Effects of Crude Oil Asphaltene Content on Wettability Using Low Salinity (LoSal) Water to Improve Oil Recovery in Carbonate Oil Reservoirs

Increasing energy demand is the governing parameter for enhancing oil recovery from oil reservoirs. In this study two different crude oil with different asphaltene and similar resin contents were used. In addition, formation brine and person gulf water with different degree of dilutions were used. According to interfacial tension (IFT) measurements, as the salinity of aqueous solutions increase, the presence of asphaltenic components show additional impacts on this parameter. The amount of the dimensionless ratio of IFT observed to be higher than one, meaning that asphaltene components had more influence when encountered relatively higher values of salts. The dilution could increase the IFT whilst it could change the wettability of rock from oil -wet to water-wet states. In comparison, when the dilution is ten times, both parameters including IFT and wettability indicated optimum values. Finally, it was proposed that the seawater needed to be adequately diluted to achieve better results in the oil recovery processes.

کلیدواژه ها:

Asphaltene ، Contact angle ، Enhanced oil recovery ، Interfacial tension ، Low salinity water ، Sweep efficiency