The effects of temperature and acid number of crude oil on the wettability of acid volcanic reservoir rock from the Hailar Oilfield

Abstract

Wettability of acid volcanic reservoir rock from the Hailar Oilfield, China, was studied with crude oils of different acid numbers generated from an original crude oil with an acid number of 3.05 mg KOH/g. The modified oils and their resultant acid numbers were: A (2.09 mg KOH/g), B (0.75 mg KOH/g), C (0.47 mg KOH/g), D (0.30 mg KOH/g), and E (0.18 mg KOH/g). Contact angles and improved Amott water indexes were measured to study the effects of temperature and acid number on the wettability of the acid volcanic reservoir rock. Experimental results indicated that the wettability was not sensitive to variation in temperature when using the same oil, but the acid number of the crude oil was a key factor in changing the wettability of the rock. The Amott water index, Iw was an exponential function of the acid number, and the Amott water index increased as the acid number decreased (i.e. Amott water index exponentially decreased with the acid number increase). The Iw value of the core saturated with oil A, with an acid number of 2.09 mg KOH/g, ranged from 0.06 to 0.11, which indicated low water wetness. If the acid number of the oil decreased to 0.18 mg KOH/g, the Iw value increased to 0.95, which indicated strong water wetness. The contact angle decreased from 80° to 35° when the aid number decreased from 0.75 to 0.18 mg KOH/g, indicating a change towards more water wet conditions. The oil recovery by spontaneous imbibition of water also increased as the acid number of the oil decreased. As an example, at 80 °C, the recovery of Oil A with an acid number of 2.09 mg KOH/g was only 7.6%, while Oil E with an acid number of 0.18 mg KOH/g produced 56.4%, i.e. an increase of 48.8%.