PETROLEUM EXPLORATION AND DEVELOPMENT

Volume 43, Issue 6, December 2016

Online English edition of the Chinese language journal

Cite this article as: PETROL. EXPLOR. DEVELOP., 2016, 43(6): 1107–1115. RESEARCH PAPER

Application of nanotechnology in petroleum exploration

and development
LIU He*, JIN Xu, DING Bin
PetroChina Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration & Development, Beijing 100083, China

Abstract: Combined with the actual demand of oil and gas exploration and development, this paper summarizes the re-
search progress and application of nanotechnology in various fields of petroleum exploration and development, discusses
and prospects the application and development of nanotechnology in the future. Nano characterization technology has
played an important role in the analysis of the mineral composition, micro pore structure and rock physical properties of
unconventional reservoirs; the reservoir nano sensor is still in the laboratory stage, and the reservoir nano robots still need a
key technology breakthrough; numerical simulation technology of oil and gas migration in micro-nano porous media will
become an important means of unconventional oil and gas migration mechanism, distribution pattern and resource evalua-
tion; nano materials have size and surface effect, wetting characteristics, inhibition characteristics of particle migration,
shear thickening behavior, nanometer photocatalytic properties, nano filtration and nano corrosion and wear resistance.
Nano materials have broad application prospects in the fields of enhanced oil recovery, water treatment, engineering
anti-corrosion. There are three aspects of future development of nanotechnology, i.e., nano characterization and numerical
simulation, nano sensing and nano materials. In-situ modification of low grade oil and gas resources and synthesis of oil
and gas by nano photosynthesis are the two potential development directions.
Key words: nanotechnology; nano characterization; nano sensing; numerical simulation in micro-nano porous media; nano
materials; research progress; development directions

Introduction development, however, the quality of conventional oil and gas

Nanotechnology, information technology and biotechnol-
ogy are three major motivations for technological innovation
and development in the 21st century. Bai Chunli, academician
of Chinese Academy of Sciences, defined “nanotechnology”
as the scientific technology to manufacture materials by using
single atom or molecule, which treats the property and appli-
cation of materials with structural size of 1100 nm[1]. Nano-
technology includes the design and manufacture of
nano-materials and the nano-measurement, and it has been
widely applied in the sectors of electronics, biology, medical
treatment, aviation, military and energy resource. Nano-ma-
terials have been the research focus on academic and indus-
trial circles because of their unique optical, electrical, thermal
and magnetic properties that are derived from the scale effect,
and they have gradually stepped into the research fields of
traditional fossil energy and new energy. It is predicted that
the primary energy will remain predominant in the mid-21st
century[2]; with the continuous deepening of oil and gas
resources becomes lower and their development is faced with
more and more difficulties. On the other hand, the develop-
ment efficiency of unconventional oil and gas resources is
lower because the existing technologies do not meet the de-
velopment requirements. In the current background that ex-
ploration and development of oil and gas resources becomes
more and more difficult, the continuous innovation and further
application of nanotechnology promote the rapid development
of traditional petroleum development technologies, and have
achieved the following intermediate research results[35].
Firstly, nano fine characterization technology facilitates the
effective reservoir space evaluation[69]. Secondly, nano-sens-
ing and developing technology increases the monitoring level
and description precision of oil reservoir characteristic pa-
rameters[1013]. Thirdly, nano-molecule simulation technology
reveals accurately the oil and gas adsorption and desorption
mechanism and the oil and gas migration laws in non-Darcy
model[56]. And fourthly, new nano-materials provide techni-
cally the effective support for well drilling, tight oil and gas

Received date: 23 Feb. 2016; Revised date: 28 Sep. 2016.

* Corresponding author. E-mail: liuhe@petrochina.com.cn
Foundation item: Supported by the National High Technology Research and Development Program (863 Program), China (2012AA061300).
Copyright © 2016, Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development, PetroChina. Published by Elsevier BV. All rights reserved.
 LIU He et al. / Petroleum Exploration and Development, 2016, 43(6): 1108–1115
reservoir stimulation, enhanced recovery and so on.
In this paper, the current researches of nanotechnology in
the petroleum exploration and development are extensively
reviewed. Based on the actual demand of oil and gas explora-
tion and development, the research progresses and application
situations of nanotechnology in the petroleum exploration and
development are illustrated from four aspects, i.e., nano-cha-
racterization, nano-sensing, numerical simulation of fluid
migration in micro-nano porous media and nano-material.
Finally, the application and development of nanotechnology in
the future are discussed and prospected.
1. Nano-characterization technology
Nano-material is the foundation of nanotechnology, and its
unique characteristics are derived from nano-scale effect.
