Quantifying the Low Salinity Waterflooding Effect

Omar Chaabi, Mohammed Al Kobaisi and Mohamed Haroun
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Omar Chaabi: Department of Petroleum Engineering, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi 127788, United Arab Emirates
Mohammed Al Kobaisi: Department of Petroleum Engineering, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi 127788, United Arab Emirates
Mohamed Haroun: Department of Petroleum Engineering, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi 127788, United Arab Emirates

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 7, 1-15

Abstract: Low salinity waterflooding (LSW) has shown promising results in terms of increasing oil recovery at laboratory scale. In this work, we study the LSW effect, at laboratory scale, and provide a basis for quantifying the effect at field scale by extracting reliable relative permeability curves. These were achieved by experimental and numerical interpretation of laboratory core studies. Carbonate rock samples were used to conduct secondary and tertiary unsteady-state coreflooding experiments at reservoir conditions. A mathematical model was developed as a research tool to interpret and further validate the physical plausibility of the coreflooding experiments. At core scale and a typical field rate of ~1 ft/day, low salinity water (LS) resulted in not only ~20% higher oil recovery compared to formation water (FW) but also recovered oil sooner. LS water also showed capability of reducing the residual oil saturation when flooded in tertiary mode. The greater oil recovery caused by LSW can be attributed to altering the wettability of the rock to less oil-wet as confirmed by the numerically extracted relative permeability curves.

Keywords: enhanced oil recovery (EOR); low salinity waterflooding; simulation; coreflooding (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
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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