cationic surfactant, were better wettability modifiers than SDS, as an anionic surfactant, for carbonate rocks. At the concentration of 1 wt.% and higher, the contact angle reduction was approximately unchanged. The results also proved that there was an optimum salinity for the maximum wettability alteration by surfactants. Increasing the pH of aging fluid resulted in better wettability alteration by CTAB, while, in the case of SDS, the wettability alteration was reduced. Acidic conditions had a negligible effect on the wetting behavior of TX-100.
