The Role of Sandstone Mineralogy and Rock Quality in The Performance of Low-Salinity Water Ooding

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The Role of Sandstone Mineralogy and Rock Quality in the Performance of

Low-Salinity Waterﬂooding
Article in SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering · June 2016

DOI: 10.2118/181754-PA
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REE181754 DOI: 10.2118/181754-PA Date: 17-June-16 Stage: Page: 1 Total Pages: 20
The Role of Sandstone Mineralogy

and Rock Quality in the Performance
of Low-Salinity Waterflooding
Ahmed M. Shehata and Hisham A. Nasr-El-Din, Texas A&M University
Summary would decrease the effect of the low-salinity brine to improve

Recent field applications and laboratory studies have recognized oil recovery.
that low-salinity waterflooding (LSW) is a potentially effective
technique to achieve sufficient recovery in sandstone reservoirs. Introduction
Researchers have noted that the impacts of clay content, rock per- Waterflooding is the most common type of supplementary recov-
meability, and pore-throat radius are still unclear on the perform- ery, in which water is injected to displace oil toward the produc-
ance of LSW. This paper reports the results of coreflood, zeta- ing zone. In conventional waterflooding, injection water may be
potential, X-ray-powder-diffraction (XRD), X-ray-fluorescence taken from the nearest available source. These sources include
(XRF), scanning-electron-microscope (SEM), nuclear-magnetic- produced water, rivers, lakes, SW, and aquifers. Historically, the
resonance (NMR), and high-pressure-mercury-injection experi- physical mechanism behind this improvement in oil recovery was
mental investigations on these parameters. attributed to the pressure maintenance and displacement of oil by
The main objectives of this work are to examine the perform- injected water. On the basis of the conventional view, the
ance of LSW by use of four sandstone rocks during secondary- injected-brine composition and salinity were believed to have no
and tertiary-recovery modes; to investigate the role of clay con- effect on the efficiency of oil recovery by waterflooding (Schu-
tent, rock permeability, and average pore-throat radius on the per- macher 1978). Hughes and Pfister (1947) recommended the use of
formance of LSW; and to evaluate the effects of mineral type, brine in the secondary-recovery mode.
brine salinity, cation type, and pH on the zeta-potential measure- During the last decade, several laboratory and field studies
ments. Zeta-potential measurements were conducted for rock/ have shown that LSW and smart waterflooding improved the oil
brine interfaces to determine the suitable injection brine for the recovery for sandstone and carbonate reservoirs. Previous labora-
used sandstone rocks. Various brines were used, including sea- tory and field tests indicated that the injected brine was in the
water (SW), 20% diluted SW, 0.5 wt% NaCl, 0.5 wt% MgCl2, range of 500–5,000 ppm of the total dissolved solids (TDS). Ber-
and 0.5 wt% CaCl2. Then, a set of comprehensive coreflood tests nard (1967) noticed that the water-sensitive cores produced more
have been conducted with Bandera, Parker, Gray Berea, and Buff oil with a freshwater flood than with a brine flood. However, the
Berea outcrop sandstone cores. The coreflood experiments were fresh-waterflood was accompanied by a lowering of permeability
conducted with 6- and 20-in.-length and 1.5-in.-diameter outcrop and the development of a relatively high pressure drop. If the
cores at 185 F. Oil recovery, pressure drop, and pH were fresh-waterflood does not develop a high pressure drop, then no
observed and analyzed after each coreflood experiment. additional oil is produced. Yildiz and Morrow (1996) introduced
On the basis of the results attained, the Parker, Bandera, Gray the idea that variation of the brine composition could be used to
Berea, and Buff Berea sandstone cores showed additional oil optimize the waterflooding recovery. Tang and Morrow (1997)
recoveries of 4.3, 9.2, 13.3, and 17.1% of original oil in place noticed that LSW had good potential to improve oil recovery.
(OOIP), respectively, through the injection of low-salinity brine Many studies have investigated the different LSW mecha-
(5,000 ppm NaCl) as the secondary recovery mode. The average nisms. The various mechanisms include: a double layer expansion
pore-throat radius (rock quality) has a higher effect in the per- (Ligthelm et al. 2009; Lee et al. 2010; Nasralla and Nasr-El-Din
formance of LSW than in high-salinity waterflooding (HSW) on 2014), wettability alteration toward water-wet (Alotaibi et al.
the secondary recovery mode. The incremental oil recovery (mi- 2011), fines migration (Tang and Morrow 1997), pH increase
croscopic) for the LSW increased from 4.3 to 17% when the aver- (Tang and Morrow 1999; Austad et al. 2010), and multicompo-
age pore-throat radius (R35) of the core increased from 1.4 to nent ion exchange (Lager et al. 2008).
8.5 mm. Several studies have been carried out at the field scale to test
The total clay content and the clay composition are not the the potential of LSW to improve oil recovery compared with
main factors that influence the LSW performance. The distribu- HSW. Log/inject/log measurements indicated a reduction of 60%
tion of the clays seems to be playing a significant role. The meas- of residual oil within approximately 4 in. of a wellbore (Webb
ured zeta potentials of kaolinite and montmorillonite particles in et al. 2004). Furthermore, single-well chemical-tracer tests
5,000 ppm NaCl brine at 77 F and pH 7 were 26.5 and 29.4 (SWCTTs) have been used to evaluate the performance of LSW.
mV, respectively. The zeta-potential values indicated a stronger The SWCTT is a technique carried out by injecting and then pro-
negative charge on muscovite and albite minerals of 33.8 and ducing back through the same well for measuring the residual oil
31.5 mV, respectively. Zeta-potential values indicated a less- saturation (ROS) in reservoir intervals following displacement
negative charge on the chlorite and illite particles than the other process. McGuire et al. (2005) presented the results of four sets of
minerals. It seems that chlorite and illite contribute to a smaller SWCTTs within a radius of 13 to 14 ft around a wellbore in the
electrical-double-layer expansion than those of kaolinite, feld- Alaskan North Slope reservoir. ROS was substantially reduced by
spars, montmorillonite, and muscovite. On the other hand, the 5 to 13% of OOIP with LSW after HSW. The reductions in ROSs
zeta-potential values of calcite and dolomite particles are 1.0 and were 4, 4, 8, and 9% in these four tests.
4.5 mV, respectively. The presence of dolomite and calcite Seccombe et al. (2010) reported recovery of residual oil
between wells separated by 1,000 feet for an offshore oil field
(Endicott field) on the North Slope of Alaska. They observed that
Copyright V
C 2016 Society of Petroleum Engineers
the reduced-salinity waterflooding reduced the water cut from 95
This paper (SPE 181754) was revised for publication from paper IPTC 18176, first presented to 92%. Also, several fields in the Powder River basin in Wyom-
at the International Petroleum Technology Conference, Kuala Lumpur, 10–12 December
2014. Original manuscript received for review 22 April 2015. Revised manuscript received for ing have been waterflooded using low-salinity brine of nearly
review 8 April 2016. Paper peer approved 22 April 2016. 1,000 ppm (Robertson 2007). The obtained data showed that
2016 SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering 1
ID: jaganm Time: 14:10 I Path: S:/REE#/Vol00000/160039/Comp/APPFile/SA-REE#160039

Buff Berea Gray Berea Parker Bandera

Core Inside Diameter B–1 B–2 A–2 A–4 D–4 D–7 C–1 C–4
Length (in.) 20 20 20 20 6 6 6 6
Porosity (vol%) 19.2 19.1 21.2 20.8 16.5 16.8 20.2 20.1
Brine permeability (md) 165.4 164.5 63.6 66.4 6.0 5.7 25.6 24.8
Connate-water saturation (%) 34.5 35.3 33.3 34.7 38.6 39.5 34.4 35.8
Pore-throat radius at 35%
8.45 8.47 4.43 4.61 1.37 1.42 2.71 2.68
mercury saturation (microns)*
*The pore-throat radius was calculated with Eq. 1.
Table 1—Petrophysical properties of sandstone cores.
the oil recovery tended to increase as the salinity ratio of water- cept of pore geometry (size, shape, and distribution of pores) in a
flood decreased. reservoir was important in understanding reservoir behavior.
Veldder et al. (2010) observed from the reservoir scale that the Lucia (1995) stated that the pore-size distribution was controlled
change in wettability led to an associated incremental recovery of by the grain size in the grain-dominated packstone and by the
10 to 15% of the stock tank oil initially in place (OIIP). Mahani mud size in mud-dominated packstone. Chilingarian (1963)
et al. (2011) used a combination of analytical and numerical mod- showed that the relationship between porosity and permeability
eling approaches to analyze lSW responses in the Omar and Sijan depends on the granulometric composition of sandstones.
fields in Syria. Skrettingland et al. (2011) carried out SWCTT in The aims of the present study are to: (1) examine the perform-
the Upper Statfjord formation. The average oil saturations after ance of LSW with four sandstone rocks (Buff Berea, Gray Berea,
SW injection, diluted SW injection, and after a new SW injection Parker, and Bandera); (2) evaluate the effects of mineral type,
were determined; no significant change in the remaining oil satu- brine salinity, cation type, and pH on the zeta-potential measure-
ration was shown. ments; and (3) investigate the role of clay content and average
Robbana et al. (2012) showed the process to implement low- pore-throat radius on the performance of LSW. The outcome of
salinity enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in the Clair Ridge field. this work will improve the understanding of the impact of sand-
Clair has the largest oil accumulation in the UK continental shelf, stone mineralogy, rock permeability, and rock quality on the per-
and it contains more than 6 billion bbl of oil in place (OIP). Farida formance of LSW.
et al. (2013) tested the LSW in the greater Burgan field for high-
quality intervals with low-clay contents by use of SWCTT. The Experimental Studies
Burgan field in Kuwait is the second-largest field and the largest Materials. Cores. Eight cylindrical cores from four sandstone
clastic field in the world. Two pairs of SWCTT tests were con- outcrop rocks (Buff Berea, Gray Berea, Parker, and Bandera) of
ducted on two different wells. The Sor before and after LSW 1.5-in. diameter were cut with a core bit. To ensure a consistent
injection was measured. The LSW recovered 23.7% of the permeability-anisotropy range, the cores were drilled only in one
remaining oil left after conventional waterflooding. Also, direction. The petrophysical properties of each core sample are
researchers observed no damage in the injectivity of the wells reported in Table 1.
when reducing the salinity from 140,000 to 5,000 ppm for rela- Brines. Six different brines were used in this study: formation
tively low-clay rock types (good-quality rock). water (FW), SW, 20% diluted SW, 0.5 wt% NaCl, 0.5 wt%
Sandstone formations may contain various amounts of quartz, CaCl2, and 0.5 wt% MgCl2. All the brines were prepared through
clays, feldspars, zeolites, carbonates (calcite and dolomite), and mixing reagent-grade salts with deionized water. SW (54 680 mg/
iron-based minerals (Nasr-El-Din et al. 2007). Clays act as cation L) was diluted by adding deionized water to obtain 20% diluted
exchangers, and the relative affinity of cations toward the clay SW (10 936 mg/L). The compositions of the synthetic FW
surface is Liþ<Naþ<Kþ<Mg2þ<Ca2þ<Hþ (Civan 2007). Aus- and SW are listed in Table 2. The density and viscosity of all
tad et al. (2010) proposed a chemical mechanism for wettability used brines were measured at 185 F and atmospheric pressure
alteration by the desorption of the adsorbed cations from the clay (Table 3). The DMA 4100 densitometer was used to measure the
present in the sandstone that was caused by an injection of LSW. density of the brines, whereas a capillary viscometer was used to
The Ca2þ is substituted by Hþ on the clay surface and promotes measure the viscosity.
desorption of organic material from the clay as a result of an ordi-
Crude Oil. A dead crude-oil sample was centrifuged at 5,000
nary acid-base reaction. On the basis of this suggested chemical
rev/min for 5 minutes to remove suspended solids and to separate
mechanism, clay must be present in the sandstone. Polar compo-
out the aqueous phase. Then, it was filtrated through the sandstone
nents (acidic and/or basic material) must be present in the crude
core to avoid any solids plugging or emulsion problems. Each
oil as well, and the connate water must contain active cations
sandstone-rock type was used to filter the used crude oil for this
such as Ca2þ. Shehata and Nasr-El-Din (2015) combined the
rock. The properties of the crude oil used are listed in Table 4.
results of spontaneous imbibition and coreflood tests to under-
The density and viscosity of the crude oil were measured at 185 F
stand the role of salinity and composition (Naþ, Ca2þ, and Mg2þ)
and atmospheric pressure. The total acid number (TAN) and total
of the connate water on the performance of LSW recovery for
base number (TBN) were measured by a Metrohm 907 Titrando
sandstone rocks. Their study included two types of sandstone
in the laboratory.
cores (Buff Berea and Bandera) and connate water compositions
with wide ranges of salinity. They observed that the changes in
the ion composition of reservoir connate water (Ca2þ, Mg2þ, and Rock Characterization
Naþ) showed a measurable change in the oil-production trend. The sandstone samples were evaluated with XRD, XRF, and
The reservoir cores saturated with connate water containing diva- SEM. Table 5 presents the mineralogy composition of sandstone
lent cations of Caþ2 and Mgþ2 showed a higher oil recovery than cores. The XRF analysis showed that Na, Mg, and Ca are the
for cores saturated with monovalent cations (Naþ). most exchangeable cations for the sandstones cores. Fig. 1
Understanding the pore size and distribution of the sandstone presents SEM graphs and an Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy pat-
cores can explain the different incremental values from each sand- tern of quartz (Q), kaolinite (K), muscovite (Mu), and microcline
stone type. Pittman and Thomas (1979) mentioned that the con- (Mi) particles in the silt fraction of Buff Berea sandstone.
2 2016 SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering

