Low salinity water injection is an emerging EOR method which has recently attracted considerable interest from both research and field application points of view. Many mechanisms for additional oil recovery by low salinity water have been hypothesised including: increasing pH leading to in-situ saponification and interfacial tension reduction, emulsion formation, clay migration, multi ionic exchange, and wettability alteration. However, all of these explanations are controversial and many different and sometimes contradictory core flood results have been reported.
The main objective of our Low salinity Water Injection project is to reveal the fundamental mechanisms of oil recovery by low salinity water injection by performing the following:
- Flow and displacements visualisation experiments in transparent porous media (micromodels) under typical pressure and temperature of oil reservoirs. Our preliminary visualization experiments have shown a change of the colour of crude oil and also formation of a new phase (possibly micro emulsion) as a result of low salinity water injection.
- Visually and directly examine and identify the role of most of the theories and mechanisms presented so far by previous researchers as possible reasons for improved oil recovery by low salinity water injection.
- Perform coreflood tests in conjunction with ESEM imaging technology to examine the performance of the process under optimum conditions as revealed by micromodel experiments.
- To identify the role of reservoir minerals (including clays) on mechanisms of low salinity, interactions of low salinity water and crude oil with various reservoir minerals are being investigated at reservoir conditions by contact angle visualization and measurements on crystals of individual main reservoir minerals.
Sponsor Area
For more information about the project please contact Mehran Sohrabi. For current sponsors please access the sponsor area.