Evaluating the Wettability and EOR Potential of Duvernay and Eagle Ford Samples

全球能源需求的增加和常规资源油气产量的减少促使油气行业从非常规资源中开采油气。随着加拿大水力压裂作业的增加，提高这些作业的效率变得越来越重要。加拿大拥有巨大的非常规资源，仅在阿尔伯塔省就有大约4250亿桶页岩油和致密油。尽管水平钻井和多级水力压裂提高了油气产量，但非常规资源的一次采收率非常低（仅为原始储量的5-10%）。石油行业需要采用提高采收率（EOR）技术来提高采收率。表面活性剂溶液和天然气被认为是提高非常规油藏采收率的潜在提高采收率流体

The increasing global energy demand and decreasing hydrocarbon production from conventional resources have motivated the industry to produce hydrocarbons from unconventional resources. As hydraulic fracturing operations in Canada increase, it is becoming important to enhance the efficiency of these operations. Canada has massive unconventional resources with an estimated 425 billion barrels of shale and tight oil in-place in Alberta alone. Although horizontal drilling and multi-stage hydraulic fracturing have boosted hydrocarbon production, primary oil recovery factors from unconventional resources is very low (5-10% of the original oil in-place). The oil industry needs to apply enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques to improve this recovery factor. Surfactant solutions and natural gas have been considered as potential EOR fluids to improve oil recovery factors from unconventional reservoirs The proposed research aims to conduct systematic laboratory experiments for evaluating two different approaches to improve oil recovery factors from unconventional reservoirs. First is adding surfactants to fracturing fluids for EOR while fracturing. Second is cyclic injection of natural gas (Huff-n-Puff) after fracturing operations. One post-doctoral fellow, one PhD student, and one MSc student will conduct the three phases of this research, namely wetttability evaluation, surfactant EOR, and natural gas EOR. These phases involve systematic laboratory experiments on rock and fluid samples from East Duvernay and Eagle Ford Formations which are both carbonate-rich source rocks. The University of Alberta team will collaborate with industry experts in CNOOC International and Outlier Resources to: i) develop optimal formulations for fracturing and EOR fluids scenarios and ii) optimize operational parameters. The research team will acquire critical technical expertise to be well-poised to join the Canadian oil and gas industry, and continue the responsible development of the nation's unconventional oil and gas resources.