| Peer-Reviewed

Numerical Simulation of the Combined Effects of Low Salinity Water and Alkaline-Surfactant-Polymer Flooding

Received: 17 July 2021    Accepted: 26 July 2021    Published: 2 August 2021
Views:       Downloads:
Abstract

Low Salinity Water (LSW) and Alkaline-Surfactant-Polymer (ASP) flooding are emerging enhanced oil recovery methods that help recover oil from the reservoir after primary and secondary recovery processes. Experimental studies on LSW and ASP flooding have indicated potential in additional oil recovery. In this paper, numerical simulation was performed to study the combined effects of LSW and ASP flooding. A heterogenous reservoir initially saturated with oil and water was modelled using Eclipse. The wells were completed with an inverse five-spot pattern and the production life of the reservoir was taken to be five years. The results showed that LSW flooding using a salt concentration of 1 000 ppm achieved a higher oil recovery than conventional (high salinity) water flooding with a salt concentration of 35 000 ppm. The oil recovery for conventional water flooding was 59.5% and that of low salinity flooding was 64.1%. The overall oil recovery for LSW combined with alkaline, surfactant and polymer flooding were 64.1%, 70.5% and 62.6%, respectively. The model indicated an increase in overall oil recovery of 91% when alkaline, surfactant and polymer were combined and injected as the same slug as opposed to the injection of the chemicals individually. This was attributed to the synergy of the chemicals. The alkaline and the surfactant reduce the interfacial tension between the oil and water and the polymer improves the mobility ratio thereby increasing sweep efficiency.

Published in International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Engineering (Volume 9, Issue 4)
DOI 10.11648/j.ogce.20210904.11
Page(s) 46-58
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Alkaline, Low Salinity, Polymer, Surfactant

