Abstract
Wettability alteration is the essential mechanism responsible for oil recovery by low-salinity water flooding in sandstone reservoirs. Relative permeability or contact angle data is needed to predict reservoir fluid-rock interaction or the wetting condition of hydrocarbon-bearing porous surfaces. Temperature changes, as well as reservoir fluid saturation, flow rate, viscosity, and pore geometry, all affect oil–water relative permeability behaviour. The influence of temperature on wettability alteration in low-salinity water flooding is difficult to discern due to inconsistent findings on wetting properties when the temperature of the crude oil-rock-water interaction is increased. As a result, the relationships between rock wettability and water/oil permeability ratio have both temperature-dependent and temperature-independent effects. The present study makes an attempt to analyse the effect of temperature on wettability alteration, taking into account the relative permeability behaviour and rock mineralogy of the Barail sandstone outcrop of the Upper Assam basin. This study incorporates the Barail sandstone outcrop of the Dillighat river section of Northeast India to investigate the effect of temperature on the wettability of the sandstone porous medium. The outcrop considered for the current study is a part of the petroliferous basin of Upper Assam, where the Barail sandstones are regarded as excellent reservoirs. The study region is defined as latitude 27° 07′ 22′′–27° 08′ 25′′ N and longitude 95° 21′ 3′′–95° 22′ 10′′ E on Survey of India topographic sheet no. 83 M/8. In the current study, the sandstone cores were flooded with low-salinity brine at elevated temperatures for five Barail sandstone cores. Core flooding experiments were carried out at two different temperatures, 70 °C and 85 °C, which correspond to the reservoir temperatures of some of the oil-bearing reservoirs in the Upper Assam basin. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of temperature in modifying the reservoir wettability of sandstone rock in a water flood scheme. The current study highlights the existence of temperature-dependent oil–water relative permeability behaviour by examining the shifting of the crossover point saturation at elevated temperatures, resulting in wettability alteration, based on experimental analysis on Barail sandstone cores of the Upper Assam basin and rock mineralogy analysis for the five different sandstone samples.
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Abbreviations
- S wir :
-
Irreducible water saturation
- k ro :
-
Relative permeability to oil
- LSWF:
-
Low-salinity water flooding
- µ w, µ o :
-
Water and oil viscosity
- k ro, k rw :
-
Oil and water relative permeability
- S wi :
-
Initial water saturation
- T A :
-
Ageing temperature
- S or :
-
Residual oil saturation
- T res :
-
Reservoir temperature
- ASTM:
-
American Society for Testing and Materials
- S rw :
-
Residual water saturation
- K orw :
-
Relative permeability to oil at residual water saturation
- S wc :
-
Connate water saturation
- k w :
-
Effective permeabilty to water
- meq/100 g:
-
Milliequivalents per 100 g
- FW:
-
Formation water
- V REF :
-
System reference volume, cm3
- V BILLETSREMOVED :
-
Volume of the removed billets, cm3
- P REFFULL :
-
Reference pressure for full cup measurement, psi
- P CUPFULL :
-
Cup pressure with all billets in a cup, psi
- P REFREM :
-
Reference pressure for measurement with a billet removed, psi
- P CUPREM :
-
Cup pressure with a billet removed, psi
- V GRAIN :
-
Grain Volume, cm3
- V BILLETSREMOVED :
-
Volume of the removed billets, cm3
- P REFFULL :
-
Reference system pressure prior to full cup measurement, psi
- P CUPFULL :
-
Cup pressure when all billets in cup, psi
- V REF :
-
Reference volume of system, cm3
- P REFSAMPLE :
-
Reference system pressure prior TO CORE measurement, psi
- P CUPSAMP :
-
Cup pressure with sample inside, psi
- NAPL:
-
Non-aqueous phase liquid
- SAWA:
-
Surfactant assisted wettability alteration
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Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank the Department of Petroleum Technology for laboratory assistance, as well as the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGCL), the operator of the Upper Assam oilfield, for technical assistance in conducting the research.
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Neog, D., Borgohain, P. Effect of temperature on sandstone rock wettability behaviour: a study on the Barail sandstone outcrop of the Upper Assam Basin. Arab J Geosci 15, 138 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-022-09429-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-022-09429-0