Temperature Effect on Wettability and Oil Recovery Efficiency During Spontaneous Imbibition

Abstract

Wettability is a fundamental parameter that governs the imbibition process in fractured reservoirs. Oil recovery efficiency of an oil-wet rock, mostly fractured carbonate formations, could be improved by the spontaneous imbibition of water if the rock wettability is changed. In this article, the effect of temperature on co-current and counter-current spontaneous imbibition from a single matrix block with different wetting states is studied to investigate both wettability alteration and oil recovery efficiency. Spontaneous imbibition of water in the Amott cell were performed in a variety of settings, and the effect of temperature, rock type, aging modes, aging time, and matrix boundary conditions on oil recovery and consequently wettability alteration were determined accordingly. The results showed that oil recovery considerably increased at higher temperatures, mainly as a consequence of wettability alteration.