Low Salinity Water Flooding (LSWF)
1. LSWF: Is it an IOR (injection of produced water) or an EOR technique (injection of water with altered chemistry); or neither?
2. Feasible to verify/validate @ lab-scale that the equilibrium of the initial oil-water-rock system “always” gets modified to a favorable condition that allows the oil to be moved easily in a petroleum reservoir upon injecting low salinity water?
3. Whether the expansion of electrical double layer and its associated wettability alteration resulting from the changes in rock/water and oil/water interfaces (through zeta potential measurements) would "always" remain suffice to conclude that changes in surface charges dictate the wettability alteration in reservoirs subjected to LSWF?
4. How crucial are the following reservoir physics that essentially dictate a successful LSWF condition?
(a) the way oil surface active agents get desorbed from rock surface;
(b) the way, the polar components of oil get desorbed; and the way it affects oil/water and rock/oil interactions; and eventually, the way, it controls the interfacial properties and forces;
(c) the clay content of reservoir rock;
(d) the threshold degree of dilution;
(e) the way, the interfacial viscoelasticity gets enhanced by suppressing snap-off effect and thereby leading to a more continuous oily phase;
(f) optimum temperature window (around 100 degrees Celcius);
(g) the way, the contacting time between oil and water influencing the physical/chemical properties of fluids;
(h) the way, pH influences the flow behavior;
(i) the type and amount of salts in formation water;
(j) the way, the water micro-dispersions form in crude oil (water in oil emulsions);
(k) the type and amount of ions in injected water; and
(l) the way, the concentration of polar components, in particular, the way the concentration of acidic polar oil constituents and the type of non-polar fractions tend to alter the wettability/IFT.
5. How do we translate the changes in salinity/surface charge @ sub-pore-scale; to the changes in wettability @ pore-scale; to the changes in relative permeability @ macro-scale?
6. Feasible to establish the link between
(a) the way the reservoir responds to LSWF @ pore-/sub-pore-scale;
and
(b) the way, the incremental oil gets produced @ macro-scale?
If not, how will be able to establish whether a reservoir of interest would remain to be a good target for LSWF?
7. Albeit the projection that changes in wettability being responsible for the amplified oil recovery, do we have a systematic experimental design and goals for LSWF?
Are the experimental/laboratory protocols along with standard measurement techniques and its associated data types remain consistent in LSWF investigations?
Why do we have a huge variation in the incremental/additional recovery of OOIP (0-25%) towards LSWF studies?
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Engineering
- Petroleum Engineering
- Oil