References
[1] Green, D. W. and Willhite, G. P. (2018), Enhanced Oil Recovery, SPE Textbook Series, Society of Petroleum Engineers, Richardson, Texas, 2211 pp.
[2] Behnoudfar, P., Rostami, A., and Hemmati-Sarapardeh, A. (2018), “Miscible Gas Injection”, In Chap. 4 of Fundamentals of Enhanced Oil and Gas Recovery from Conventional and Unconventional Reservoirs, Bahadori, A. (ed.), Gulf Professional Publishing, pp. 101-138.
[3] Alamooti, A. M. and Malekabadi, F. K. (2018), “An Introduction to Enhanced Oil Recovery”, In Chap. 1 of Fundamentals of Enhanced Oil and Gas Recovery from Conventional and Unconventional Reservoirs, Bahadori, A. (ed.), Gulf Professional Publishing, pp. 1-40.
[4] Sheng, J. J. (2014), “Critical Review of Low-salinity Waterflooding”, Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 120, pp. 216-224.
[5] Alagic, E. and Skauge, A., (2010), “Combined Low-salinity Brine Injection and Surfactant Flooding in Mixed-wet Sandstone Cores”, Energy & Fuels, Vol. 24, No. 6, pp. 3551-3559.
[6] Wang, J., Yuan, S., Shen, P., Zhong, T. and Jia, X. (2007), Understanding of Fluid Flow Mechanism in Porous Media of EOR by ASP Flooding from Physical Modeling, Presented at International Petroleum Technology Conference, Dubai, pp. 1-8.
[7] Dang, C., Nghiem, L., Nguyen, N., Chen, Z., Yang, C. and Bae, W. (2017), “A Comprehensive Evaluation of Alkaline Polymer Surfactant Flooding and Hybrid Process for Enhanced Oil Recovery”, Society of Petroleum Engineers Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, 9-11 October, 40 pp.
[8] Mishra, S., Bera, A. and Mandal, A. (2014), “Effect of Polymer Adsorption on Permeability Reduction in Enhanced Oil Recovery”, Journal of Petroleum Engineering, pp. 1-9.
[9] Khan, M. Y., Samanta, A., Ojha, K. and Mandal, A. (2009), “Design of Alkaline/Surfactant/Polymer (ASP) Slug and its Use in Enhanced Oil Recovery”, Petroleum Science and Technology, the Vol. 27, No. 17, pp. 1926-1942.
[10] Anon. (2014), “Schlumberger Eclipse Reference Manual”, pp. 2–6.
[11] Abhijit, S., Achinta, B., Keka, O., and Ajay, M. (2012), “Comparative Studies on Enhanced Oil Recovery by Alkali–Surfactant and Polymer Flooding”, Journal of Petroleum Exploration and Production Technology, pp. 67–74.
[12] Anon (2021), “MRST MATLAB Reservoir Simulation Toolbox, https://www.sintef.no/projectweb/mrst/modules/mrst
[13] -core/data-sets/. Accessed: March 4, 2021.
[14] Gbadamosi, A. O., Junin, R., Manan, M. A., Agi, A. and Yusuff, A. S. (2019), “An Overview of Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery: Recent Advances and Prospects”, International Nano Letters 9, pp. 171–202.
[15] Sheng, J. J. (2011), Modern Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery Theory and Practice, Gulf Professional Publishing, Burlington, USA, 617 pp.
[16] Terry, E. R. (2001), “Enhanced Oil Recovery”, Encyclopaedia of Physical Science and Technology, 3rd edition, Vol. 18, Meyers, A. R. (ed.), Academic Press, pp. 503-518.
[17] Chen, Y., He, H., Yu, Q., Liu, H., Chen, L., Ma, X., and Liu, W. (2021), “Insights into Enhanced Oil Recovery by Polymer-Viscosity Reducing Surfactant Combination Flooding in Conventional Heavy Oil Reservoir”, Geofluids, pp. 1-12.
[18] Li, X., Zhang, F. and Liu, G. (2021), “Review on Polymer Flooding Technology”, IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science 675, pp. 1-6.
[19] Alsofi, A. M. and Blunt, M. J. (2014), “Polymer Flooding Design and Optimization under Economic Uncertainty”, Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, Vol., 124, pp. 46-59.
[20] Smith, J. T., and Cobb W. M. (1997), “Waterflooding”, Midwest Office of the Petroleum Technology Transfer Council, pp. 1-4.
[21] Bernard, G. G. (1967), “Effect of Floodwater Salinity on Recovery of Oil from Cores Containing Clays”, Society of Petroleum Engineers California Regional Meeting, Los Angeles, California, October 1967, 8 pp.
