Influence of fluid viscosity, interfacial tension, and flow velocity on residual oil saturation left by water flood

Journal Article · Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 1975 · Soc. Pet. Eng. J.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2118/5050-PA· OSTI ID:7298192

Abrams, A

Results of short-core flow tests are presented for six different sandstones and one limestone to show the influence of interfacial tension, fluid viscosity, and flow velocity on waterflood S/sub or/. To make certain that oil trapping occurred in the presence of the test flood water, the floods were initiated at saturations at which the oil phase was continuous and in contact with the test flood water as the connate water. It was found for strongly water-wet cores (cos theta is approximately equal to 1) that S/sub or/ could be described in terms of the Moore and Slobod dimensionless group expanded to include viscosity effects: ((..nu mu../sub w/)/(sigma/sub o/-w))((..mu../sub w/)/(..mu../sub o/))/sup 0.4/. Normal waterfloods are described by values of the group less than or equal to 10/sup -6/. To reduce S/sub or/, flood-water properties or test conditions had to be modified to increase the value of the group by 100 to 1,000 times. These increases in the dimnsionless group were obtained primarily with increases in flow velocity and water viscosity, although interfacial tensions as low as 1.5 dynes/cm were used in some floods. Assuming that this dimensionless group will hold for other combinations of the variables, we can estimate reductions in residual oil saturation that can be achieved for selected values of these variables.

• Research Organization: Shell Development Co., Houston, TX
• OSTI ID: 7298192
• Journal Information: Soc. Pet. Eng. J.; (United States), Vol. 15:5
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
OIL WELLS
WELL STIMULATION
WATERFLOODING
ENHANCED RECOVERY
FLOW RATE
INTERFACES
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
PETROLEUM
PRODUCTION
SURFACE TENSION
TRAPPING
VISCOSITY
WATER
ENERGY SOURCES
FLUID INJECTION
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
SURFACE PROPERTIES
WELLS
020300* - Petroleum- Drilling & Production