The synergistic effects of cationic surfactant and smart seawater on the recovery of medium-viscosity crude oil from low-permeability carbonates

<p dir="ltr">In the petroleum industry, there is a continuous search for cost-effective enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods to increase oil extraction. Surfactant-based EOR is one of these effective methods, which is applied after the primary and secondary recovery phases. This paper...

وصف كامل

محفوظ في:
التفاصيل البيبلوغرافية
المؤلف الرئيسي: Osama Massarweh (17012217) (author)
مؤلفون آخرون: Ahmad S. Abushaikha (14151651) (author)
منشور في: 2023
الموضوعات:
الوسوم: إضافة وسم
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الوصف
الملخص:<p dir="ltr">In the petroleum industry, there is a continuous search for cost-effective enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods to increase oil extraction. Surfactant-based EOR is one of these effective methods, which is applied after the primary and secondary recovery phases. This paper presents an experimental study on the use of a cationic surfactant, hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB, CH<sub>3</sub>(CH<sub>2</sub>)<sub>15</sub>N(Br)(CH<sub>3</sub>)<sub>3</sub>), and smart seawater (SW) for EOR in low-permeability carbonate rock with medium viscosity crude oil. Smart SW was prepared by modifying the concentrations of Ca<sup>2+</sup>, Mg<sup>2+</sup>, and SO<sub>4</sub><sup>2-</sup> in synthetic offshore SW. The aqueous stability of CTAB was tested in different salinities of smart SW at the reservoir temperature. It was demonstrated that CTAB is stable at 55 °C, which was further confirmed through optical transmittance measurements, revealing values mostly exceeding 93%. The use of smart SW and CTAB significantly altered the wettability of carbonate rock towards water-wet and reduced the interfacial tension (IFT) between crude oil and water, reaching levels below 0.087 mN/m. However, the presence of smart SW increased the adsorption of CTAB onto the surface of carbonate rock. Nevertheless, the adsorption values were significantly below 1 mg/g-rock. Smart SW + CTAB resulted in a total oil recovery of 76.71% of original oil-in-place (OOIP), compared to 71.70% of OOIP with unmodified SW + CTAB. These results suggest that the use of smart SW in combination with CTAB is a promising approach for enhancing the recovery of medium-viscosity oil from tight carbonate reservoirs. Findings from this study can help in better understanding the optimal conditions for the application of smart SW-CTAB flooding to improve the effectiveness of tertiary recovery operations in the upstream oil sector.</p><h2>Other Information</h2><p dir="ltr">Published in: Journal of Molecular Liquids<br>License: <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" target="_blank">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</a><br>See article on publisher's website: <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.molliq.2023.122866" target="_blank">https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.molliq.2023.122866</a></p>