Pore-scale fluid distribution and remaining oil during tertiary low-salinity waterflooding in a carbonate
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Low-salinity waterflooding, as a promising enhanced oil recovery method, has exhibited exciting results in various experiments conducted at different scales. For carbonate rock, pore-scale understanding of the fluid distribution and remaining oil after low-salinity waterflooding is essential, especially the geometry and topology analysis of oil clusters. We performed the tertiary low-salinity waterflooding and employed X-ray micro-CT to probe the pore-scale displacement mechanism, fluid configuration, oil recovery, and remaining oil distribution. We found that the core becomes less oil-wet after low-salinity waterflooding. Furthermore, we analyzed the oil-rock and oil-brine interfacial areas to further support the wettability alteration. By comparing images after high-salinity waterflooding and low-salinity waterflooding, it is proven that wettability alteration has a significant impact on the behavior of the two-phase flow. Our research demonstrates that low-salinity waterflooding is an effective tertiary enhanced oil recovery technology in carbonate, which changes the wettability of rock and results in less film and singlet oil.
Source: Petroleum Science
Authors: Chun-Yu Tong, Yong-Fei Yang, Qi Zhang, Gloire Imani, Lei Zhang, Hai Sun, Jun-Jie Zhong, Kai Zhang, Jun Yao
Institution: China University of Petroleum, East China
Language: English
Subfield: Ocean Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
Funders: National Natural Science Foundation of China, National University's Basic Research Foundation of China, Natural Science Foundation of Qingdao, Changjiang Scholar Program of Chinese Ministry of Education, National Key Research and Development Program of China, Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University
OpenAlex ID: W4402404041