Modeling Oil Recovery in Brazilian Carbonate Rock by Engineered Water Injection Using Numerical Simulation

Fabio Bordeaux-Rego, Jose Adriano Ferreira, Claudio Alberto Salinas Salinas Tejerina and Kamy Sepehrnoori
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Fabio Bordeaux-Rego: Center for Subsurface Energy and the Environment, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA
Jose Adriano Ferreira: Galp Energia S.A., 1600-209 Lisboa, Portugal
Claudio Alberto Salinas Salinas Tejerina: Galp Energia S.A., 1600-209 Lisboa, Portugal
Kamy Sepehrnoori: Center for Subsurface Energy and the Environment, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 11, 1-16

Abstract: Waterflooding remains the most commonly used method to improve oil recovery. Although the injected brine type is mainly dependent on its availability, few of its characteristics can be controlled during project design. Published laboratory work indicates that the adjustment of injected brine composition can cause an increase in oil production by wettability alteration. This research objective is to propose a novel four-step framework for modeling improved oil recovery by Engineered Water Injection from laboratory to numerical simulation for carbonate formations. We use a geochemical-based model that estimates contact angles to predict wettability alteration. The steps are (1) screening criteria, (2) geochemical evaluation, (3) wettability alteration modeling, and (4) coreflood history-match. We validate our framework by conducting history-match simulations of Brazilian Pre-Salt corefloods. Incremental oil recovery factors are between 5 to 11%, consistent with those reported during experiments. The reduction in residual oil saturation varied from 3 to 5%. This work is a new systematic procedure to model oil recovery using a comprehensive approach that is fundamental to understanding the underlying wettability alteration mechanisms by Engineered Water Injection.

Keywords: wettability alteration; engineered water injection; carbonate rocks; improved oil recovery; geochemistry (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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