Spontaneous imbibition of water by crude oil/brine/rock systems

Journal Article · Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1991 · In Situ; (United States)

OSTI ID:5847471

Jadhunandan, P P; Morrow, N R ^[1]

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1. Petroleum Recovery Research Center, New Mexico Inst. of Mining and Technology, Socorro, NM (US)

This paper reports on the effect of brine composition, crude oil type, and aging conditions on wettability measured by rate of spontaneous inhibition of water that has been investigated for Berea sandstone. Brines were formulated with sodium and calcium chloride. Two crude oil samples, Moutray from West Texas and ST-86, a North Sea crude oil, were employed. Changes in wettability caused by Moutray crude were sensitive to brine composition; water-wetness decreased as the calcium chloride concentration increased. For cores aged with ST-86, wettability was much less influenced by brine composition. Aging temperature and initial water saturation were dominant variables with respect to the wettability change induced by a given crude oil. Wettability with respect to water decreased as aging temperature increased. Decrease in initial water saturation resulted in a shift towards oil-wetness. Oil recovery by waterflooding for weakly water-wet systems was high compared to that for strongly water-wet systems.

• OSTI ID: 5847471
• Journal Information: In Situ; (United States), Vol. 15:4; ISSN 0019-3267
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
OIL FIELDS
ENHANCED RECOVERY
RESERVOIR ROCK
WETTABILITY
BRINES
CALCIUM CHLORIDES
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
DRILL CORES
PETROLEUM
SANDSTONES
SODIUM CHLORIDES
TEMPERATURE EFFECTS
WATER SATURATION
ALKALI METAL COMPOUNDS
ALKALINE EARTH METAL COMPOUNDS
CALCIUM COMPOUNDS
CALCIUM HALIDES
CHLORIDES
CHLORINE COMPOUNDS
ENERGY SOURCES
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
HALIDES
HALOGEN COMPOUNDS
MINERAL RESOURCES
PETROLEUM DEPOSITS
RECOVERY
RESOURCES
ROCKS
SATURATION
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
SODIUM COMPOUNDS
020300* - Petroleum- Drilling & Production
023000 - Petroleum- Properties & Composition