a a 3
Formation Water Seawater Brine Density (g/cm ) Viscosity (cp)
Ions Concentration (mg/L) Formation water 1.1 0.569
+
(174,156 ppm)
Na 54,400 16,877
+ Seawater (54,680 ppm) 1.00 0.382
K 56 0
2+ 20% diluted Seawater 1.01 0.354
Ca 10,600 664 (10,936 ppm)
2+
Mg 1,610 2,279 NaCl (5,000 ppm) 1.01 0.343
–
Cl 107,000 31,107 MgCl2 (5,000 ppm) 0.97 0.339
–
HCO3 176 193 CaCl2 (5,000 ppm) 0.993 0.337
2–
SO 4 370 3,560 Deionized water 0.962 0.343
Total 174,156 54,680 Table 3—Density and viscosity of brines at T 5 185 º F and P 5 14.7 psi.
dissolved
solids
a
Alotaibi et al. (2010) plastic pipette (1 cm3) was inserted at a 45 angle and placed all
the way in the bottom corner of the cuvette. The needle was sub-
Table 2—Composition of connate water and seawater (Alotaibi et al. merged all of the time to prevent the air bubbles. A parallel-plate
2011). electrode was placed into the cuvette to run the zeta-potential
measurements. At least five runs were conducted for each sample,
Zeta-Potential Experiments Apparatus and the average was taken. In all of the reported results, the stand-
and Procedure ard errors of the five different runs were less than 2%.
A phase-analysis light-scattering (PALS) technique was used to
determine the zeta potential for rock/brine interface. The instru- Core Handling, Preparation, and
ment’s electrodes were coated with palladium, and a He/Ne laser Experimental Procedure
was used as a light source to measure the electrophoretic mobility All the sandstone cores were prepared with a similar procedure.
of charged colloidal suspensions. The zeta-potential range for this Before drying, the individual weight of each core was measured.
instrument is 220 to 220 mV. The instrument has an accuracy Then, the cores were dried at 250 F. After the first day of drying,
of 62%. the core was weighed, and drying continued until a constant
The procedure of Nasralla and Nasr-El-Din (2014) was fol- weight was achieved for all of the cores. The core samples were
lowed to prepare the rock/mineral suspension. The minerals were saturated with the synthetic connate-water brine. The selected
crushed to very fine particles of less than 75 mm with an Allen- core plugs remained in the degassed synthetic connate water and
Bradley sonic sifter. The solid/brine samples were prepared by were there for at least 10 days for ionic equilibrium to be estab-
adding 1 wt% of solids powder to the brine—a solution of 0.2 g of lished between the rock and the brine. At the end of this equilibra-
powdered particles of minerals with 20 cm3 of aqueous solutions. tion time, the absolute permeability of the brine was measured.
Each solution was mixed by the sonication method with the Ultra- The saturation, porosity, and permeability measurements of the
sonic Homogenizer-model 150VT at ambient conditions. The cores were carried out at the ambient temperature.
probe tip was placed approximately 0.5 in. into the solution and The porosity of the cores was determined with the weight
set at a constant rate for one minute. The pH of the solution was method from the weight difference between the saturated and
adjusted with either acetic acid or NaOH buffer solutions. The so- dried cores. The brine permeability was determined at 77 F with
lution was shaken and remained still for approximately 15 various injection rates of 0.25, 0.5, 1, and 2.0 (cm3/min). Continu-
minutes. The pH was measured directly before running the test. ous values of the pressure drop across each core were monitored
Then, a sample of the solution was transferred slowly to a cuvette. (with connate water) until steady-state conditions were achieved.
A polystyrene cuvette was used to hold 1.5 cm3 of the sample. A The permeabilities of the cores were calculated with Darcy’s law.
Acid Number Base Number

3 a a o
Property Density (g/cm ) Viscosity (cp) API (mg KOH/g of oil) (mg HCl/g of oil)
Crude Oil 0.743 3.5 42.6 0.92 0.68
a
Measured at T = 185°F and P = 14.7 psi
Table 4—Properties of dead crude oil.
Buff Berea Grey Berea Bandera Parker

Concentration Concentration Concentration
Mineral (wt%) Mineral (wt%) Mineral (wt%) Mineral (wt%)
Quartz 91 Quartz 87 Quartz 59 Quartz 87
Kaolinite 3 Kaolinite 6 Kaolinite 3 Kaolinite 2
Microline 4 Albite 3 Albite 12 Albite 5
Muscovite 1 Illite 2 Chlorite 1 Illite 4
Smectite 1 Calcite 2 Illite 10 Mica 2
Dolomite 15
Table 5—Mineralogy of sandstone cores.

Spectrum 1
Spectrum 4
10 µm Electron Image 1 10 µm Electron Image 1

Spectrum 1 Spectrum 4
0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10
Full-Scale 787 cts Cursor: 2.539 (4 cts) keV Full-Scale 787 cts Cursor: 2.539 (15 cts) keV
Spectrum 3
Spectrum 1
10 µm Electron Image 1 10 µm Electron Image 1

Spectrum 1 Spectrum 3
0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10
Full-Scale 1644 cts Cursor: 2.417 (28 cts) keV Full-Scale 543 cts Cursor: 3.311 (63 cts) keV
Fig. 1—SEM graphs and EDS pattern of Buff Berea rock samples in the silt fraction.
The overburden and backpressures were maintained constantly the pressure was at atmospheric condition. The core was reloaded
for all tests at 2,000 and 500 psi, respectively. Then, the brine-sat- again in the core holder for waterflooding tests. All experiments
urated cores were flooded with oil until the core stopped produc- were conducted at 185 F. The pressure drop across the core was
ing water to establish the initial water saturation. To establish an monitored. Aging time was chosen to be 20 days because of the
initial water saturation, the brine-saturated cores were flooded following observations in the literature: Jadhunandan and Morrow
with crude oil at the rates of 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2, and 3 cm3/min until (1995) conducted the studies on Berea sandstone rock. They
the core stopped producing water by observing the collected sam- observed the effect of aging time on the wettability for crude-oil/
ples. For each injection rate, the amount of injected oil varied brine/rock systems. No significant differences in wettability were
from 5 to 7 pore volumes (PVs) to make sure that there was no found when the aging period was extended beyond 20 days. Jia
more produced water at each rate. et al. (1991) studied the effect of aging time from 0 to 20 days on
The cores were then aged for 20 days in a sealed steel pipe the rock wettability with sandstone core plugs. They observed
filled with crude oil and stored in an oven. The aging temperature that, at a high temperature (140 F), the effect of aging time is
was 185 F, simulating a Middle East reservoir condition, whereas more pronounced. The water-wettability index decreased from

