Journal of Petroleum & Environmental Biotechnology

Experimental study on LoSal enhanced oil recovery mechanisms in a part of an oil field of upper Assam basin, India

Joint Event on 8^th International Conference on Petroleum Engineering & 9^th International Conference and Expo on Oil and Gas

October 15-16, 2018 | Rome, Italy

Minati Das and Nayan Medhi

Dibrugarh University, India

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Pet Environ Biotechnol

Abstract:

Low Salinity (LoSal) Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) is an emerging EOR technology where the salinity of the injection water is reduced/controlled to improve the oil recovery versus conventional high salinity waterflooding. Earlier studies have shown that different LoSal EOR mechanisms such as fine migration, pH increase, electrical double layer (EDL) expansion, multicomponent ion exchange (MIE) etc. affects the oil recovery efficiency through wettability alteration of the reservoir rock. The present study is based on the laboratory study of ???fine migration??? and ???pH increase??? mechanisms in a part of an oil field of upper Assam basin. The analysis of crude oil, brine and reservoir rock of the study area shows the presence of polar organic compounds, divalent cations and clay minerals which are the prerequisite for the LoSal mechanisms to occur. The core flooding experiments were conducted in the laboratory by flooding three oil saturated core plugs using different saline water (1404 ppm, 1100 ppm and 200 ppm). Injection of 1100 ppm and 200 ppm low saline water gives higher oil recovery efficiency (33.82% & 40.47% of OOIP i.e. Original Oil in place) compared to 1404 ppm flooding (32.71 % of OOIP) which is the formation brine salinity of the study area. The scanning electron microscopic (SEM) analysis of the migrated fine sediments separated from the effluent low saline water shows the presence of illite and mixed-layer. The pH of the 1100 ppm and 200 ppm effluent water is increased by 0.29 and 0.33 respectively. The study shows that the ???fine migration??? and ???pH increase??? LoSal mechanisms works in the study area contributes to the improved oil recovery efficiency.

Biography :

E-mail: minatidas@dibru.ac.in