[22] Jadhunandan, P. and Morrow, N. R. (1995), “Effect of Wettability on Waterflood Recovery for Crude Oil/Brine/Rock Systems”, SPE Reservoir Engineering, pp. 40–46.
[23] Mahani, H., Sorop, T., Ligthelm, D. J., Brooks, D., Vledder, P., Mozahem, F. and Ali, Y. (2011), “Analysis of Field Responses to Low-Salinity Waterflooding in Secondary and Tertiary Mode in Syria”, Paper Presented at the SPE EUROPEC/EAGE Annual Conference and Exhibition, Vienna, Austria, May 2011, 14 pp.
[24] Erke, S. I., Volokitin, Y. E., Edelman, I. Y., Karpan, V. M., Nasralla, R. A., Bondar, M. Y., Mikhaylenko, E. E. and Evseeva, M. (2016), “Low Salinity Flooding Trial at West Salym Field”, Society of Petroleum Engineers Improved Oil Recovery Conference, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA, April 2016, 11 pp.
[25] Shaddel, S., Hemmati, M., Zamanian, E. and Moharrami, N. N. (2013), “Low Salinity Water Flooding and Combination of Low Salinity Water Flooding with Surfactant and Alkaline Injection to Improve Oil Recovery-Core Flooding Experiments”, International Journal of Petroleum and Geoscience Engineering, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 91-98.
[26] Assef, Y., Arab, D. and Pourafshary, P. (2014), “Application of Nanofluid to Control Fines Migration to Improve the Performance of Low Salinity Water Flooding and Alkaline Flooding”, Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, Vol. 124, pp 331-340.
[27] Al-Saedi, H. N., Flori, R. E., Al-Jaberi, S. K. and Al-Bazzaz, W. (2020), “Low-Salinity Water, CO2, Alkaline, and Surfactant EOR Methods Applied to Heavy Oil in Sandstone Cores”, SPE Journal, Vol. 25, No. 4, pp. 1729-1744.
[28] Kakati, A. and Sangwai, J. S. (2021), “Low Salinity Surfactant Flooding: Role of Surfactant and Salt”, Surfactants in Upstream E&P, pp. 225-243.
[29] Araz, A. and Kamyabi, F. (2020), “Experimental study of Combined Low Salinity and Surfactant Flooding Effect on Oil Recovery”, Oil and Gas Science and Technology-Rev. IFP Energies Nouvelles, Vol. 76, No. 4, 9 pp.
[30] Vermolen, E. C. M., Almada, M. P., Wassing, B. M., Ligthelm, D. J. and Masalmeh, S. K. (2014), “Low-Salinity Polymer Flooding: Improving Polymer Flooding Technical Feasibility and Economics by Using Low-Salinity Make-up Brine”, International Petroleum Technology Conference, 15 pp.
[31] Alfazazi, U., AlAmeri, W. and Hashmet, M. R. (2019), “Experimental Investigation of Polymer Flooding with Low-Salinity Preconditioning of High Temperature–High-Salinity Carbonate Reservoir”, Journal of Petroleum Exploration and Production Technology, Vol. 9, pp. 1517-1530.
[32] Kakati, A., Kumar, G. and Sangwai. J. S. (2020), “Low Salinity Polymer Flooding: Effect on Polymer Rheology, Injectivity, Retention, and Oil Recovery Efficiency”, Energy Fuels, Vol. 34 No. 5, pp. 5715-5732.
[33] Battistutta, E., Van Kuijk, S. R., Groen, K. V. and Zitha, P. L. (2015), “Alkaline-Surfactant-Polymer (ASP) Flooding of Crude Oil at Under-Optimum Salinity Conditions”, SPE Asia pacific Enhanced Oil Recovery Conference, 20 pp.
[34] Novriansyah, A., Bae, W., Park, C., Permadi, A. K. and Riswati, S. S. (2020), “Optimal Design of Alkaline–Surfactant-Polymer Flooding under Low Salinity Environment”, Polymers 2020, Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 626.
[35] Gregersen, C. S., Kazempour, M. and Alvarado, M. (2013), “ASP Design for the Minnelusa Formation under Low-Salinity Conditions: Impacts of Anhydrite on ASP Performance”, Fuel, Vol. 105, pp. 368-382.
Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Eric Broni-Bediako, Eric Thompson Brantson, Kwabena Antwi Asante. (2021). Numerical Simulation of the Combined Effects of Low Salinity Water and Alkaline-Surfactant-Polymer Flooding. International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Engineering, 9(4), 46-58. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ogce.20210904.11