Backpressure regulators Oven
Pressure transducer
holder
Core
Heating coil
Crude oil
Brine-1
Brine-2
Fraction collector Hand hydraulic
pump
valves
ISCO syringe pump
Fig. 2—A schematic of the coreflood apparatus.
0.65 at the first day to approximately 0.1 after 20 days. Also, sev- MgCl2 at concentrations of 1 and 5 wt% for waterflooding.
eral studies have investigated the effect of aging for less than 20 Results demonstrated that the existing cations in the injected
days (Morrow et al. 1998; Yildiz et al. 1999; Zhou et al. 2000). water solution have a more-dominant effect on oil recovery than
The produced oil and water were collected throughout the the concentration of salts in water.
experiment with 15-cm3 tube samples with an automatic fraction Buff Berea Sandstone-Rock Experiments, Cores B-1 and
collector. The oil recovery was estimated with the volume of oil B-2. Two core samples with designations B-1 and B-2 were cut
recovered over the original oil in the core. The incremental oil re- from the same block of outcrop Buff Berea (average porosity of
covery caused by the LSW compared with HSW was estimated at 19% and permeability of 165 md). XRD mineral analysis for the
a water cut of 100%. Buff Berea sandstone core indicated that the quartz content was in
the range of 91 wt%. The dominating clay was kaolinite (3%) and
Coreflood Setup small proportions of smectite (1%) and muscovite (1%). The sam-
The coreflood setup consists of a stainless-steel core holder, three ple contained significant proportions of K-feldspars of (micro-
accumulators, an Isco syringe pump that was used to inject the flu- cline) 4%. Iron oxides and titanium oxides were also detected.
ids into the core at a constant rate, a hydraulic pump to apply Core B-1 was flooded with low-salinity NaCl brine (5,000 ppm)
overburden pressure on the core injection of hydraulic oil in an oil to simulate the secondary oil-recovery mode. The obtained oil re-
bank between the core-holder internal surface, and a rubber sleeve covery and the monitored pressure drop across the core are pre-
that cased the core, regulators, and gauges to monitor the pressure sented in Fig. 3. A constant injection flow rate of 0.5 cm3/min was
drop across the core with time. A single pressure transducer was used; then, the injection rate was increased to 1 and 2 cm3/min.
used in all experiments. The pressure transducer was connected to Continuous injection of 5,000 ppm NaCl resulted in a final oil re-
LABVIEW software to record the pressure drop between the core covery of 60.91% of OOIP. The oil recovery was 53.29% which
inlet and outlet as a function of time. The core samples were occurred after 7.71 PV was injected with an injection rate of
placed in the core holder, which was mounted vertically inside an 0.5 cm3/min. The additional oil recovery after injection of 3.29
electrical oven to simulate reservoir temperature. Fig. 2 shows the PV was 7.6% of OOIP.
schematic of the coreflood setup. The observed increase in the pressure drop across the core in
the beginning of the experiment at the injection rate of 0.5 cm3/
min was attributed to the two-phase flow. An increase in the pres-
Results and Discussion sure drop was observed after breakthrough that indicated fines
Coreflood. In this study, two-phase-flow coreflood experiments migration, or plugging occurred at this time. The average stabi-
were carried out to observe how LSW performed in the presence lized pressure was approximately 21.7 psi at a rate of 0.5 cm3/
of different clay contents. Four outcrop sandstone-rock types min. Then, a stable pressure profile was noticed at different injec-
were used. Eight coreflood tests were performed with Buff Berea, tion rates of 1 and 2 cm3/min. The pressure drops were 40 and 80
Gray Berea, Bandera, and Parker sandstone cores. The cores were psi at injection rates of 1 and 2 cm3/min, respectively. A change
saturated with FW at initial water saturation. These experiments in the injection rate induced a major increase in the pressure pro-
were conducted at a temperature of 185 F, a backflow pressure of file. The delay of the production was caused by dead volumes in
500 psi, and an overburden pressure of 2,000 psi. In this work, the the coreflood setup and time of displacement in the core.
secondary and tertiary recovery modes in all experiments were For Core B-2, the continuous injection of FW (first step)
conducted at injection rates of 0.5, 1, and 2 cm3/min to ensure no resulted in a final recovery of 44.7% of OOIP (Fig. 4). Compared
further oil production from the cores. The secondary-recovery with Experiment B-1, there is a significant decrease in the recov-
mode was initiated at the initial oil saturation (Soi) from the begin- ery of more than 17%. The experiment was extended with a con-
ning. The tertiary-recovery mode was started when no extra oil tinuous injection of low-salinity 5,000 ppm NaCl brine (second
was produced after introducing FW brine with an injection rate step) for 5.9 PV. The injection of low-salinity brine as a tertiary-
of 2 cm3/min. The tertiary-recovery mode was subsequently recovery mode resulted in no change in the ROS for Buff Berea
applied with a low-salinity brine (5,000 ppm NaCl). sandstone. Some results have been reported by LSW, showing
Nasralla and Nasr-El-Din (2011) investigated the relationship benefit reported in tertiary mode. In this work, the tertiary-recov-
between the composition of injected brine cations and oil-recovery mode indicated the injection of low-salinity brine after no
ery improvement. They used solutions of NaCl, CaCl2, and benefits were shown from high-salinity brine. Results do not show

80 120
NaCl (5,000 ppm) NaCl (5,000 ppm)
NaCl (5,000 ppm)
1 cm3/min 2 cm3/min
0.5 cm3/min
Cumulative Oil Recovery (%OOIP)

RF = 60.91% 100
Pressure Drop Across Core (psi)

RF = 53.34% RF= 60.91%
60
80
40 60
40
20
Oil recovery 20
Pressure drop
0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Cumulative Volume Injected (PV)
Fig. 3—Oil recovery and pressure drop across the core for Experiment B-1 at 1858F and Swc 5 34.5%. The injection was performed
by NaCl brine (5,000 ppm) with injection rates of 0.5, 1, and 2 cm3/min. The vertical dashed lines separate the different injected-
brine stages.
that there is movable oil in the plug after the high-salinity injec- sure is an indication that no clay swelling or plugging occurred
tion. The secondary-recovery mode was conducted at various during injection low-salinity brine after FW. At the end of each
injection rates of 0.5, 1, and 2 cm3/min to ensure no further oil slug, there was a major jump in the pressure profile induced by a
production from the cores during HSW. Nasralla and Nasr-El-Din change in the injection rate for the different experiments. Gradual
(2014) indicated that LSW does not work as a tertiary method decrease in pressure drop during low-salinity brine ceased
because the expansion of the double layer may not help to recover because of the change of viscosity.
more oil in the tertiary-recovery mode. This could have been a Tables 6 and 7 summarize the oil recovery, the number of PV
result of the absence of a continuous oil film that is a result of the injected, and the injection rate for B-1 and B-2 experiments. The
repulsive forces caused by the LSW not being strong enough to increase in the oil recovery after increasing the injection rate was
sweep the residual oil. most likely caused by the response of fines-migration plugging of
Fig. 4 shows the pressure profile for Experiment B-2 for the smaller pore-throat radii—the compared oil recovery obtained dur-
different injection slugs. This experiment showed the attributed ing Experiments B-1 and B-2 during the secondary-recovery
pressure profile behavior caused by the two-phase flow similar to mode. This indicates that decreasing the injected brine salinity
Experiments B-1 at the beginning of the experiment. The average from 174,156 to 5,000 ppm caused a significant increase in the
stabilized pressure was approximately 23 psi at a rate of 0.5 cm3/ total volume of the recovered oil, 17% of OOIP. The pHs of the
min. The pressure profile was almost steady for the FW at differ- injected formation brine and low-salinity brine at the beginning of
ent injection rates (1 and 2 cm3/min). The pressure drops were 43 the experiments were 6.34 and 6.86, respectively. The pH of the
and 85 psi at injection rates of 2 and 4 cm3/min, respectively. No effluent samples was measured after the coreflood experiments.
fine minerals or color changes were observed in the effluent sam- The pH for the B-2 experiment varied between 7.0 and 7.23,
ples by injecting brine of 5,000 ppm NaCl. The differential pres- whereas the pH for the B-1 experiment varied between 7.9 and 8.1.
80 100
NaCl
(5,000 ppm) 90
1 cm3/min
Formation
Formation Water Water Formation RF = 44.7% 80
60 0.5 cm3/min NaCl
1 cm3/min Water
RF = 39.6% 2 cm3/min (5,000 ppm) 70
RF = 44.7% RF = 44.7% 2 cm3/min
RF = 44.7% 60
40 50
40
30
20
20
Oil recovery
Pressure drop
10
0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Fig. 4—Oil recovery and pressure drop across core for Experiment B-2 at 1858F and Swc 5 35.3%. The injection was performed by
FW (174,156 ppm) with injection rates of 0.5, 1, and 2 cm3/min, followed by NaCl brine (5,000 ppm) with injection rates of 1 and
2 cm3/min. The vertical dashed lines separate the different injected-brine stages.

Injection Rate Incremental Oil Total Oil Recovery

3
Slug Type Recovery Mode (cm /min) Slug Size (PV) Recovery (% OOIP) (% OOIP)
0.5 7.71 53.34 53.34
0.5 wt% NaCl Secondary 1 3.29 7.74 61.08
2 2.28 0.0 61.08
º
Table 6—Summary of coreflood Experiment B–1 for Buff Berea sandstone at T 5 185 F.

3
0.5 7.73 39.64 39.64
Formation Water
Secondary 1 3.67 5.07 44.71
(174,156 ppm)
2 2.45 0.0 44.71
1 2.91 0.0 44.71
0.5 wt% NaCl Tertiary
2 2.99 0.0 44.71
Table 7—Summary of coreflood Experiment B–2 for Buff Berea sandstone at T 5 185 º F.
Gray Berea Sandstone Rock Experiments, Cores A-2 and A-4. 13.32% of OOIP with LSW instead of FW. Alotaibi et al. (2011)
Two core samples with designations A-2 and A-4 were cut from studied the effect of brine salinity on contact-angle measurements
the same block (average porosity of 20% and permeability of 65 and zeta potential with Gray Berea rock surfaces and three differ-
md). XRD mineral analysis for Gray Berea sandstone detected ent brines (174,156, 54,680, and 5,436 ppm). The injection of
quartz (87%), kaolinite (6%), albite (3%), illite (2%), and calcite LSW altered the Berea-sandstone wettability toward strongly
(2%). The main objective of Experiment A-2 was to test the effect water-wet. It was noticed that the LSW performance in the Gray
of low-salinity brine injection. Injection began at a rate of Berea was lower than in Buff Berea cores. The incremental oil re-
0.5 cm3/min. Approximately 7.82 PV of 5,000 ppm NaCl brine covery decreased from 17.12 to 13.32% of OOIP. Gray Berea
had been injected, and the estimated incremental oil recovery was contains 2% of calcite as a cement material. The pH for the A-4
approximately 49.77% of OOIP. After oil production ceased, the experiment varied between 6.6 and 7, whereas the pH for the A-2
rate was increased to 1 and 2 cm3/min. The oil continued to be experiment varied between 7.6 and 8. The pressure-drop profile
produced after increasing the injection rate to 1 cm3/min. A small for Experiment A-2 was similar to the previous experiment on
increase in oil recovery was observed after an injection of approx- Buff Berea use, as shown in Fig. 5. Fig. 6 shows the pressure pro-
imately 5.73 PV. The final oil recovery was 51.2% of OOIP. The files for Experiments A-4 for the different injection slugs.
oil recovery vs. the injected PV is given in Table 8. Bandera Sandstone Rock Experiments, Cores C-1 and C-4.
For Core A-4, the injection was performed by FW Two core samples were cut from the same block (average porosity
(174,156 ppm) with injection rates of 0.5, 1, and 2 cm3/min fol- of 20% and permeability of 25 md). From the XRD analyses,
lowed by NaCl brine (5,000 ppm) with injection rates of 1 and Bandera samples contain a higher amount of clay minerals than
2 cm3/min. The ultimate oil recovery for FW was 38.3% of OOIP. Buff and Gray Berea. Bandera contains a considerable amount of
The results in Table 9 shows that no more oil could be produced illite (10%), kaolinite (3%), and small proportions of chlorite
during the tertiary-recovery mode. These results confirmed the clays (1%), as well as a large amount of albite minerals (12%).
results of Experiment B-2 during the injection of LSW in the terti- The Bandera cores are rich in dolomite minerals (15%), while
ary-recovery mode. Also, these results are consistent with previ- quartz made up the remainder.
ous observations that LSW does not work as a tertiary-recovery For Core C-1, the continuous injection of NaCl (5,000 ppm)
mode for Gray Berea sandstone (Nasralla et al. 2011). As demon- brine from the connate-water saturation resulted in a total recov-
strated in Tables 8 and 9, the oil recovery was improved by ery of 42.44% of OOIP. Table 10 summarizes the results of