Therefore, the accurate characterization of nano-material is
essential to nanometer research. The innovation of nano-cha-
racterization technology promotes continuously the develop-
ment of new nanotechnology. Reservoirs are the porous mate-
rial composed of various mineral particles in a certain struc-
ture with quite strong heterogeneity, and there are a large
number of micro-nano mineral particles, pores and organic
clusters. From the viewpoint of the microscope, therefore,
reservoirs are taken as the aggregate of complex natural
nano-materials. Reservoir research generally focuses on res-
ervoir space, residual fluid occurrence and organic solid dis-
tribution.
Nano-characterization technology is used to analyze and
test the material component, structure and property of
nano-scale analysis objects, and research and develop testing
tools and methods. It mainly consists of five aspects as fol-
lows.
1.1. Mineral composition
Mineral composition refers to the crystalline structure and
component of reservoir mineral particles, and correspondingly
the analysis devices are as follows. Scanning electron micro-
scope (SEM) and atomic force microscope (AFM) are used to
study appearance of mineral particles. X-ray diffraction ana-
lyzer (XRD) and high-resolution transmission electron mi-
croscope (TEM) are used to analyze the microcrystalline
structures. And X-ray energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS),
X-ray wave dispersive spectrometer (WDS), X-ray fluores-
cence spectrometer (XRF), X-ray photoelectron spectrometer
(XPS), atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS) and in-
ductively coupled plasma spectrometer (ICP) are used for
element analysis. Among them, SEM, EDS, WDS, XRF and
ICP have been extensively applied for petroleum geology
research. For example, element analysis is used to discrimi-
nate mineral types and study the mineral transformation laws
in the process of diagenesis and fluidization.
1.2. Micro-pore structure
In recent years, nano-characterization technology has been
 1108 
widely used to characterize micro-pore structures of reservoirs.
Especially, the study on unconventional oil and gas reservoir
has been developed great-leap-forward from the macroscope
to the microscope and from the 2D to the 3D[1013]. The corre-
sponding analysis devices are as follows. 2D imaging devices
include argon ion polishing-field emission scanning electron
microscope (FESEM) and environmental scanning electron
microscope (ESEM). 3D imaging devices include micrometer
CT, nanometer CT and focused ion beam scanning electron
microscope (FIB-SEM). 3D structure analysis technologies
can be used to characterize the 3D spatial distribution of mi-
crometer and nanometer pore throat structures after pore and
matrix are extracted. The development of digital core tech-
nology promotes powerfully the research on the seepage
mechanisms of unconventional oil and gas[1417], and will pre-
dict the oil and gas development in the future.
1.3. Analysis on organic components
The organic matter in reservoirs contains solid organic
matter (e.g., kerogen) and movable liquid organic matter (e.g.,
bitumen and crude oil). The components of organic matter are
analyzed mainly by the following equipments. For example,
gas chromatography (GC), liquid chromatography (LC) and
mass spectrum (MS) are used to analyze element components.
Ultraviolet-visible spectrum (UV), infrared spectrum (IR),
Raman spectrum and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) are
used to analyze molecular structures. Furthermore, ultramicro
zone analysis methods will be introduced into petroleum in-
dustry, such as microzone infrared, scanning tunneling micro-
scope (STM), ultrahigh-resolution fluorescence microscope
and atom probe.
1.4. Petrophysical properties
Petrophysical property studies focus on characterizing and
analyzing the physical and chemical properties of rocks by
using various methods, technologies and equipments, such as
mechanics, thermology, optics, electricity and magnetism. The
petrophysical properties of reservoirs are investigated in the
field of petroleum exploration and development. For example,
the acoustics, electricity and thermology researches on rocks
correspond to seismic logging, electric logging and thermal
reservoir stimulation (e.g. in-situ combustion), respectively.
So far, nanotechnology has not been applied extensively due
to the scale restriction of exploitation objects. It is believed
that in the near future, more and more physical property test-
ing and research in the micro-scale will be carried out with the
further development of unconventional oil and gas resource
research.
1.5. In-situ characterization
As the studies are carried out further, the basic research on
the accumulation and migration of oil and gas in reservoirs
has been extended to the domain of microscopic dynamic
characterization, and even the mechanism analysis of mole-
 LIU He et al. / Petroleum Exploration and Development, 2016, 43(6): 1108–1115
cule and atom level and the in-situ simulation under the effect
of temperature and pressure are carried out, such as the mi-
croscopic migration characterization of fluid in reservoirs, the
fluid-solid coupling characterization of fluid and mineral
framework in multi-physical field and the microscopic evolu-
tion characterization of minerals and organic pores. The de-
velopment and application of in-situ analysis devices in large
laboratories (e.g., in-situ TEM) and the various micron and
nano in-situ characterization station with synchrotron radia-
tion light source provide powerful technical support for the
in-situ characterization. Some studies have been conducted.
