Water-Flooding/EOR
1. When naturally available reservoir energy (energy produced from fluid expansion and from other energy sources such as from the forces exerted by the overlaying strata or from water influx from aquifers) remains too low to displace oil from a petroleum reservoir, whether the application of additional energy to the same reservoir by means of water-flooding (injecting water into oil-bearing formation) would be able to recover ALL the remaining trapped oil under reservoir conditions that remain ideally suited to water-flooding?
If not, is it only because of reservoir rock properties (such as reservoir heterogeneity; low-permeability; or, reservoir discontinuity)?
OR
Both reservoir rock as well as fluid properties play an equal role in trapping a significant volume of residual oil even @ the end of water-flooding?
OR
Is it only reservoir fluid properties that play a critical role in dictating the volume of trapped residual oil @ the end of water-flooding?
How exactly AL/MI could be brought in to deduce an optimal solution under such scenario?
2. Up to water-flooding, it remains relatively easier to conceptualize the differences in the mass of inflow and outflow through a given REV resulting from the effect of elastic energy of rocks and fluids in the REV, which obviously results in the accumulation of fluid mass in the REV.
Now, upon introducing, say, chemical EOR using surfactants that reduce IFT between oil and water; and, which eventually, help to remove the additional oil, how exactly, will we be able to fit-in/introduce the concept of IFT in the same REV?
Do we have an account on the mobility and displacement of connate water with reference to REV?
And, how exactly, the mobility of in-situ connate water tends to dilute injected surfactants?
Whether the dispersion or mixing of in-situ oil and the injected surfactant is taken into account in REV?
Do we also need to bother about the mixing between in-situ connate water and water injected into reservoir?
If connate water (the displacing fluid for oil) tends to form a barrier between the continuous oil phase and the injected water, then,
won’t connate water try to prevent externally injected chemical additives to the injected water from sufficiently/immediately contacting the oil?
If so, are we concerned about the mobility of connate water as well towards efficiently utilizing the chemical surfactants that haven been added to injected water?
In case, if a significant volume of connate water remains present, then, won’t the connate water tend to dilute/diffuse/disperse the surfactant to a concentration that may remain inadequate for removing oil?
If connate water contains significant amounts of NaCl and divalent ions, then, won’t the connate remain detrimental to the efficient use of injected surfactants?
Whether composition, mobility and displacement of connate water: All these aspects play a crucial role in the effective use of the injected surfactants?
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