3
0.5 7.82 49.77 49.77
2 3.62 0.0 51.22
Table 8—Summary of coreflood Experiment A–2 for Gray Berea sandstone at T 5 185 º F.
Injection Rate Slug Size Incremental Oil Total Oil Recovery

3
Slug Type Recovery Mode (cm /min) (PV) Recovery (% OOIP) (% OOIP)
0.5 7.63 35.78 35.78
Formation water
Secondary 1 4.23 1.64 37.42
(174,156 ppm)
2 3.55 0.0 37.42
1 3.40 0.0 37.42
2 4.20 0.0 37.42
º
Table 9—Summary of coreflood Experiment A–4 for Gray Berea sandstone at T 5 185 F.

80 250

NaCl (5,000 ppm) NaCl (5,000 ppm) NaCl (5,000 ppm)

200
0.5 cm3/min 1 cm3/min 2 cm3/min
60
RF = 49.77% RF = 51.22% RF = 51.22%
150
40
100
20
50
Oil recovery
Pressure drop
0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Fig. 5—Oil recovery and pressure drop across the core for Experiment A-2 at 1858F and Swc 5 33.3%. The injection was performed
brine stages.
60 250
Formation
Formation NaCl NaCl
Formation Water Water
Water (5,000 ppm) (5,000 ppm)
0.5 cm3/min 2 cm3/min
1 cm3/min 2 cm3/min
1 cm3/min

RF = 37.42%
RF = 35.78%
RF = 37.42% RF = 37.42% RF = 37.42% 200
40
150
100
20
50
Oil recovery
Pressure drop
0 0
0 5 10 15 20
Fig. 6—Oil recovery and pressure drop across core for Experiment A-4 at 1858F and Swc 5 34.7%. The injection was performed
by FW (174,156 ppm) with injection rates of 0.5, 1, and 2 cm3/min, followed by NaCl brine (5,000 ppm) with injection rates of 1
and 2 cm3/min. The vertical dashed lines separate the different injected-brine stages.
coreflood Experiment C-1. For this experiment, no more oil was 0.5 cm3/min were injected. After oil production ceased, the in-
observed when the injection rate increased from 0.5 to 1 and jection rate was increased to 1 and 2 cm3/min. Oil recovery
2 cm3/min. The comparison between Cores C-1, B-1, and A-2, increased slightly to 33.2% after increasing the injection rate to
showed that no relationship was noticed between the total clay 1 cm3/min. Then, switching the injection brine from FW to NaCl
contents and incremental oil recovery. The distribution of the brine resulted in an increase in the produced oil. The oil recovery
clays and presence of other minerals, such as dolomite or feldspar, that was obtained when using the 5,000 ppm NaCl brine was
seem to be playing a significant role in the mechanisms of LSW. approximately 6.9% of the OOIP. Hence, this represented a sig-
In Experiment C-4, 17.8 PV of FW were injected as a second- nificant contribution to the total volume of the recovered oil. It
ary-recovery mode and then followed by 9.87 PVs of 5,000 ppm was noticed that the secondary-mode experiments produced more
NaCl brine as a tertiary-recovery mode. Eight PV in total at oil than the tertiary mode. Table 11 summarizes the results of

3
0.5 7.3 42.44 42.44
2 6.24 0.0 42.44
º
Table 10—Summary of coreflood Experiment C–1 for Bandera sandstone at T 5 185 F.


3
0.5 8.0 29.63 29.63
Formation water
Secondary 1 5.95 3.57 33.20
(174,156 ppm)
2 3.85 0.0 33.20
1 5.73 6.90 40.10
2 4.14 0.0 40.10
º
Table 11—Summary of coreflood Experiment C–4 for Bandera sandstone at T 5 185 F.
coreflood Experiment C-4. Cissokho et al. (2010) observed an Experiment D-4 are given in Table 12. The continuous injection
additional oil recovery of 10% when the salinity of brine of NaCl (5,000 ppm) brine from the connate-water saturation
decreased from 50 to 1 g/L. They used outcrop sandstone cores resulted in a total recovery of 28.92% of OOIP. There was no
with a clay content of 9.2% with no kaolinite. This core contained incremental increase in oil recovery caused by the increase in the
a high amount of albite (28–34%). injection rate to 1 and 2 cm3/min. On the other hand, the D-7
The oil recovery from Core C-1 reached approximately experiment was started with an injection of FW. The total oil re-
42.44% of OOIP, whereas only 33.2% of the oil was recovered covery for Experiment D-7 was approximately 24.64% lower than
from Core C-4. The most-notable detail is that the incremental oil the total oil recovery of Experiment D-4. The Parker cores
recovery from Bandera cores is lower than the Buff Berea and showed no response to LSW as a tertiary-recovery performance.
Gray Berea cores; however, Bandera had a clay content higher A summary of Experiment D-7 is given in Table 13. Both oil re-
than Buff Berea sandstone. These results indicated that the total covery and differential pressure by HSW and LSW are presented,
clay content is not the main parameter to get a higher oil recovery as shown in Figs. 9 and 10. As can be noticed, low-salinity brine
with LSW. The composition of other minerals will affect the improves the displacement efficiency by 4.28% of OOIP com-
LSW performance. Also, the rock quality has a significant effect pared with FW. The pH for the D-7 experiment varied between
in the performance of LSW. The pH for the C-4 experiment var- 6.7 and 6.95, whereas the pH for the D-4 experiment varied
ied between 6.9 and 7.1, whereas the pH for the C-1 experiment between 6.3 and 6.82. Xie et al. (2015) used low-permeability res-
varied between 7.2 and 7.7. Pu et al. (2010) performed coreflood ervoir cores with high clay contents (more than 23% in total).
studies to examine the effect of LSW with three types of sand- Their coreflood experiments showed that a high potential in slight
stone cores. These cores contained interstitial anhydrite, calcite, water-wet reservoirs can be achieved by LSW caused by the elec-
and dolomite. All the cores showed increased oil recovery ranging trical double-layer expansion.
from 5 to 8% original OOIP through injection of LSW. They Several laboratory and field studies reported a benefit from
noticed an increase in the sulfate ion content of the effluent brine, LSW in both secondary and tertiary modes. The published results
confirming the dissolution of anhydrite for all three rock types. by many researchers showed that the recovery of low-salinity
Figs. 7 and 8 depict the pressure-drop profile for coreflood brines had a much more-reliable secondary-recovery mode than
Experiments C-1 and C-4 for the different injection slugs. the tertiary mode. Nasralla and Nasr-El-Din (2014) indicated that
Parker-Sandstone Rock Experiments, Cores D-4 and D-7. LSW does not work as a tertiary method because the expansion of
Two core samples with designations D-4 and D-7 were cut from the double layer may not help recover more oil in the tertiary-re-
the same block (average porosity of 16% and permeability of 6 covery mode. This could have been a result of the absence of a
md). Two coreflood experiments were conducted to investigate continuous oil film that is a result of the repulsive forces caused
the effect of LSW on the sandstone rock with a low permeability. by the LSW not being strong enough to sweep the residual oil.
XRD mineral analysis for the Parker sandstone consists of quartz Gamage and Thyne (2011) revealed that higher oil recoveries
(87%), kaolinite (2%), albite (5%), illite (4%), and mica (2%). (5–8% OOIP) were observed where LSW was implemented as a
The total PVs, incremental oil recovery, and oil recovery for secondary-recovery method. Thyne and Gamage (2011) observed
60 120
NaCl (5,000 ppm) NaCl (5,000 ppm)

100
RF = 42.44% RF = 42.44%
40 80
NaCl (5,000 ppm)
2 cm3/min
RF = 42.44%
60
20 40
Oil recovery
Pressure drop 20
0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Fig. 7—Oil recovery and pressure drop across the core for Experiment C-1 at 1858F and Swc 5 34.4%. The injection was performed
brine stages.

60 200
Formation Water LSW
Formation Water 2 cm3/min LSW (5,000 ppm) 180
0.5 cm3/min Formation Water RF = 33.2% (5,000 ppm) 2 cm3/min

RF = 29.63% 1 cm3/min 1 cm3/min RF = 40.1% 160
RF = 33.2% RF = 40.1%
140
40
120
100
80
20
60
40
Oil recovery 20
Pressure drop
0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Fig. 8—Oil recovery and pressure drop across core for Experiment C-4 at 1858F and Swc 5 35.8%. The injection was performed by
FW (174,156 ppm) with injection rates of 0.5, 1, and 2 cm3/min, followed by NaCl brine (5,000 ppm) with injection rates of 1 and

3
0.5 7.93 28.92 28.92
2 4.55 0.0 28.92
Table 12—Summary of coreflood Experiment D–4 for Parker sandstone at T 5 185 º F.

3
0.5 8.28 22.16 22.16
Formation Water
Secondary 1 6.30 2.30 24.46
(174,156 ppm)
2 4.76 0.0 24.46
1 4.19 0.0 24.46
2 4.49 0.0 24.46
º
Table 13—Summary of coreflood Experiment D–7 for Parker sandstone at T 5 185 F.
40 700
600
30
500
NaCl (5,000 ppm)
NaCl (5,000 ppm)
NaCl (5,000 ppm) 1 cm3/min
2 cm3/min 400
0.5 cm3/min RF = 28.92%
RF = 28.92%
20 RF = 28.92%
300
200
10
Oil recovery 100

Pressure drop
0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Fig. 9—Oil recovery and pressure drop across the core for Experiment D-4 at 1858F and Swc 5 38.6%. The injection was performed
brine stages.

