The Control of Apparent Wettability on the Efficiency of Surfactant Flooding in Tight Carbonate Rocks
The Control of Apparent Wettability on the Efficiency of Surfactant Flooding in Tight Carbonate Rocks
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DOI：
10.3390/pr7100684
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发表时间：
2019-10
期刊：
影响因子：
3.5
通讯作者：
Harris Sajjad Rabbani;Yossra Osman;I. Almaghrabi;Mohammad Azizur Rahman;T. Seers
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Harris Sajjad Rabbani;Yossra Osman;I. Almaghrabi;Mohammad Azizur Rahman;T. Seers
在这项研究中，使用最先进的实验岩心驱替装置来评估表面活性剂驱作为致密碳酸盐岩提高采收率(EOR)技术的效率。具体地说，我们研究了表观润湿性在控制表面活性剂驱油效果中的作用。对印第安纳州石灰岩(方解石胶结碳酸盐颗粒岩)低渗透岩心塞样品进行了一系列具有明确边界条件的驱油实验。对三种具有不同表观润湿特性的样品进行了实验：强油湿、中等油湿和弱油湿。最初，将饱和油岩心样品注入盐水，直到达到剩余油饱和度，然后进行表面活性剂驱，作为三次采油技术。有趣的是，我们的实验结果表明，表面活性剂驱油效率随着致密碳酸盐岩的含油量增加而增加。强油湿岩心采收率最高，而弱油湿岩心表面活性剂驱额外采收率最低。此外，我们还提供了一个孔隙尺度的论点来解释致密碳酸盐岩中表面活性剂驱的宏观作用。我们假设，在孔隙尺度上，薄膜的存在对控制强油湿致密碳酸盐岩表面活性剂驱的有效性起着关键作用。总体而言，我们相信，我们的宏观研究为致密碳酸盐岩油藏中表面活性剂驱油的动态提供了新的见解，并有助于优化油田开采计划。
In this research, a state-of-the-art experimental core flooding setup is used to assess the efficiency of surfactant flooding as an enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technique in tight carbonate rocks. Specifically, we investigate the role of apparent wettability in governing the effectiveness of surfactant flooding. A series of flooding experiments with well-defined boundary conditions were performed on the low permeability core plug samples of Indiana Limestone (calcite-cemented carbonate grainstones). Experiments were conducted on three samples exhibiting differing apparent wetting characteristics: strongly oil-wet, moderately oil-wet and weakly oil-wet. Initially, the oil-saturated core samples were flooded with brine until the residual oil saturation was achieved, with surfactant flooding performed as a tertiary recovery technique. Interestingly, our experimental results reveal that the efficiency of surfactant flooding increases with the degree of oil-wetness of the tight carbonate rocks. The strongly oil-wet core showed the highest recovery, while the weakly oil-wet core manifested the least additional oil recovery associated with surfactant flooding. Moreover, we provided a pore-scale argument that explains the macroscopic role of surfactant flooding in tight carbonate rocks. We hypothesized that at the pore-scale the presence of thin film plays a critical role in controlling the effectiveness of surfactant flooding in the strongly oil-wet tight carbonate rocks. Overall, we believe that our macroscopic study provides novel insight into the dynamics of surfactant flooding in tight carbonate reservoirs and can aid in optimizing the field development plans for oil recovery.