Experimental Design of “Hybrid Low Salinity Water Flooding and Low Salinity Surfactant Flooding” Enhanced Oil Recovery Method

Abstract

The objective of the current study is to design a novel hybrid enhanced oil recovery (EOR) method by combining low salinity water (LSW) and low salinity surfactant (LSS) flooding techniques. Alteration in salinity and ions composition of injected brine, type of surfactant, and concentration of surfactant affect the performance of the LSW/LSS approach. In this study, different experiments have been done to screen the smart water with altered ionic composition and surfactant for the optimized performance in conditions of Kazakhstani carbonate oil fields. Different experimental studies have been conducted to analyze the effect of engineered brines, prepared from the Caspian Seawater (SW) on wettability alteration, and the effect of surfactants on development of oil/water microemulsion phase. Contact angle measurements, stability tests, and phase behavior analysis were done to identify the most effective hybrid brine/surfactant formulation to affect capillary forces. Changing to more water-wet state and creation of the middle phase were the main criteria to select the best-engineered brine and anionic surfactant. The efficiency of the developed hybrid method as an EOR approach to displace oil was studied by coreflooding tests....