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Alkali/Surfactant Improved Low-Salinity Waterflooding

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An Erratum to this article was published on 31 December 2014

Abstract

Extensive laboratory studies have shown that oil recovery from water flooding is dependent on the salinity and composition of the injected water. The potential of low-salinity waterflooding (LSWF) has been observed in field trials, with relatively good agreement with the measured laboratory data. However, the incremental recovery from LSWF is relatively modest (2–10 % OOIP) compared to other water-based EOR methods such as chemical methods, particularly when applied in tertiary mode. In this paper, we investigate low-salinity flooding combined with alkali to improve the incremental recovery. The recoveries are also compared with low-salinity brine combined with surfactant. This is studied in a system, which is first shown to be responsive to low salinity. The low-salinity recovery result is used as a baseline for comparison. A clay-rich core from a sandstone reservoir and crude oil were used. The flooding experiments were performed by successive injection of high-salinity formation brine and low-salinity water or low-salinity water combined with a surfactant or alkali (SDS/NaOH). Based on the results, without adding alkali or surfactant, low-salinity flooding recovered \(\sim \)4 % additional oil over the recovery from high-salinity injection. However, when combined with 1 wt% alkali/surfactant, the oil recovery increased to 7–17 % OOIP. Minor formation damage was observed in all experiments. Interfacial tension (IFT) reduction (capillary desaturation) in each combined method is envisaged to be the driving mechanism for the enhancement of oil recovery. Interfacial tension reduction decreases capillary pressure, thereby decreasing trapping or re-trapping of the mobilized oil by low-salinity flooding. Comparison of the recovery from surfactant-improved low salinity and alkali-improved low salinity indicates that higher oil recovery can be achieved with surfactant than with alkali. Higher efficiency with surfactant can be attributed to the lower attainable IFT with surfactant than alkali (higher capillary numbers). Nevertheless, due to lower costs, alkali is more cost effective than surfactant and is advantageous because it reduces adsorption of in-situ generated petroleum surfactant. The results of the study emphasize the benefits of hybrid methods for the improvement of oil recovery. Particularly where a reservoir is responsive to low salinity, recovery can be enhanced by the addition of a small amount of alkali or surfactant.

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Notes

  1. Since the core samples are well consolidated and stress competent, the confining pressure has negligible influence on the permeability and porosity of the samples.

Abbreviations

TAN:

Total acid number

TBN:

Total base number

dFW 0.1 :

Formation water diluted 10 times

dFW0.01:

Formation water diluted 100 times

DP:

Differential pressure

DW:

Distilled water

FW:

Formation water

HS:

High salinity

IFT:

Interfacial tension

K :

Absolute (brine) permeability of core in each flooding step

\(K_{\mathrm{init}}\) :

Initial absolute (brine) permeability of core

LS:

Low salinity

LSWF:

Low-salinity water flooding

LSWF-A:

Low-salinity water with alkali

LSWF-S:

Low-salinity water with surfactant

OOIP:

Oil originally in place

PV:

Pore volume

ROS:

Remaining oil saturation

\(S_{\mathrm{wi}}\) :

Initial water saturation

\(S_{\mathrm{or}}\) :

Residual oil saturation

SDS:

Sodium dodecyl sulfate

TDS:

Total dissolved solid

\(v_{\mathrm{w}}\) :

Displacement velocity

\(\mu _{\mathrm{w}}\) :

Viscosity of displacing phase

\(\sigma _{\mathrm{ow}}\) :

Oil/brine interfacial tension (IFT)

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  1. Sahand Petroleum Research Center, Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz, Iran

    S. Shaddel & S. A. Tabatabae-Nejad

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Shaddel, S., Tabatabae-Nejad, S.A. Alkali/Surfactant Improved Low-Salinity Waterflooding. Transp Porous Med 106, 621–642 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11242-014-0417-1

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