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碳氢化合物产量的减少促使该行业利用非常规资源生产碳氢化合物。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。加拿大拥有大量的非常规资源，仅在艾伯塔省就估计有4250亿桶页岩和致密油。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油系数很低(原油量的5%-10%)。石油行业需要应用提高采收率(EOR)技术来提高这一采收率。表面活性剂溶液和天然气被认为是潜在的提高非常规油藏采收率的三次采油流体，本研究旨在进行系统的室内实验，以评价两种不同的提高非常规油藏采收率的方法。首先是在压裂液中加入表面活性剂，以便在压裂时提高采收率。二是压裂后循环注入天然气(Huff-n-Puff)。一名博士后、一名博士后和一名硕士研究生将进行这项研究的三个阶段，即润湿性评估、表面活性剂提高采收率和天然气采油。这些阶段涉及对东杜维奈和伊格尔福特地层的岩石和流体样品进行系统的实验室实验，这两个地层都是富含碳酸盐的烃源岩。艾伯塔大学团队将与中海油国际和离群资源行业专家合作：i)开发压裂和提高采收率流体方案的最佳配方；ii)优化操作参数。研究团队将获得关键的技术专业知识，为加入加拿大石油和天然气行业做好准备，并继续负责任地开发该国的非常规石油和天然气资源。

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.