For example, fluid-solid coupling laws are studied by using
the core holder which can simulate the real reservoir condi-
tions in the synchrotron radiation X-ray CT station[16].
2. Nano-sensing technology
In the industry sector, the human beings have never stopped
researching multi-function mini equipments. In the petroleum
industry, people hope to manufacture nano-sensors which are
specially targeted for oil reservoir description, and come up
with the idea of reservoir nano-robot.
2.1. Reservoir nano-sensor
During the mid to late 1980s, the micro-module and mi-
cro-system was developed based on the micro-electrome-
chanic system which effectively combined multiple science
and technology engineering (electronic engineering, material
engineering, mechanical engineering and information engi-
neering). The system integrated micro-mechanism, mi-
cro-sensor, micro-actuator, signal processing and control cir-
cuit, interface and communication power, but the mi-
cro-modules were still of large size, mostly in the scale of
centimeter-micrometer. With the further development of sci-
ence and technology, nano-electromechanic system was de-
veloped with the characteristic size of 1-100 nm, and the
nano-structure based devices and systems with electrome-
chanic integration as the main characteristic are built up [18].
Nano-electromechanic system is the micro-module which is
based on nano-material and its special effect, so it integrates
the excellent properties of nano-materials. Its nano-size makes
it possible to move into the micro pores of reservoirs.
Nano-electromechanic technology is combined with the
demand of petroleum industry. Nano-sensing devices of tem-
perature and pressure resistance are developed by using ad-
vanced nano-materials (e.g., grapheme, carbon nano-tube,
magnetic nano-particle and piezoelectric material). They are
injected into reservoirs through wellbores for reservoir pa-
rameter characterization. For example, nano-developer and
nano-signal enhancer can act as a simple nano-robot, and they
can move into the reservoir pores with the fluid flow to im-
prove the local electric, magnetic and acoustic behaviors of
reservoirs. Thus, the differentiation degree of oil layers and
water layers is higher in electric logging, nuclear magnetic
logging and microseismic logging, and more information on
 1109 
reservoir porosity, permeability and oil saturation can be ob-
tained.
The diameter of pores in conventional oil and gas reservoirs
is generally larger than 2 μm. In high-quality reservoirs, pore
diameter and throat diameter are generally over 30 μm (mac-
ro-pore or megapore) and 10 μm respectively. Good pores
make it possible for the injection of nano-sensors. On the
contrary, the pores and throats in unconventional reservoirs
are mostly smaller than 1 μm, restricting seriously the enter-
ing and moving of nano-sensors. Therefore, reservoir
nano-sensing technology takes the conventional oil and gas
reservoir as the target. The realization of nano-sensing func-
tion requires more on the properties of nano-materials. They
shall enter into oil reservoirs smoothly to avoid plugging
pores, and record and transfer information.
In recent years, the research team of Texas University
funded by the America Advanced Energy Consortium (AEC)
has carried out abundant research on loading migration of
magnetic nano-particles in the fluids of porous media, and has
investigated the distribution of nano-particles in porous media
by experiment and physical simulation. The AEC has been
developing imaging enhancement developer, target-release
nano-sensor and nano-sensor for induced fracture characteri-
zation. Agenet et al.[8] prepared fluorescence nano-particles
for intelligent fluid tracing. Ryoo et al.[19] prepared paramag-
netic nano-fluid in experiments and simulated the migration
laws of magnetic particles in porous media. These studies are
currently at laboratory research stage, but they have presented
the feasibility of industrialization.
2.2. Reservoir nano-robot
Reservoir nano-robot is a mini reservoir detection device
which integrates reservoir sensor, micro-dynamic system and
micro-signal transmission system. Saudi Aramco proposed
and developed a type of reservoir nano-robot which combines
chemical molecular system with mechanical system rationally.