40 700
Formation NaCl 600

Formation Water Formation Water (5,000 ppm) NaCl (5,000 ppm)
Water
1 cm3/min 2 cm3/min


2 cm3/min
RF = 22.16% RF = 24.46% RF = 24.46%
RF = 24.46% RF = 24.46% 500
400
20
300
200
Oil recovery
Pressure drop
100
0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Fig. 10—Oil recovery and pressure drop across the core for Experiment D-7 at 1858F and Swc 5 39.5%. The injection was performed
by FW (174,156 ppm) with injection rates of 0.5, 1, and 2 cm3/min, followed by NaCl brine (5,000 ppm) with injection rates of 1 and
that more oil was produced in secondary mode (68% OOIP) com- measurements indicated heterocoagulation between silica and bi-
pared with tertiary mode (48% OOIP). Hadia et al. (2011) noted tumen in the presence of calcium.
that LSW in tertiary mode could not provide significant improved Then, the effects of salinity and cation type were evaluated at
oil recovery and is considered marginal for the samples tested. the same pH of 7. Fig. 11 shows the zeta potential of the sand-
Rivet et al. (2010) observed that some experiments show the stone rocks as a function of brine salinity at 25 C and pH 7. Zeta-
effect only in secondary mode. potential values decrease with the decrease in salinity. These
results demonstrate the influence of brine salinity and cation com-
position on the electric surface charge at sandstone/brine interfa-
Impact of Sandstone Mineral Composition on ces. Lee et al. (2010) identified the presence of thin water layer
LSW Performance around sand and clay particles. They observed the variation of
Sandstone reservoirs contain numerous minerals, such as quartz, water-layer thickness of sand system with brine salinity for differ-
clays, feldspars, mica, and carbonates. Aksulu et al. (2012) stated ent cation and anion valence. They noticed that lowering the
that, because the clay minerals have permanent negative charges, water salinity developed a thicker water film compared with the
they act as cation exchangers to be charge-balanced. In this sec- high-salinity water, which allows the opportunity for more oil to
tion, the authors present and discuss the results of zeta-potential be displaced. The increase in thickness of the water layer was
measurements. The first objective was to determine the suitable smaller for divalent ions, compared with monovalent cations. The
injection low-salinity brine for the used sandstone rocks for core- surface charge for sandstone rock became more negative with 0.5
flood experiments. Then, the effects of brine salinity and pH on wt% NaCl. The zeta-potential values at the measured conditions
the zeta-potential measurements were examined. SW was used as range from 21.4 to 30.8 mV. On the other hand, the zeta-
the high-salinity brine. Some 20% diluted SW (10,936 mg/L) and potential values for 0.5 wt% CaCl2 and MgCl2 range from 1.5
5,000 ppm of NaCl, CaCl2, and MgCl2 solutions were used as to 9 mV. This is because the charge number of Mg2þ and Ca2þ
low-salinity brines. The original pH of rock/brine samples was is twice as high as Naþ. On the basis of zeta-potential results, the
measured. Then, zeta potential for Buff Berea, Gray Berea, NaCl brine (5,000 ppm) was used as the low-salinity brine in the
Parker, and Bandera sandstone was conducted at the original pH dynamic core-displacement experiments.
without adding the pH buffer. Table 14 shows zeta potential of Also, the surface charges of the Buff Berea and Bandera sand-
sandstone rocks as a function of salinity and cation type at the stone particles were evaluated over a wide pH range, from 5 to
original pH. The surface charge of sandstone powder in an SW so- 11. Fig. 12 shows a comparison between the measured values of
lution has a tendency to become positive. This means that, at this zeta potential vs. pH at 77 F for Buff Berea and Bandera. It can
condition, the rock surface will be more oil-wet. The zeta-poten- be observed that a small change in solution pH can impose a sig-
tial values of rock/SW brine were all very small and close to nificant change in the surface charge of the rock. The comparison
zero. The zeta potential becomes negative as the salinity of the showed that the magnitude of the negative zeta potential increased
brine decreased. The 20% diluted SW showed a stronger nega- as the solution pH increased. The zeta potential of Bandera was
tively charged sandstone more than the SW brine. The 0.5 wt% more negative than that of Buff Berea at a pH in the range of 5 to
NaCl brine solution showed the lowest zeta potential of 30.8 to 10. When the electric charges became more negative at rock/brine
33.8 mV. interfaces, the repulsion forces between rock and oil increased
Calcium and magnesium ions showed a small negative charge. and made the rock more water-wet as a result of the expansion of
The zeta-potential values for 0.5 wt% CaCl2 and MgCl2 range the electric double-layer and stabilization of the water film sur-
from 2.1 to 8.1 mV. The divalent cations changed the surface rounding the rock. These observations and trends are in agreement
charges to be weak-negative compared with the zeta-potential val- with the literature of sandstone rock (Nasralla and Nasr-El-Din
ues with the monovalent cations. Zhao et al. (2006) investigated 2014). It is, therefore, verified that this measurement system gives
the effects of divalent cations on interactions between silica and reliable zeta-potential values.
bitumen by surface force and zeta-potential distribution measure- The amount of sandstone clays has been claimed as key in the
ments. These researchers found that calcium and magnesium cati- performance of LSW. The clay content was noticed by Seccombe
ons increase adhesion force and decrease long-range repulsive et al. (2008) to correlate with additional oil recovery during LSW.
forces between silica and bitumen. The zeta-potential distribution Seccombe et al. (2010) presented a simple linear correlation

Rock Type Aqueous Phase pH Zeta Potential, mV

Seawater 7.8 4.1
20% Diluted seawater 6.7 –14.1
Buff Berea 0.5 wt% NaCl 9.4 –30.8
0.5 wt% MgCl2 8.7 –2.1
0.5 wt% CaCl2 7.8 –6.0
Seawater 7.9 2.6
Gray Berea 0.5 wt% NaCl 8.5 –33.7
0.5 wt% MgCl2 7.4 –5.8
0.5 wt% CaCl2 6.6 –3.8
Seawater 7.9 –1.9
Parker 0.5 wt% NaCl 7.4 –33.8
0.5 wt% MgCl2 7.4 –7.2
0.5 wt% CaCl2 7.3 –8.1
Seawater 8 1.1
Bandera 0.5 wt% NaCl 7.5 –30.8
0.5 wt% MgCl2 6.8 –4.7
0.5 wt% CaCl2 6.7 –3.1
Table 14—Zeta potential of sandstone rocks in seawater, 20% diluted seawater, 0.5 wt% NaCl, 0.5
wt% MgCl2, and 0.5 wt% CaCl2 aqueous solutions at T 5 25 º F and atmospheric pressure.
between additional oil recovery (%PV) caused by LSW and the that the low-salinity effect decreased from 6 to 2% when the clay
proportion of clay content in the rock for Endicott field. This cor- content of the core material decreased from 16 to 8 wt%. Austad
relation indicates that the additional recovery will increase when et al. (2010) stated that the low-salinity effect would decrease in
the clay content increases. Pu et al. (2010) reported up to 9.5% this order: montmorillonite > illite/mica > kaolinite on the basis
additional recovery by injecting low-salinity coalbed methane of the cation-exchange capacity relations.
water in sandstone cores with very-low clay content. RezaeiDoust In this study, a comparison of oil recovery obtained by the
et al. (2010) examined the performance of LSW for the North Sea injection of NaCl (5,000 ppm) as LSW compared with the injec-
offshore field, Varg. The Varg field had the following reservoir tion of FW as HSW during secondary-recovery mode is given in
parameters: total clay content of 8–16 wt%, crude-oil acid, and Fig. 13. Fig. 14 shows the incremental oil recovery compared
base numbers of 0.13 and 0.85 mg KOH/g, FW salinity of with the total clay content (wt%) on the basis of the bulk measure-
201,000 ppm, and a reservoir temperature of 266 F. They found ments from XRD during the secondary-recovery mode. The rate
Seawater 20% diluted seawater 0.5 wt% NaCl 0.5 wt% MgCl2 0.5 wt% CaCl2
0
–1 –1
–2 –2
–3
–5
–4
–6 –6 –6 –6
–8
–10 –9
Zeta Potential (mV)
–12
–15
–15
–16
–18 Buff Berea Grey Berea
–20
–21 Parker Bandera
–25 –23
–26
–30
–31
–35
Fig. 11—Effect of brine salinity and composition on zeta potential for Buff Berea, Gray Berea, Bandera, and Parker sandstone
rocks at 778F and pH 7.

pH 70
4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 61.8 LSW as a secondary recovery
–5 60
HSW as a secondary recovery
Oil Recovery (OOIP%)

