Title: Optimisation of smart water shock flooding in carbonates: effect of soaking time

Authors: Mahmood Fani; Peyman Pourafshary

Addresses: Department of Energy and Petroleum Engineering, University of Stavanger, 4036 Stavanger Postboks 8600 Forus, Norway ' School of Mining and Geosciences, Nazarbayev University, 53, Kabanbay Batyr Ave., Nur-Sultan City, 010000, Republic of Kazakhstan

Abstract: Smart water shock flooding (SWSF) is proposed as an alternative to the conventional method of employing low salinity water. It is confirmed that the asserted method is financially viable when compared to the conventional method. The effect of soaking time after SWSF was studied in order to mend the enactment of engineered slug shock injection. The depicted scheme provided enough time for the smart water to intensify the interaction at the surface of the formation rock; hence, it causes fluctuation in the wettability condition of the overall process. Contact angle measurements were used, in addition to pH evaluations, to detect an optimum soaking time for the flooding. Experiments showed that soaking the sample in the smart water during core flooding experiments leads to drastically higher incremental recovery, compared to the conventional injection scheme. Hence, the proposed method can inexpensively improve oil recovery by combining the effects of soaking and SWSF. [Received: July 28, 2020; Accepted: October 22, 2020]

Keywords: smart water; enhanced oil recovery; conventional oil reserves; unconventional oil reserves; low salinity water flooding; smart water shock flooding; optimisation; petrochemistry; surface chemistry.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOGCT.2021.118816

International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology, 2021 Vol.28 No.4, pp.459 - 478

Received: 27 Jul 2020
Accepted: 22 Oct 2020
Published online: 08 Nov 2021 *

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