In June 2010, this reservoir nano-robot was, for the first time,
tested in field successfully[20]. Its recovery ratio is higher, and
the fluid carrying nano-robot presents better stability and mo-
bility. The ideal reservoir nano-robot is a functional
nano-device with a size less than 1/100 of the diameter of
human hair. It can move into the reservoir with the injected
water, and can realize real-time recording, store and transfer
the reservoir and fluid information on the course, (e.g. reser-
voir temperature and pressure, pore morphology and fluid
type and viscosity) to the surface. Reservoir nano-robot is
produced for recycling from the producer with the production
of crude oil. The spatial resolution of reservoir nano-robot
detection technology is much higher than that of seismic, log-
ging and 3D core scanning analysis, so it can be used to ana-
lyze the whole oil reservoir and fluid quantitatively. After the
data obtained by the nano-robot is analyzed, it is conducive to
delineating the range of oil reservoir, drawing up the charac-
teristic map of fractures and faults in oil reservoir, identifying
 LIU He et al. / Petroleum Exploration and Development, 2016, 43(6): 1108–1115
and confirming high-permeability pathways, describing accu-
rately the spatial distribution of oil, gas and water and the
position and grade of remaining oil and gas, determining and
optimizing well site design, and establishing effective geo-
logic model. At present, the nano-robots which are injected
into oil reservoirs are incapable of multi-function detection
and movement. It is predicted that the next generation of res-
ervoir nano-robot will be put into operation in 5-10 years, and
it has the capacity of multi-parameter identification and trans-
fer, and even oil displacement.
Except for the R&D cost, the realization of reservoir
nano-robot is still facing many challenges, mainly including
miniaturization, module stability, movement capacity, signal
transmission and detection, recovery and separation and recy-
cling. As the functional nano-particles or nano-modules to be
injected into reservoirs, their size is the minimum requirement
and it shall be essentially small enough, corresponding to dif-
ferent upper limit of different reservoir pores. Saudi Aramco
carries out some tentative researches in this field, and it is
shown that the size of nano-robot shall be about 1/4 the di-
ameter of throat[20]. Secondly, the reliability of nano-robot
itself is a thorny problem for it has to undergo the stubborn
reservoir conditions, such as temperature, pressure, fluid sa-
linity and pH. Shiau et al.[21] studied the stability of composite
nano-particle suspension liquid. Furthermore, it is necessary
to solve the problems that whether nano-devices can be in-
jected into porous medium with the injection of water without
spontaneous aggregation or adsorption to the surface of pore
wall. The last problem is about the signal detection. When the
signal detection is designed, it is necessary to take into con-
sideration whether the signals are concealed by the signals of
stratigraphically complex heterogeneous minerals, for the
nano-device itself is small or the accumulation concentration
is lower. As for the retrievable nano-robot, how to separate it
from the fluid effectively without deteriorating the data and to
interpret the collected data will occur subsequently. The key
technology of reservoir nano-robot need breaking through.
The development of nano-technology can promote the devel-
opment of reservoir nano-robot, and based on the continuous
invention and innovation of nano-generator and in-situ nano-
catalytic cracking, it will be applied industrially.
3. Simulation of oil and gas migration in micro-
nano media
As the flowing laws of oil and gas in unconventional res-
ervoirs are studied further, the numerical simulation is not
limited to the seepage simulation of millimeter and microme-
ter scale, but is extended to the simulation of oil and gas
molecule and atom movement in micro-pores, and the correla-
tions between minerals, organic matter and fluids (oil, gas and
water) are involved. Due to the strong heterogeneity of reser-
voir samples, the correlations between fluids and rocks are
affected by multiple factors. In the conventional physical ex-
periments at home and abroad, one macroparameter under the
 1110 
effect of multiple factors is generally obtained directly, then
the influential trend map of all factors is prepared according to
the data, and finally the effect of a certain factor is discussed.
However, the trend obtained by using above-mentioned
method can not clarify the influential component of all control
factors (e.g., temperature, pressure and surface wettability of
minerals and organic matter) from the aspect of mechanism.
Besides, the on-line setup of analytical detection device for
laboratory physical experiments is seriously damaged by the
harsh reservoir conditions, e.g. high temperature, high pres-
sure and complex fluid. These problems can be essentially
settled down by means of micro- and nano-porous media nu-
merical simulation. For example, in the Lattice Boltzmann
model which is used for micro-seepage simulation [22], the
initial molecule type, elementary composition ratio, structural
model, temperature and pressure are controlled, the effect of a
certain control factor of the fluid seepage or the gas-mineral
correlation is studied independently by means of controllable
variable method, and the migration mechanism of oil and gas
in porous media of different scales can be presented more
intuitively from the point of the microscope. This simulation
technology will play an important role in reservoir stud-
ies[2329].
Due to the complexity of shale, the migration and accumu-
lation mechanism of shale gas in reservoir space is still un-
clear. As a result, resource evaluation, productivity assessment
and high-efficiency exploitation of shale gas are restricted.