–10 51.6
Buff Berea Bandera 50
44.7
Zeta Potential (mV)
–15 42.4
–18.3 38.3
40
–20 33.2
–24.6 –24.3 30 28.9
–25 –26.2 24.6
–29.6 –28.6
–30 –31.2 –30.8 –30.8 20
–32.4 –32.1
–34.6
–35 –35
10
–40
0
Buff Berea Grey Berea Bandera Parker
Fig. 12—Impact of pH on zeta potential of Buff Berea and Ban-
dera sandstone rocks in 0.5 wt% NaCl at 778F. Fig. 13—Comparison of oil recovery (OOIP%) with LSW and
HSW during secondary-recovery mode for Buff Berea, Gray
of oil recovery by coreflood experiment decreased in the order of Berea, Bandera, and Parker sandstone cores.
Buff Berea > Gray Berea > Bandera > Parker. Consequently, the
incremental oil recovery could vary over a wide range from 4.3 to It was noticed that there is a question on the effect of each
17.1% of OOIP. The results revealed that there is no direct rela- mineral on the LSW performance. In this work, the effect of each
tionship between the incremental oil recoveries and total clay con- sandstone mineral on the electrical double-layer expansion was
tent of the cores. This total clay content does not relate to actual investigated. The zeta potential was measured to evaluate the
surface coverage of the clays. This conclusion agrees with the effect of electrical surface charge and double-layer expansion for
reported results by Wickramathilaka et al. (2011) that there is no the sandstone minerals at a pH of 7 and 77 F for SW and
connection between clay content and oil recovery. Emadi and 5,000 ppm NaCl. The pH of 7 was selected because it was noticed
Sohrabi (2013) explained the formation and coalescence of water in this study from the coreflood experiments that the pH values
microdispersions as a result of the salinity change in the aqueous were in the range of 6.3 to 8. Quartz, carbonates (calcite and dolo-
phase on the basis of the micromodel results and fluid-characteri- mite), clays (kaolinite, chlorite, and smectite), micas (muscovite
zation tests. Suijkerbuijk et al. (2013) stated that correlating the and illite), and feldspars (microcline) were tested in this work.
LSW effect to bulk clay content (with XRD) does not result in a For quartz (SiO2), the measured zeta potential in SW and
robust approach. This is because the bulk contents of clay, as 5,000 ppm NaCl brine were 2.5 and 20.5 mV, respectively.
determined by XRD, do not correlate with these surface cover- The quartz has a low cation-exchange capacity (CEC) of 0.6 cmol
ages. Law et al. (2015) examined the effect of clay content and kg1 in the silt fraction (2 to 63 mm) and 5.3 cmol kg1 in the clay
type on the incremental oil recovery from the UK continental- fraction (lower than 2 mm). Kaya and Yukselen (2005) reported
shelf oil reservoir. The authors modeled the effect of clay content that the zeta potential for quartz powder ranged from 30.2 mV
on the reservoir response by altering the cation-exchange capacity at a pH of 3 to 65.4 mV at a pH of 11. Júnior and Baldo (2014)
relative to the clay-mineral fraction present in the reservoir. reported that for pH values above the isoelectric point, the zeta-
The clay surface minerals are the dominant reactive surface potential values of crystalline forms of silica (a-quartz and a-cris-
areas seen by oil because of their smaller grain size, sheet mor- tobalite) were negative. However, it was found that for the crys-
phology, and much-higher surface areas. Kaolinites have surface talline samples of silica, it had positive zeta potential for pH
areas of 14–23 m2/g; illite, 76–91 m2/g; and montmorillonite, values below the isoelectric point. The isoelectric point pH was
700–749 m2/g, compared with quartz and feldspars) with 0.1 m2/g approximately 2.5. As quartz content increases, there is a decrease
(Diamond and Kinter 1956). Thus, effect of each clay content will in CEC and surface area (Wilding et al. 1977).
depend on the amount and the surface area of each type of clay. On the basis of previous work, the presence of kaolinite was
These support the notion that a significant clay fraction may not believed to be important for the success of LSW. The recovery
be necessary for increased oil recovery. Nasralla and Nasr-El-Din benefit appeared to increase with clay content, especially with ka-
(2014) demonstrated that the electrical double-layer expansion, olinite content (Seccombe et al. 2008). Fig. 15 shows the incre-
which is a function of brine salinity and pH, could be the primary mental oil recovery with LSW compared with HSW compared
mechanism of improved oil recovery by LSW during the second- with the kaolinite content (wt%) during the secondary-recovery
ary oil-recovery mode. mode. It indicates that there is no direct relationship between the
Incremental Oil Recovery (OOIP%)
25
25
20
20
17.1 17.1
15 15 13.3
13.3
10 9.2 10 9.2
5 4.3 5 4.3
0 0
(Buff Berea) (Grey Berea) (Parker) (Bandera) (Bandera) (Buff Berea) (Parker) (Grey Berea)
5 8 8 14 2 3 3 6
Total Clay Content (wt%) Kaolinite Content (wt%)
Fig. 14—Incremental oil recovery (OOIP%) vs. total clay content Fig. 15—Incremental oil recovery (OOIP%) vs. kaolinite content
during secondary-recovery mode. during secondary-recovery mode.


25 25
20 20
17.1
15 13.3 15 13.3
10 9.2 10 9.2
5 4.3 5 4.3
0 0
(Grey Berea) (Buff Berea) (Parker) (Bandera) (Grey Berea) (Parker) (Bandera)
3 4 5 12 2 4 10
Feldspar Content (wt%) Illite Content (wt%)
Fig. 16—Incremental oil recovery (OOIP%) vs. feldspar content Fig. 17—Incremental oil recovery (OOIP%) vs. illite content dur-
during secondary-recovery mode. ing secondary-recovery mode.
incremental oil recoveries and the kaolinite content of the cores. clase feldspars form a complete solid-solution series from pure
Kaolinite is a clay mineral with the following chemical formula: albite (NaAlSi3O8) to pure anorthite (CaAl2Si2O8). It is more
Al2Si2O5(OH)4. The surface area for kaolinite depends on the par- likely that albite should be written as (Na,K)AlSi3O8 because con-
ticle size. Values as low as 5 and as high as 39 m2.g1 have been siderable potassium may be present toward the albite end of the
reported (Dixon 1989). The zeta-potential measurements for kao- series (Klein and Hurlbult 1993). The zeta potentials of micro-
linite were conducted at the original pH value with SW and 0.5 cline (KAlSi3O8) and albite [(Na,K)AlSi3O8] have been tested at
wt% NaCl. The original pH for kaolinite particles in 0.5 wt% a pH of 7. The values of zeta potential of microcline and albite
NaCl was 4.3. Then, the pH was adjusted to 7. The results showed with 0.5 wt% NaCl are 31.5 and –-28.5 mV, respectively. These
a negative surface charge (24.6 mV) at a pH of 4.3, whereas the values reveal that the aqueous suspensions are quite stable.
zeta potential became 26.5 mV at a pH of 7. The results of zeta Fig. 16 shows the incremental oil recovery compared with the
potential of kaolinite at a pH of 4.33 and 7 are close to each other. feldspar content (wt%) during the secondary-recovery mode. It
The original pH for kaolinite particles in SW was 7.2. Kaolinite indicates that there is no direct relationship between the incremen-
particles in SW displayed a negative zeta potential of 11 mV. tal oil recoveries and the kaolinite content of the cores. As
Buff Berea sandstone contains 1 wt% of smectite mineral. The depicted by the zeta potential and coreflood results, presence of
smectite group consists of expansive minerals with a 2:1 structure. feldspars could be useful to increase the incremental oil recovery.
Montmorillonite is the most-common smectite mineral. Water Bandera, Parker, and Gray Berea sandstones contain 10, 4, and
and exchangeable cations occupy the region between layers. The 2 wt% of illite, respectively. Mica in the clay fraction is usually
range of measured CEC is 47 to 162 cmol.kg1 (Borchardt 1989). identified as illite {K0.75 (Al1.75 [MgFe]0.25) (Al0.5Si3.5) O10
Montmorillonite gives a more-negative value for zeta potential (OH)2}. The other type of mica that was found in Buff Berea rock
than kaolinite particles of 29.4 mV in 5,000 ppm NaCl and 8.7 is muscovite (1 wt%). Muscovite {KAl2(AlSi3) O10 (OH)2} is the
mV in SW. most-abundant dioctahedral primary mica. The average zeta
Also, a small amount of chlorite (1%) was noticed in Bandera potential for the used micas minerals was found to be negative,
sandstone rock. The chlorite {(Mg, Fe)3(Si,Al)4O10(OH)2(Mg,- except for the case of muscovite in SW, where the zeta potential
Fe)3(OH)6} structure is composed of two tetrahedral sheets and was positive (1.8 mV). The resulting zeta potentials for the illite
two octahedral sheets. The two Si-O tetrahedral sheets are chemi- and muscovite were 18.5 and 33.8 mV, respectively. The
cally bonded through shared O atoms on either side of Al-rich zeta-potential values indicated a stronger negative charge on mica
octahedral sheet to form a negatively charged 2:1 layer. Each 2:1 minerals (muscovite) compared with quartz, clays, and feldspars.
layer alternates with a positively charged interlayer octahedral Fig. 17 shows the incremental oil recovery compared with the
sheet. All chlorites contain some trivalent cations, typically Al, illite content (wt%) during the secondary-recovery mode. Pres-
and occasionally Fe3þ or Cr3þ substituting for Si, resulting in a ence of low-illite content showed the highest incremental oil re-
net negative charge. Zeta potential for chlorite was conducted at a covery. The comparison demonstrated the reduction of
pH of 7. The specific surface area reported between 26 to 45 m2 incremental oil recovery when the illite content increased from 2
g1, whereas CEC values of 1, 1.5, 1.8, and 2.5 cmolkg1 have to 10%. The low-salinity effect may increase in the presence of
been reported (Kohut and Warren 2002). The zeta potential of feldspars, kaolinite, and mica on the basis of the zeta-potential
chlorite in SW was 6.5 mV, whereas the surface charge became relationship. The diffused layer near a rock-particle surface will
more negative (21.5 mV) with 0.5 wt% NaCl. For the 0.5 wt% expand in thickness. These values agree with the reported results
NaCl brine, the zeta-potential values indicated a less-negative by Alotaibi et al. (2010) for kaolinite, illite, chlorite, and
charge on the chlorite particles than that of the other clay miner- montmorillonite.
als. It seems that chlorite has a smaller contribution to electrical Gray Berea and Bandera sandstone cores contain carbonate
double-layer expansion than kaolinite and feldspars. This might minerals. These sandstone cores contain approximately 2 wt%
be because chlorite is a nonexpanding clay with a low-specific calcite (CaCO3) and 15 wt% dolomite [CaMg(CO3)2], respec-
surface area and CEC. Also, chlorite contains some iron. Ilmenite tively. The LSW performance in the Bandera was noted that,
was used to investigate the effect of iron on the zeta-potential which had a higher carbonate mineral that was poorer than the
values. The surface charge and zeta potential of ilmenite performance of Gray Berea cores. For calcite, 0.5 wt% NaCl cre-
particle were evaluated with SW and 0.5 wt% NaCl. Ilmenite has ated positive charge of one mV at a pH of 7. On the other hand,
composition of 49% TiO2 and 51% FeO. The zeta-potential val- the dolomite particles suspended in 0.5 wt% NaCl had a negative
ues for ilmenite particles were 1.4 and 18.7 mV for SW and charge of 4.5 mV at a pH of 7. The resulting zeta potentials for
0.5 wt% NaCl, respectively. These results confirm that the pres- the dolomite and calcite minerals showed a different trend from
ence of iron decreases the effect of low-salinity brine on the dou- the other sandstone minerals for low-salinity brine. For the 0.5
ble-layer expansion. wt% NaCl brine, the zeta-potential values indicated a weaker neg-
Feldspar minerals were found in the used sandstone cores with ative charge on carbonate minerals compared with that of other
different concentration in the range of 3 to 12 wt%. The plagio- sandstone minerals. Fig. 18 shows the incremental oil recovery


