Wettability Alteration of Reservoir Rocks from Liquid Wetting to Gas Wetting Using Nanofluid

Abstract

Well productivity in gas condensate reservoirs is reduced by condensate banking when the bottom hole flowing pressure drops below the dew point pressure. Among the several methods which have been proposed for condensate removal, wettability alteration of reservoir rock to intermediate gas wetting in the near wellbore region appears to be one of the most promising techniques. In this work, we report use of a nanofluid to change the wettability of the carbonate and sandstone rocks to intermediate gas wetting. Application of nanofluid in the wettability alteration of carbonate and sandstone rocks to gas wetting has not been reported previously and is still an ongoing subject. Static and dynamic contact angle measurements, along with imbibition tests, have been performed to investigate the wettability of carbonate and sandstone rocks in presence of nanofluid. It was found that the nanofluid used in this work can considerably change the wettability of both surfaces to preferentially gas wetting in just one day of ageing time. We also report the effect of initial oil saturation and ageing time on the nanofluid capability for wettability change. Initial oil saturation reduces the impact of the nanofluid on wettability change, and hence, a pre-treatment before using nanofluid is necessary. In addition to these small slab-scale experiments, applicability of nanofluid in wettability alteration of sandstone rocks to gas wetting is also investigated in core scale. The results of core displacement tests confirm the ability of nanofluid to change the rock wettability from liquid wetting to gas wetting in core samples. They also show the effectiveness of chemical treatment in subsurface conditions.