When the molecule simulation is used to study methane ad-
sorption-desorption process, the pore structures of shale res-
ervoirs are usually simulated by using the wall surface of
graphite, montmorillonite and silica. However, since the pore
model is generally simple and doesn’t take full consideration
of parameters in various reservoir conditions, the simulated
adsorption isotherm is somewhat deviated. Therefore, to pro-
vide the instruction for the production, it is necessary to seek
for the balance between the model simplification and the pa-
rameter setting. Initially, parallel plate narrow fracture-pore
model or carbon nano-tube model is often used for pore sim-
ulation by taking carbon atom as the wall surface [23-26]. The
model works well while simulating the gas adsorption in ho-
mogeneous nano-materials (e.g. active carbon). However,
because the narrow fracture-pore or tabular model which only
consists of carbon atom is too simple, it cannot reflect the
inorganic pores and the organic pores in shale reservoirs ac-
curately. Therefore, the wall surface which is more similar to
the shale pores (e.g., montmorillonite and silica) is adopted to
simulate the inorganic pores. Tenney et al.[2728] added differ-
ent functional groups into narrow fracture-pore wall surface to
study the effect of pore structure and compositional heteroge-
neity at material surface on the gas adsorption by means of
molecule simulation. Zhai et al.[29] built up more accurate
all-atom model based on the crystalline structure of mont-
morillonite, and analyzed the shale-gas adsorption and diffu-
sion mechanisms and laws at different burial depth and the
 LIU He et al. / Petroleum Exploration and Development, 2016, 43(6): 1108–1115
effect of pore diameter on shale-gas adsorption by using the
Monte Carlo method and the molecular dynamics, respec-
tively. Jorge et al.[30] simulated the adsorption of non-polar
ethane and polar hydrone in narrow-fracture shaped active
carbon pores by introducing carbonyl into pore wall to char-
acterize the chemical heterogeneity at the surface. The organic
pores which are quite significant to shale reservoirs contain
aromatic and aliphatic structures, as well as various surface
functional groups[31]. This chemical heterogeneity has direct
effect on adsorbed gas volume and adsorbed phase density,
and consequently on methane adsorption mechanism. There
are fewer reports on the molecule simulation of oil and gas
adsorption and migration laws in organic micro-pores of
shale.
Compared with gas phase, oil phase has larger molecular
weight and more complex compositions, and it exists in the
form of liquid or semi-solid in reservoirs. The molecule simu-
lation on liquid-solid interaction in tight reservoirs is more
complicated, and the related work is less carried out. The mo-
lecular dynamics can be used to study the effect of oil dis-
placement agent on oil molecules absorbed at pore wall sur-
face during the development process. Wang et al.[32] simulated
the spontaneous aggregation mechanism of bitumen in the
process of development by using the molecular dynamics, and
studied the behavior and migration laws of bitumen at the
oil-water interface in oil-water microemulsion and the effect
of oil displacement agent on oil molecules absorbed at pore
wall surface.
CO2 geologic sequestration and CO2 enhanced oil recovery
are also the research focuses in the recent years. The follow-
ing researches provide the study idea of the molecule simula-
tion of CO2 enhanced oil recovery. Nicholson et al.[33] inves-
tigated the effect of pore size and intermolecular force field on
CH4/CO2 selectivity by using the Grand Canonical Monte
Carlo Method (GCMC). Babarao et al.[28] studied the effect of
narrow fracture-pore and cylindrical pore on the adsorption
behavior of CH4/CO2 mixture by using the GCMC method.
Liu et al.[34] built up a complex model by introducing carbonyl
and epoxide groups into Tenney model to simulate the
CH4/CO2 adsorption behavior.
The main reservoir spaces in unconventional oil and gas
resources are acted by micro-nano pores, and their extremely
low porosity and permeability and strong heterogeneity result
in significant errors in adsorption and diffusion experiments.
Besides, the reservoir temperature and pressure are very high,
so it is hard to carry out physical simulation in laboratory.
Therefore, the numerical simulation technology of oil and gas
migration in micro-nano media will be the important means to
investigate migration and accumulation mechanisms, distribu-
tion patterns of shale oil and gas and tight oil and gas, and to
evaluate the resource.
4. Nano-materials
The most direct application of nanotechnology is to add the
 1111 
particles or emulsion with nano-size or other nano-charac-
teristics in any stage of oilfield development. These particles
and emulsion are collectively referred to as the nano-chemical.
Nano-chemical particles are characterized by small size and
large specific surface area, so their active atomicity, surface
free energy and interfacial tension increase significantly with
the decreasing of particle diameter. As a result, they are dif-
ferent from conventional chemicals in terms of rheological
property, wettability, surface effect and micro-particle migra-
tion. Combined with the actual requirements on oil and
chemical agent in the process of oil and gas field development,
this paper illustrates the worldwide application status and
development direction of nano-materials in the field of petro-
leum development from the following aspects.