25 Zeta Potential, mV
Mineral Type Seawater 0.5 wt% NaCl
20
Quartz –2.5 –20.5
15 13.3 Montmorillonite –8.7 –29.4
Kaolinite –11 –26.5
10
Chlorite 6.5 –21.5
5 4.3 Albite –5.5 –31.5
Microcline 9.8 –28.5
0
(Grey Berea) (Bandera) Illite –4.3 –18.5
2 15
Carbonates Content (wt%) Muscovite 1.8 –33.8
Dolomite 6.5 –4.5
Fig. 18—Incremental oil recovery (OOIP%) vs. carbonate con-
tent during secondary-recovery mode. Calcite 6.1 1
Ilmenite –1.4 –18.7
compared with the carbonate content (wt%) during the secondary-
recovery mode. The incremental oil recovery did not enhance Table 15—Zeta potential of sandstone minerals in seawater and 0.5
when the carbonate content increased. From the coreflood and wt% NaCl brines at pH 5 7, T 5 77 º F, and atmospheric pressure.
zeta-potential tests, the authors conclude that presence of carbon-
ate minerals will not allow the injected low-salinity brine to tests on reservoir rock/oil, comparing high- and low-salinity
increase the thickness of double-layer expansion and alter the waterflood tests with live oil and brine. They noted that the end-
wettability to be more water-wet. The low-salinity effect would point relative permeability to water appears to be similar after
decrease in the presence of dolomite and calcite. Table 15 high- and low-salinity. Also, the shape of the water relative-per-
presents the zeta potential of common sandstone minerals. meability curve indicated that there is no damage to the sample
caused by fines migration or clay swelling for these samples.
Impact of Rock Permeability and Pore-Throat Rivet et al. (2010) conducted linear laboratory corefloods to study
the effect of LSW on ROS and relative permeability. They
Radius on LSW Performance
observed that the endpoint-water relative permeability decreased,
This work demonstrates the rock-quality and incremental-oil-re- and the post-waterflood endpoint relative permeability to oil
covery relationship. A variety of different sandstone cores was increased during the low-salinity injection. Fjelde et al. (2012)
selected that covered a wide range of porosity and permeability. obtained relative-permeability (kr) and capillary-pressure (Pc)
The results demonstrated that the effect of permeability is signifi- curves by history matching of production and differential pressure
cant. As the permeability of the sandstone cores increased from 6 data from the unsteady-state flooding experiments with a simula-
to 167 md, an additional oil recovery of up to 32.9% of OOIP was tion tool. Shojaei et al. (2015) evaluated the capillary-pressure
observed by LSW as a secondary-recovery mode. An additional and relative-permeability curves by history-matching technique at
oil recovery of up to 18% of OOIP was observed for HSW as a three levels of high, medium, and low salinities. They performed
secondary-recovery mode. The additional oil recovery, with LSW a series of oil displacements by water on a sandstone rock aged
instead of HSW, decreased from 17.12 to 4.28% of OOIP when with crude oil in the presence of connate water. They observed
the permeability decreased from 167 to 6 md. Fig. 19 shows the that the capillary-pressure as well as oil relative-permeability
incremental oil recovery (OOIP%) vs. average horizontal perme- curves are salinity-dependent in LSW flooding process. The
ability during the secondary-recovery mode. obtained parameters of relative-permeability and capillary-pres-
A few researchers have studied the changes in relative perme- sure models, as well as the ROS, follow a linear behavior with the
ability and capillary pressure when different levels of salinity are salinity of the injected water.
used. Webb et al. (2008) interpreted the water/oil relative perme- In the present work, high-pressure mercury-injection measure-
ability at reservoir condition for the same reservoir rock type. ments were performed to characterize the pore geometry and to
High- and low-salinity relative-permeability data were compared provide capillary-pressure curves. Dry-clean core plugs with
from similar initial water saturation. They described the design, dimensions of 1-in. diameter and 1-in. length were used. An auto-
execution, analyses, and interpretation of full reservoir-condition mated, high-pressure-mercury-injection device operates at injec-
tion pressures of 0 to 55,000 psia. Fig. 20 presents the capillary
pressure curves as a function of water saturation for water-oil fluid
25
system for the Buff Berea, Gray Berea, Bandera, and Parker sand-
stones. The capillary pressure is inversely proportional to pore ra-
20
17.1 dius. It can be seen that the Parker sample has the highest capillary-
pressure values, and Buff Berea has the lowest capillary-pressure
15 13.3 values. The capillary-pressure curves were not investigated after
finishing the LSW because long core samples were used during the
10 9.2 coreflood tests to minimize the capillary end effects.
The relationship of injection pressure to mercury saturation
5 4.3 was used to calculate the pore-throat size distribution. For Buff
Berea, the measured pore-throat radius was 11 mm at a mercury
0 saturation of 35%, whereas the median pore-throat radius was
(Buff Berea) (Grey Berea) (Bandera) (Parker) 8.8 mm. Fig. 21, shows that the largest pore throats are on the
165 65 25 6 mega (25 mm). The predominant pore throat ranges from 2.5 to
Average Horizontal Permeability (md) 25 mm. For Gray Berea, the measured pore-throat radius was 7 mm
at a mercury saturation of 35%, whereas the median pore-throat
Fig. 19—Incremental oil recovery (OOIP%) vs. average horizon- radius was 6.3 mm. The predominant pore throat ranges from 2.5
tal permeability during secondary-recovery mode. to 10 mm. On the other hand, for Bandera sandstone, the measured

0.012
Parker Bandera Grey Buff
0.01
Incremental Porosity (fraction)

0.008
0.006
0.004
0.002
0
0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1,000 10,000 100,000
T2 Relaxation Time (ms)
Fig. 20—NMR T2 distributions for the Buff Berea, Gray Berea, Bandera, and Parker sandstones.
pore-throat radius was 2.6 mm at a mercury saturation of 35%, and These values are quite similar to values obtained from a routine
the median pore-throat radius was 1.8 mm. The pore-throat size core analysis. Buff Berea has the highest T2 peak values (222 ms),
histogram shows that the predominant pore-throat ranges from whereas the T2 response of Gray Berea and Bandera rock types
macro (5 mm) to micro (0.25 mm) rock types (Fig. 22). The meas- shifts to lower values of 158.5 and 89.1 ms, respectively. This
ured pore-throat radius was 2 mm, whereas the median pore-throat means that Buff Berea has the largest pore radius, followed by Gray
radius was 1.7 mm for the Parker sandstone sample. A single peak Berea and then Bandera. Parker has the lowest pore size because
was noticed for Buff Berea, Gray Berea, Bandera, and Parker this leads to a shifting of the major T2 peak to a shorter time.
rock types. It indicates that these rock types are homogeneous, Then, the average pore-throat radius was calculated for each
and all the pores have a similar geometric shape. core to define the rock type (flow units) with Winland’s empirical
In addition, NMR measurements were conducted on the four equation (Eq. 1) (Kolodzie 1980). Eq. 1 was developed with data
sandstones types saturated with FW. The NMR measurements from more than 2,500 sandstone and carbonate samples. When
were conducted with a 2-MHz NMR benchtop spectrometer (Geo- R35 is the calculated pore-throat radius (micrometers) at 35%
Spec2 Core Analyzer). Core plugs with dimensions of 1.5-in. di- mercury saturation from a mercury-injection capillary-pressure
ameter and 1.5-in. length were used. From this test, the rate of test, permeability is in md, and porosity is a percentage (Guo
decay of the NMR signal was determined. It is described by a dis- et al. 2005). The Buff Berea, Gray Berea, and Bandera are in the
tribution of decay times, T2s, which are called transverse relaxa- macroporous flow unit, whereas Parker was in the mesoporous
tion times. Coates et al. (1999) stated that in water-saturated flow unit with smaller pore-throat radius (Martin et al. 1997):
rocks, the T2 distributions are qualitatively directly proportional
to pore-size distributions. The largest pores have the longest T2, logðR35Þ ¼ 0:732 þ 0:588 logðkÞ 0:864 logðuÞ: . . . . . ð1Þ
whereas the smallest pores have the shortest T2 values. Fig. 23
shows the T2 distribution for the four sandstone types. The area Fig. 24 shows the incremental oil recovery with LSW com-
under the T2 distribution is proportional to the total porosity of the pared with HSW vs. the average pore-throat radius R35 (micro-
samples. The total NMR porosities for Buff Berea, Gray Berea, meters) during the secondary-recovery mode. Quantification of
Bandera, and Parker are 19.6, 20.5, 17.8, and 14%, respectively. the pore space has improved the understanding of the influence of
500
450
Oil/Water Capillary Pressure (psi)
400
350
300
250
200
Buff Berea Grey Berea
150
Bandera Parker
100
50
0
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
Water Saturation
Fig. 21—Capillary pressure curves for the Buff Berea, Gray Berea, Bandera, and Parker sandstones.

0.30
Micro Meso Macro
Incremental Intruded Pore Space (fraction)

0.25
0.20
0.15
Grey Berea Buff Berea
0.10
0.05
0.00
0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10 100
Pore Throat Radius (microns)
Fig. 22—Pore-throat-radius distribution for Buff Berea and Gray Berea sandstone samples with a high-pressure-mercury-injection
test.
0.30
Micro Meso Macro

Incremental Intruded Pore Space (fraction)
0.25
0.20
0.15
Bandera Parker
0.10
0.05
0.00
0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10 100
Pore Throat Radius (microns)
Fig. 23—Pore-throat radius distribution for Bandera and Parker sandstone samples with a high-pressure-mercury-injection test.
LSW on oil improvement. The rate of oil recovery by coreflood increases in oil recovery by 9% were observed when the average
experiments was in the decreasing order of Buff Berea > Gray pore-throat radius increased from 1.4 (Parker) to 2.7 (Bandera)
Berea > Bandera > Parker. The oil recovery appeared to increase mm. On the other hand, the oil recovery increased by 20% when
for sandstone cores with a higher pore-throat radius. For HSW, the average pore-throat radius increased from 1.4 (Parker) to 8.5
(Buff Berea) mm. For LSW, increases in oil recovery by 10.2%
were observed when the average pore-throat radius increased
25 from 1.4 (Parker) to 2.7 (Bandera) microns, whereas the oil recov-
ery increased by 32.9% when the average pore-throat radius
20 increased from 1.4 (Parker) to 8.5 (Buff Berea) mm.
17.1 From the results obtained, it was obvious that the sandstone
15 rock quality plays a key role in the effectiveness of LSW. The
13.3
results reflect the variation in oil recoveries obtained by LSW for
9.2 the different sandstone cores. The incremental oil recovery
10
increased from 4.3 to 17% when the average pore-throat radius
4.3
(R35) of the core increased from 1.3 to 8.5 mm. A quantitative
5 comparison between the oil recovery shows that the effect of av-
erage pore–throat radius is higher in case of LSW compared with
0 HSW on the secondary-recovery mode.
(Buff Berea) (Grey Berea) (Bandera) (Parker)
8.5 4.5 2.7 1.4
Calculated Average Pore-Throat Radius (microns) Conclusions
The effects on LSW performance of sandstone mineral composi-
Fig. 24—Incremental oil recovery (OOIP%) vs. average pore- tion, rock permeability, and average pore-throat radius were
throat radius during secondary-recovery mode. examined. On the basis of the results obtained from coreflood,