    Copy | Download

    ACS Style

    Eric Broni-Bediako; Eric Thompson Brantson; Kwabena Antwi Asante. Numerical Simulation of the Combined Effects of Low Salinity Water and Alkaline-Surfactant-Polymer Flooding. Int. J. Oil Gas Coal Eng. 2021, 9(4), 46-58. doi: 10.11648/j.ogce.20210904.11

    Copy | Download

    AMA Style

    Eric Broni-Bediako, Eric Thompson Brantson, Kwabena Antwi Asante. Numerical Simulation of the Combined Effects of Low Salinity Water and Alkaline-Surfactant-Polymer Flooding. Int J Oil Gas Coal Eng. 2021;9(4):46-58. doi: 10.11648/j.ogce.20210904.11

    Copy | Download

  • @article{10.11648/j.ogce.20210904.11,
      author = {Eric Broni-Bediako and Eric Thompson Brantson and Kwabena Antwi Asante},
      title = {Numerical Simulation of the Combined Effects of Low Salinity Water and Alkaline-Surfactant-Polymer Flooding},
      journal = {International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Engineering},
      volume = {9},
      number = {4},
      pages = {46-58},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ogce.20210904.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ogce.20210904.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ogce.20210904.11},
      abstract = {Low Salinity Water (LSW) and Alkaline-Surfactant-Polymer (ASP) flooding are emerging enhanced oil recovery methods that help recover oil from the reservoir after primary and secondary recovery processes. Experimental studies on LSW and ASP flooding have indicated potential in additional oil recovery. In this paper, numerical simulation was performed to study the combined effects of LSW and ASP flooding. A heterogenous reservoir initially saturated with oil and water was modelled using Eclipse. The wells were completed with an inverse five-spot pattern and the production life of the reservoir was taken to be five years. The results showed that LSW flooding using a salt concentration of 1 000 ppm achieved a higher oil recovery than conventional (high salinity) water flooding with a salt concentration of 35 000 ppm. The oil recovery for conventional water flooding was 59.5% and that of low salinity flooding was 64.1%. The overall oil recovery for LSW combined with alkaline, surfactant and polymer flooding were 64.1%, 70.5% and 62.6%, respectively. The model indicated an increase in overall oil recovery of 91% when alkaline, surfactant and polymer were combined and injected as the same slug as opposed to the injection of the chemicals individually. This was attributed to the synergy of the chemicals. The alkaline and the surfactant reduce the interfacial tension between the oil and water and the polymer improves the mobility ratio thereby increasing sweep efficiency.},
     year = {2021}
    }
    

    Copy | Download

  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Numerical Simulation of the Combined Effects of Low Salinity Water and Alkaline-Surfactant-Polymer Flooding
    AU  - Eric Broni-Bediako
    AU  - Eric Thompson Brantson
    AU  - Kwabena Antwi Asante
    Y1  - 2021/08/02
    PY  - 2021
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ogce.20210904.11
    DO  - 10.11648/j.ogce.20210904.11
    T2  - International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Engineering
    JF  - International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Engineering
    JO  - International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Engineering
    SP  - 46
    EP  - 58
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2376-7677
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ogce.20210904.11
    AB  - Low Salinity Water (LSW) and Alkaline-Surfactant-Polymer (ASP) flooding are emerging enhanced oil recovery methods that help recover oil from the reservoir after primary and secondary recovery processes. Experimental studies on LSW and ASP flooding have indicated potential in additional oil recovery. In this paper, numerical simulation was performed to study the combined effects of LSW and ASP flooding. A heterogenous reservoir initially saturated with oil and water was modelled using Eclipse. The wells were completed with an inverse five-spot pattern and the production life of the reservoir was taken to be five years. The results showed that LSW flooding using a salt concentration of 1 000 ppm achieved a higher oil recovery than conventional (high salinity) water flooding with a salt concentration of 35 000 ppm. The oil recovery for conventional water flooding was 59.5% and that of low salinity flooding was 64.1%. The overall oil recovery for LSW combined with alkaline, surfactant and polymer flooding were 64.1%, 70.5% and 62.6%, respectively. The model indicated an increase in overall oil recovery of 91% when alkaline, surfactant and polymer were combined and injected as the same slug as opposed to the injection of the chemicals individually. This was attributed to the synergy of the chemicals. The alkaline and the surfactant reduce the interfacial tension between the oil and water and the polymer improves the mobility ratio thereby increasing sweep efficiency.
    VL  - 9
    IS  - 4
    ER  - 

    Copy | Download

Author Information
  • Department of Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering, School of Petroleum Studies, University of Mines and Technology, Tarkwa, Ghana

  • Department of Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering, School of Petroleum Studies, University of Mines and Technology, Tarkwa, Ghana

  • Department of Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering, School of Petroleum Studies, University of Mines and Technology, Tarkwa, Ghana

  • Sections