Foams with Wettability Alteration for Oil-Wet Carbonate Rocks

Abstract

Abstract Carbonate rocks are typically heterogeneous at many scales; hence foams have the potential to improve both oil displacement efficiency and sweep efficiency in carbonate rocks. However, foams have to overcome two adverse conditions in carbonates: oil-wettability and low permeability. This study evaluates several foam formulations that combine wettability alteration and foaming in low permeability oil-wet carbonate cores. Contact angle experiments were performed on oil-wet calcite plates to evaluate the wettability altering capabilities of the surfactant formulations. Static foam stability tests were conducted to evaluate their foaming performance in bulk. Finally, oil displacement experiments were performed using Texas Cream and Estaillades Limestone cores with crude oil. Two different injection strategies were studied in this work: alternating gas-surfactant-gas injection and co-injection of wettability alteration surfactant with gas at a constant foam quality. Cationic surfactants DTAB and BTC altered the wettability of the oil-wet calcite plate to water-wet, but were ineffective in forming foam. The addition of a non-ionic surfactant Tergitol NP helped in the foaming ability of these formulations. In-house developed Gemini cationic surfactant GC 580 was able to alter the wettability from oil-wet to water-wet and also formed strong bulk foam. Static foam tests showed increase in bulk foam stability with the addition of zwitterionic surfactants to GC 580. Oil displacement experiments in oil-wet carbonate cores revealed that tertiary oil-recovery with injection of a wettability-altering surfactant can recover a significant amount of oil (about 20–25% OOIP) over the secondary water flood and gas flood. The foam rheology in the presence of oil suggested propagation of only weak foam in oil-wet low permeability carbonate cores.