Abstract
Brine-dependent recovery, which involves injected water ionic composition and strength, has seen much global research efforts in the past two decades because of its benefits over other oil recovery methods. Several studies, ranging from lab coreflood experiments to field trials, indicate the potential of recovering additional oil in sandstone and carbonate reservoirs. Sandstone and carbonate rocks are composed of completely different minerals, with varying degree of complexity and heterogeneity, but wettability alteration has been widely considered as the consequence rather than the cause of brine-dependent recovery. However, the probable cause appears to be as a result of the combination of several proposed mechanisms that relate the wettability changes to the improved recovery. This paper provides a comprehensive review on laboratory and field observations, descriptions of underlying mechanisms and their validity, the complexity of the oil-brine-rock interactions, modeling works, and comparison between sandstone and carbonate rocks. The improvement in oil recovery varies depending on brine content (connate and injected), rock mineralogy, oil type and structure, and temperature. The brine ionic strength and composition modification are the two major frontlines that have been well-exploited, while further areas of investigation are highlighted to speed up the interpretation and prediction of the process efficiency.
Highlights
The life cycle of petroleum reservoirs typically undergoes three modes of oil recovery: primary recovery uses the reservoir natural energy; secondary recovery mainly uses an injection of water or gas for maintenance of pressure; while the tertiary waterflooding or enhanced oil recovery (EOR) utilizes diverse forms of injection fluid [1,2]
This review addresses the subjects of current interests about gathering information on past and recent developments, and challenges of brine-dependent recovery processes in sandstone and carbonate rocks
This review outlines an integrative overview of laboratory and field observations, descriptions of underlying mechanisms and their validity, the complexity of the oil-brine-rock interactions, modeling attempts, and comparison between sandstone and carbonate rocks
Summary
The life cycle of petroleum reservoirs typically undergoes three modes of oil recovery: primary recovery uses the reservoir natural energy; secondary recovery mainly uses an injection of water or gas for maintenance of pressure; while the tertiary waterflooding or enhanced oil recovery (EOR) utilizes diverse forms of injection fluid [1,2]. There are ongoing studies to reconcile how the wettability alteration occurs, as it is required for any dominant mechanism to elucidate and predict both successful and failed cases of brine-dependent recovery Despite this shortcoming, few modeling works [60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,69,70,71,72] have been performed to simulate pore-to-surface-scale mechanisms that have been proposed to explain the complex oil-brine-rock interactions. A summary of the major compatibility issues associated with the injection water and the possible remediation will be presented and conclude with main highlights and potential opportunities for further investigation
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