4.1. Size and surface effect
As the unconventional oil and gas resources are developed
further, more and more conventional chemicals can not satisfy
the reservoir injection requirements. Nano-materials can not
only improve the injection effectively, but also present pecu-
liar penetrating capacity, especially in unconventional oil and
gas resources. It is the small-size effect that increases the dif-
fusion rate of chemicals in reservoirs greatly and injects the
nano-fluid into the target areas in the reservoirs, so as to en-
hance the recovery factor significantly[35].
Nano-particles also have strong surface effect. The specific
surface area of nano-particles is large, so the bond strength of
chemical bonds between nano-particles and other media (e.g.,
mineral surface and metal salt) is increased. The surface of all
nano-materials (oxide of silicon, vanadium, molybdenum and
tungsten) is enriched with active modification sites (e.g., end
oxygen and bridge oxygen), which provide the basis for stabi-
lization modification and improvement at the surface of
nano-materials. Only the nano-chemicals whose surface is
modified present the special properties of wettability altera-
tion, micro-particle migration inhibition, nano-filtration and
shear thickening so that they can satisfy the actual require-
ment at each stage of oilfield development.
4.2. Wetting characteristics
In the process of enhanced oil recovery, rock wettability is
an important factor influencing oil displacement efficiency,
and it is of great significance of the fluid stratification and the
fluid distribution in pores. Existing chemicals can, to some
extent, change the wettability of oil reservoirs. They can ab-
sorb different types of anionic surfactant and cationic surfac-
tant appropriately according to the charging effect at rock
surface, so they can alter rock wettability by adjusting wa-
ter-wet and oil-wet behavior of surfactant. In general, however,
conventional surfactant can be hardly used for high-efficiency
development of unconventional oil and gas resources due to
its size restriction. In reservoir conditions, surfactant is poor
in temperature and salt resistance, and each single molecule
contains oil-wet and water-wet groups. The cost of large-scale
 LIU He et al. / Petroleum Exploration and Development, 2016, 43(6): 1108–1115
preparation and application is high.
By virtue of surface modification, active nano-materials can
have the property of hydrophobicity, water wettability or dou-
ble wettability. Wang et al.[36] investigated how the modified
nano-SiO2 changes the rock wettability. The modified nano-
SiO2 is carried into reservoirs by the carrying media. Due to
the high energy state at the surface and the extreme instability
of surface atoms, the modified nano-SiO2 is adsorbed to the
sandstone surface, so that the rock wettability is altered from
water wetting to oil wetting. As a result, the flowing resistance
of injected water is reduced, then the flowing capacity of in-
jected water is increased significantly. This property is widely
applied in nano-molecular deposition film (MD film), which
decreases the pressure and increases the injection rate in
low-permeability oil reservoirs by altering surface behavior of
rocks.
4.3. Particle migration inhibition
In the process of oilfield development, mineral micro-par-
ticles migrate at different levels, decreasing the permeability
of porous media and damaging the reservoirs. Some solutions
can be developed by using nano-materials or emulsion. The
nano-fluids containing nano-particles (magnesia, silica and
alumina) have lower oil-water interfacial tension and strong
adsorption tendency. On the one hand, nano-fluids can move
into reservoir units of different pores. On the other hand, a
large number of nano-particles are adsorbed to rock surface or
clay surface due to the interaction between the two phases.
Micro-particles are fixed under the effect of electric double
layer repulsion between nano-particles and rock minerals and
their migration is stopped. Thus, clay swelling and dispersion
are inhibited effectively.
Habibi et al.[37] reported the experimental study that in-
jected magnesia nano-fluid into water sensitive reservoirs
prevent fluid pathway from being damaged by water impact.
It is shown that magnesia nano-particle can act as clay stabi-
lizer to inhibit clay hydration swelling and particle migration
at different salinities, and can remain reservoir permeability
unchanged. This stabilizer has larger specific surface area and
a large amount of electric charge, so it can inhibit the decom-
position of clay particles and prevent fine-powder particles of
blocking pore throats. Consequently, water sensitive reser-
voirs are protected. The research results by Al-Malki et al.
show that if drilling fluid is added with sepiolite nano-par-
ticles, its rheological stability is kept and filtration resistance
and clay swelling inhibition are improved[38].
