Journal of Petroleum & Environmental Biotechnology

Low salinity flooding magic number is 5000 ppm

6^th International Conference on Petroleum Engineering

June 29-30, 2017|Madrid, Spain

Zekri A Y, Al-Attar, H Khailifi M and Lewisa E

United Arab Emirates University, UAE

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Pet Environ Biotechnol

Abstract:

The debate among the researchers in the petroleum industry on the mechanism of low salinity water flooding and the optimum salinity of the injection water in sandstone and carbonate oil formations still did not reach a final conclusion. In this paper, a summary of our experience that covers the possible application of low or smart water flooding in two UAE carbonate oil reservoirs will be presented. Low salinity means dilution of reservoir formation brine, injection brine, or sea water to an optimum salinity that has to be determined in the laboratory, while smart water injection signifies ionic composition modification process. The objective of this paper is to share our laboratory work and results conducted on two carbonate reservoirs that include a systematic approach to determine the mechanism of low salinity flooding and complete assessment of the two approaches of smart water and low salinity water processes. Results revealed that in both reservoirs, low salinity produced significant improvement in the displacement efficiency and dilution of the injection water (URD water, sea water) to a level approaching 5000 ppm is the optimum system. Modification of the ionic composition of different waters did not result in an improvement of the process efficiencies. The magic number of low salinity concentration of 5000 ppm has been reported by a number of researchers. Results also indicated different mechanisms of low salinity flooding for the carbonate reservoirs. The low salinity injection water has to have a salinity below some limit (TDS <~0.5% or 5000 ppm).

Biography :

Email: a.zekri@uaeu.ac.ae