Page 38 - Formation Damage during Improved Oil Recovery Fundamentals and Applications

CHAPTER TWO

Low-Salinity Water Flooding:
from Novel to Mature

Technology

1
David A. Wood and Bin Yuan 2
1
DWA Energy Limited, Lincoln, United Kingdom
2
The University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, United States

Contents
2.1 Introduction 22
2.2 Origins of LSWF and Identification of Reservoir Mechanism Driving
Incremental Oil Recovery 22
2.3 Fines Migration: Detachment, Transport, and Redeposition 26
2.4 Clay Swelling, Detachment, and Pore Blocking Leading to Reductions in
Permeability and Porosity 30
2.5 Salinity Thresholds and Reservoir Heterogeneity Influences on Particle
Detachment 32
2.6 Exploiting Pore Plugging to Preferentially Enhance Oil Recovery 32
2.6.1 Quantifying and modeling fines migration and pore plugging 32
2.6.2 LSWF to induce fines-migration-related formation damage 35
2.6.3 Enhanced sweep efficiency by induced fines migration during LSW
flooding 36
2.7 Factors Influencing EOR in Sandstone Reservoirs Subjected to LSWF 45
2.8 Relationships Between Oil Recovery, Salinity, and Wettability Variables 48
2.9 Wetting Mechanisms in Carbonates and Sandstones 51
2.10 Example Field Field-scale Tests and Outcomes of LSWF 53
2.11 Potential to Combine LSWF with Other IOR Mechanisms 56
2.11.1 LSWF combined with surfactants 56
2.11.2 LSWF combined with polymers 56
2.11.3 LSWF combined with CO 2 water-alternating gas injection 57
2.11.4 LSWF combined with nanofluid treatments 58
2.12 Conclusions 60
Nomenclature 61
References 62

Formation Damage during Improved Oil Recovery. © 2018 Elsevier Inc.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-813782-6.00002-6 All rights reserved. 21