4.4. Shear thickening property
Existing water plugging and profile control materials are
mainly acted by gel, volume expansion particle and polymer
microsphere. These materials cannot deform by themselves
and their physical and chemical properties do not vary with
the ambient conditions. The shear thickening property of
nano-materials provides a technical solution to deal with this
 1112 
situation. Shear thickening fluid (STF) consists of shear
thickening liquid, shear thickening gel etc. Bender et al.[39]
described the shear thickening mechanism of this type of
nano-material. Raghavan et al.[40] illustrated the strain in-
creasing situations in the process of shear thickening and the
conditions and regions for the generation of rheological prop-
erty. Hoffman[41] investigated the origin of shear thickening
phenomenon and the evolution process of microstructures,
and discussed the interaction between particles in the sections
of steady shear flow, oscillating flow and overlapping flow. In
addition, it is pointed out that with the increase of silica con-
tent, the initial viscosity of liquid system, the thickening effect
at shear thickening stage and the initial shear thinning effect
increases.
4.5. Nanometer photocatalytic property
Nanometer photocatalytic agent has the redox ability under
ultraviolet radiation, so nanometer photocatalytic technology
is used to purify contaminants. This technology is especially
suitable for the purification of organic matter, and it is of great
potential in purifying deeply the oilfield sewage[42]. Nanome-
ter photocatalytic agent is usually acted by TiO2, whose
photocatalytic reaction happens only after being excited by
ultraviolet light (wave length less than 385 nm)[43]. At present,
catalytic efficiency of visible light can be increased by means
of ion doping, semi-conductor compound, surface photosensi-
tive catalytic degradation and TiO2 surface amorphization.
Wang et al.[44] discovered that grapheme-like carbon nitride
has the ability of photocatalytic water decomposition and it
can solve the problems of catalytic agent separation and re-
covery by means of TiO2 immobilization, micrometer/nano-
meter structure and magnetic substance immobilization[45].
TiO2 photocatalytic technology is suitable for removing the
trace organic matter in the water, and combined with other
processing technologies, it can be applied in much more fields.
For example, the new in-depth oxidation technology which
combines photocatalysis and electrochemistry together can
increase the wastewater treatment degree. The photocatalytic
technology, combined with Feton agent, can accelerate photo-
catalytic reaction speed. The photocatalytic technology, com-
bined with reverse osmosis, can increase purifying effi-
ciency[46]. As nanometer photocatalytic technology is im-
proved gradually, it will be promisingly used for the treatment
of polymer and surfactant in oilfield sewage.
4.6. Nano-filtration
Nano-filtration is a kind of membrane separation technol-
ogy between reverse osmosis and ultra filtration, and it retains
the particles in the water with pressure difference as the driv-
ing force. The key of nano-filtration process is nano-filtration
membrane. It presents two major advantages while it is used
for the wastewater treatment in oil industry. Firstly, it can
purify and desalinate the injected water which is used for
secondary and tertiary oil recovery. By virtue of nano-filtra-
 LIU He et al. / Petroleum Exploration and Development, 2016, 43(6): 1108–1115
tion membrane, the wastewater of produced liquid can be
separated into oil-rich water phase and oil-free low salinity
water phase. Then, the oil-rich water phase is converted into
demulsification and dehydration, and the oil-free low salinity
water phase is prepared directly for reinjection[4749]. Secondly,
nano-filtration membrane can destroy completely the oil-in-
water or water-in-oil structures in produced liquid, so it can
separate oil from water to reduce the difficulty of demulsifica-
tion and dehydration. Moreover, it can separate and recycle
the active substances in produced liquid (such as polymer,
surfactant and alkali) so as to reduce the cost of enhanced oil
recovery.
4.7. Nano-corrosion and wear resistance
In the sector of oil drilling engineering, the surface and
downhole tools suffer complex environments of wear, corro-
sion, high temperature, high pressure, high H2S and high CO2
content, which result in tool damage and corrosion, cost in-
crease and production decline and increase negative impact
(e.g., operation hazard and environment pollution). For exam-
ple, the key vulnerable parts (e.g., drilling bit, expansion cone,
plunger, rotator and polished rod) may be improved by using
high-performance nano-coating. The new high-hardness
wear-resistance nano-coating is different from the traditional
wear-resistance coating (e.g., single-phase nano-crystalline).
The new nano-coating mainly performs periodic modulation
on microstructures by using two-phase ceramics to form
multi-layer nano-membrane structures of coherent and epi-
taxial growth, so that the vulnerable parts are characterized by
high hardness and wear resistance. It can also form composite
superhard nano-membrane structures by combining two types
of nano-crystalline ceramics to get high hardness and wear
resistance, so that the performance requirements of drilling
bits can be satisfied, including superhigh wear and thermal
oxidation resistance.
