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  • Conditions for a Low-Salini...
    Austad, T; Shariatpanahi, S. F; Strand, S; Black, C. J. J; Webb, K. J

    Energy & fuels, 01/2012, Letnik: 26, Številka: 1
    Journal Article

    Low-salinity enhanced oil recovery (EOR) effects have for a long time been associated with sandstone reservoirs containing clay minerals. Recently, a laboratory study showing low-salinity EOR effects from composite carbonate core material was reported. In the present paper, the results of oil recovery by low-salinity water flooding from core material sampled from the aqueous zone of a limestone reservoir are reported. Tertiary low-salinity effects, 2–5% of original oil in place (OOIP), were observed by first flooding the cores with high-saline formation water (208 940 ppm) and then with 100× diluted formation water or 10× diluted Gulf seawater at 110 °C. It was verified by flooding the core material with distilled water that the core samples contained small amounts of anhydrite, CaSO4(s). The oil recovery was tested under forced displacement using different injection brines and oils with different acid numbers, 0.08, 0.34, and 0.70 mg of KOH/g. The low-salinity effect depended upon mixed wet conditions, and the effect increased as the acid number of the oil increased. No low-salinity effect was observed using a chalk core free from anhydrite. The chemical mechanism for the low-salinity effect is discussed, and in principle, it is similar to the wettability modification taking place by seawater described previously. In field developments, the oil reservoir is normally flooded with the most available water source. For offshore reservoirs, this means seawater or modified seawater. Thus, a relevant question addressed in this paper is can diluted seawater act as a low-saline EOR fluid after a secondary flood with seawater? Previous experiments have shown that both spontaneous imbibition and forced displacement tests using chalk cores, which were free from sulfate, did not show a low-salinity EOR effect when exposed to diluted seawater. This paper shows that, if anhydrite is present in the rock formation, diluted seawater or diluted produced water can act as an EOR injectant to improve recovery over that achieved with high-salinity brines.