5. Conclusion and prospect
The innovative nanotechnology has been widely applied in
many aspects of oil and gas exploration and development, and
it may break through the bottleneck of oil and gas develop-
ment technologies. According to the demand of oil and gas
exploration and development and the research status of
nanotechnology, the nanotechnology will be practically ap-
plied and developed mainly in the following three aspects.
(1) Nano-characterization and numerical simulation are
technically predominant. With the effective exploration and
rational production of shale/tight oil and gas, nanometer
characterization and analysis methods will provide the deci-
sion-making reference and technical support for fine reservoir
characterization, petrophysical analysis, fluid migration law
research and oil and gas information acquisition.
(2) Nano-sensing technology is used to decode the “black
box” of oil reservoirs. Nano-robot has provided the technical
idea of oil reservoir interpretation and residual oil and gas
 1113 
distribution and evaluation. It is expected that nanometer mi-
croelectronics, nano-sensing and nano-identification will be
the ultimate means to detect oil reservoir attributes and search
for oil and gas resources.
(3) The application of nano-materials can increase oil and
gas producing efficiency significantly. In the future, the oil-
field development technologies have to be equipped with
“objective orientation” and “complex function”, and nano-ma-
terials provide the technical feasibility for it. For example,
nano-molecular deposition film can be used to decrease the
pressure and increase the injection rate of low-permeability oil
reservoirs. Intelligent nano-fluid can be used for water plug-
ging and profile control. Nano-particles can be used to im-
prove drilling fluid behavior. Nano-catalyst and nano-filter
membrane can be used for in-situ oil reservoir stimulation and
late water treatment. Nano-coating can be used for engineer-
ing anti-corrosion.
Furthermore, nano-materials have been widely applied to
active sites of chemical modification. In the future, oilfield
development will be based on nano-materials. Multiple func-
tions can be integrated into the same nano-material by means
of chemical modification. Thus, nano-materials will really
have the “object-oriented” and “intelligent” properties, pre-
senting the characteristics of “one material for multiple func-
tions and uses”. For example, two major properties of conven-
tional oil displacement agent, i.e., “swept volume enlarge-
ment” and “oil displacement capacity improvement” have
already been integrated into the same nano-material. As a
result, “intelligent” oil displacement is actually realized and
the oilfield recovery factor is increased significantly.
With the rapid development of nanotechnology, it is pre-
dicted that new crucial technologies will arise successively. It
is expected that the in-situ difficult-to-producing oil modifica-
tion technology based on nano-catalyst can convert and ex-
ploit organic matter in situ, and transform the “ground refin-
ery” mode of high energy consumption and high pollution into
the “underground in-situ refinery” mode of quality and clean-
ness. By virtue of this technology, immature organic matter
and low-quality crude oil are irreversibly converted into high-
quality light crude oil. If this technology can be practically
applied, oil production difficulty will be reduced significantly,
oil quality will be improved and the added value of crude oil
will be increased as well. No large-scale hydraulic fracturing
is needed, so water consumption is reduced and reservoir and
surface environmental pressure is relieved. Thus, environ-
mental protection and energy conservation are realized. This
technology makes it possible to carry out discontinuous heat-
ing by using clean energy, such as solar energy and wind en-
ergy, so that the cost is decreased and CO2 emission is reduced.
Artificial simulation of nanometer photosynthesis is emerging
gradually, and a series of innovative research results of “solar
energy-chemical energy conversation and artificial photosyn-
thesis” are under development[5051]. This technology can de-
compose water into hydrogen and oxygen in the sunshine by
 LIU He et al. / Petroleum Exploration and Development, 2016, 43(6): 1108–1115
means of nanometer photocatalysis. The hydrogen can be
directly used as automobile fuel, stored for power generation,
or reacted with CO2 to form clean energy (e.g., methane) by
using new nanometer catalytic materials or microbes. In the
future, renewable clean fuel can be produced easily and con-
veniently by using the “artificial nanometer photosynthesis
system”. The difficulties related to CO2 disposal can be re-
lieved effectively while the potential of fossil energy re-
sources is tapped. In this way, the traditional fossil energy is
essentially subverted.
To sum up, nanotechnology has been applied in various as-
pects of oilfield exploration and development, presenting im-
mense potential. In recent years, great progress has been made
on nanotechnology. As a multidisciplinary technology, me-
chanical interpretation, physical property evaluation and
product research and development of nanotechnology shall be
improved further. Moreover, it is an arduous way to reduce
the cost and increase the efficiency of nano-materials. At pre-
sent, the high cost of nano-material is a factor which retains
most nano-materials at laboratory study stage. Therefore, the
application effect of nanotechnology is ultimately determined
by the way to reduce the cost of nano-material preparation and
modification process effectively.
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