zeta potential, high-pressure mercury injection, NMR, SEM, Regional Meeting, Los Angeles, USA, 26–27 October. SPE-1725-MS.
XRD, and XRF experimental work, the following conclusions can http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/1725-MS.
be drawn: Borchardt, G. 1989. Smectites. In Soil Mineralogy With Environmental
• The Parker, Bandera, Gray Berea, and Buff Berea sandstone Applications, ed. J. B. Dixon and D. G. Schulze, Chap. 15. Soil Sci-
cores showed additional oil recoveries of 4.3, 9.2, 13.3, and ence Society of America, Inc.
17.1% OOIP, respectively, through the injection of low-salinity Chilingarian, G. V. 1963. Relationship Between Porosity, Permeability,
brine (5,000 ppm NaCl) as the secondary-recovery mode. None and Grain Size Distribution of Sands and Sandstones. In Deltaic and
of the three sandstone rock types (Buff Berea, Gray Berea, and Shallow Marine Deposits, ed. L. M. J. U. Van Straaten, Chap. 8,
Parker) showed a response in the tertiary-recovery mode. Incre- 71–77. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science.
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• As the permeability increased from 6 to 167 md, an additional (5): 305–313.
oil recovery of up to 32.9% of OOIP was observed with LSW Civan, F. 2007. Reservoir Formation Damage: Fundamentals, Modeling,
as a secondary-recovery mode, while an additional oil recovery Assessment, and Mitigation, second edition, Chap. 2, 13–77. Burling-
up to 18% of OOIP was observed with HSW as a secondary-re- ton: Gulf Professional Publishing.
covery mode. The average pore-throat radius (rock quality) has Coates, G., Xiao, L., and Prammer, M. 1999. NMR Logging: Principles
a higher effect in the performance of LSW than HSW on the and Applications. Chap. 3, 45–76. Houston, USA: Gulf Publishing
secondary-recovery mode. The incremental oil recovery for the Company.
LSW increased from 4.3 to 17% when the average pore-throat Diamond, S. and Kinter, E. B. 1956. Surface Areas of Clay Minerals as
radius (R35) of the core increased from 1.4 to 8.5 mm. Derived From Measurements on Glycerol Retention. Clay and Clay Min-
• The total clay content and the clay composition are not the erals 5 (1): 334–347. http://dx.doi.org/10.1346/CCMN.1956.0050128.
main factors influencing the LSW performance. However, the Dixon, J. B. 1989. Kaolin and Serpentine Group Minerals. In Mineral in
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• The measured zeta potentials of kaolinite and montmorillonite ety of America, Inc.
particles in 5,000 ppm NaCl brine at 25 F and a pH of 7 were Emadi, A. and Sohrabi, M. 2013. Visual Investigation of Oil Recovery by
26.5 and 29.4 mV, respectively. The zeta-potential values Low-Salinity Water Injection: Formation of Water Micro-Dispersions
indicated a stronger negative charge on muscovite and albite and Wettability Alteration. Presented at the SPE Annual Technology
minerals of 33.8 and 31.5 mV, respectively. The zeta-poten- Conference and Exhibition, New Orleans, USA, 30 September–2
tial values indicated a less-negative charge on the chlorite and October. SPE-166435-MS. http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/166435-MS.
illite particles than the other minerals. It seems that chlorite and Farida, A., Hashem, S. H., Abdulraheem, B. et al. 2013. First EOR Trial
illite have a smaller contribution to electrical-double-layer Using Low-Salinity Water Injection in the Greater Burgan Field,
expansion than kaolinite, feldspars, montmorillonite, and mus- Kuwait. Presented at the 18th Middle East Oil and Gas Show and Con-
covite. On the other hand, the zeta-potential values of calcite ference, Manama, Bahrain, 10–13 March. SPE-16434-MS. http://
and dolomite particles are 1.0 and 4.5 mV, respectively. The dx.doi.org/10.2118/16434-MS.
presence of dolomite and calcite would decrease the effect of Fjelde, I., Asen, S. M., and Omekeh, A. 2012. Low-Salinity Water Flood-
the low-salinity brine to improve the oil recovery. ing Experiments and Interpretation by Simulations. Presented at the
Eighteenth SPE Improved Oil Recovery Symposium, Tulsa, USA,
Nomenclature 14–18 April. SPE-154142-MS. http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/154142-MS.
Swc ¼ connate-water saturation Gamage, P. H. S. and Thyne, G. D. 2011. Comparison of Oil Recovery by
Low-Salinity Waterflooding in Secondary and Tertiary Recovery
Modes. Presented at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhi-
Acknowledgments bition, Denver, USA, 30 October–2 November. SPE-147375-MS.
This work was supported by the Crisman Institute for Petroleum http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/147375-MS.
Research at Texas A&M University. The authors would like to Guo, G., Diaz, M., Paz, F. et al. 2005. Rock Typing as an Effective Tool
thank Giancarlo Hernandez Cuevas for his help in the zeta-poten- for Permeability and Water-Saturation Modeling: A Case Study in a
tial experiments and Sneha Kankaria for conducting viscosity Clastic Reservoir in the Orient Basin. Presented at the Annual Techni-
measurements. The authors would like to recognize Kristina Han- cal Conference and Exhibition, Dallas, USA, 9–12 October. SPE-
sen and Mohamed H. Nasr-El-Din for proofreading this paper. 97033-MS. http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/97033-MS.
The authors would also like to thank Zoya Heidari for her support Hadia, N., Torsaeter, O., and Tweheyo, M. T. 2011. Laboratory Investiga-
in the NMR measurements. tion on Wettability Alteration: Impact on Low-Salinity Waterflooding
Performance. Presented at the 16th European Symposium on Improved
Oil Recovery, Cambridge, UK, 12–14 April. SPE-141114-MS. http://
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Wickramathilaka, S., Howard, J. J., Morrow, N. R. et al. 2011. An Experi- enhanced oil recovery (EOR), reservoir formation evaluation,
mental Study of Low-Salinity Waterflooding and Spontaneous Imbibi- and reservoir stimulation. He has presented numerous techni-
tion. Presented at the 16th European Symposium on Enhanced Oil cal papers at international conferences and has published in
Recovery, Cambridge, UK, 12–14 April. http://dx.doi.org/10.3997/ refereed journals. Shehata is an active member of SPE and
2214-4609.201404795. has been a technical editor for SPE peer-reviewed journals.
Wilding, L. P., Smeck, N. E., and Drees, L. R. 1977. Silica in Soils: Hisham A. Nasr-El-Din is a professor and holder of the John
Quartz and Disordered Silica Polymorphs. In Minerals in Soil Environ- Edgar Holt Endowed Chair at Texas A&M University in Petro-
ment, ed. J. B. Dixon and S. B. Weed, Chap. 19, Soil Science Society leum Engineering. Previously, he worked for 15 years as Princi-
of America, Inc. pal Professional and Team Leader of the Stimulation Research
Xie, Q., Ma, D., Wu, J. et al. 2015. Low-Salinity Waterflooding in Low- and Technology Team at Saudi Aramco. Before joining Saudi
Aramco, Nasr-El-Din worked for 4 years as a staff research
Permeability Sandstone: Coreflood Experiments and Interpretation by engineer with the Petroleum Recovery Institute in Calgary. He
Thermodynamics and Simulation. Presented at the SPE Enhanced Oil also worked as a research associate with the University of Sas-
Recovery Conference, Kuala Lumpur, 11–13 August. SPE-174592- katchewan, the University of Ottawa, and the University of
MS. http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/174592-MS. Alberta, all in Canada. Nasr-El-Din’s research interests include
Yildiz, H. O. and Morrow, N. R. 1996. Effect of Brine Composition on well stimulation, formation damage, EOR, conformance con-
Recovery of Moutray Crude Oil by Waterflooding. J. Pet. Sci. Eng. 14 trol, interfacial properties, adsorption, rheology, cementing,
(3–4): 159–168. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0920-4105(95)00041-0. drilling fluids, two-phase flow, and nondamaging fluid technol-
Yildiz, H. O., Valat, M., and Morrow, N. R. 1999. Effect of Brine Compo- ogies. He holds more than 20 patents, has written 15 book
chapters, and has published and presented more than 560
sition on Wettability and Oil Recovery of a Prudhoe Bay Crude Oil. J
technical papers. Nasr-El-Din has received numerous awards
Can Pet Technol 38 (1): 26–31. SPE-99-01-02-PA. http://dx.doi.org/
within Saudi Aramco for significant contributions in stimulation
10.2118/99-01-02-PA. and treatment-fluid technologies and stimulation design, and
Zhao, H., Long, J., Masliyah, J. et al. 2006. Effect of Divalent Cations and for his work in training and mentoring. He holds BS and MS
Surfactants on Silica-Bitumen Interaction. Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 45 degrees from Cairo University, Egypt, and a PhD degree from
(22): 7482–7490. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ie060348o. the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, all in chemical engi-
Zhou, X., Morrow, N., and Ma, S. 2000. Interrelationship of Wettability, neering. Nasr-El-Din is a review chairperson for SPE Journal and
Initial Water Saturation, Aging Time, and Oil Recovery by Spontane- a technical editor for SPE Production and Operations and SPE
ous Imbibition and Waterflooding. SPE J. 5 (2): 21–24. SPE-62507- Drilling and Completion. Nasr-El-Din has been invited to give
PA. http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/62507-PA. keynote presentations in various SPE and National Association
of Corrosion Engineers conferences. He received the SPE Re-
gional Technical Discipline Award for Production and Opera-
tions in 2006, was named an SPE Distinguished Member in
Ahmed M. Shehata is a project manager at Intertek in Hous- 2007, and received SPE awards for Outstanding Associate Edi-
ton, as a part of the Upstream Exploration and Production tor (SPE Journal) and Outstanding Technical Editor (SPE Pro-
services. Before joining Intertek, he worked as a research assist- duction and Operations) in 2008. In addition, Nasr-El-Din
ant at the Petroleum Engineering Department, Texas A&M Uni- received the SPE Production and Operations Award and Out-
versity. Also, Shehata worked as a research assistant at Cairo standing Associate Editor Award (SPE Journal) in 2009. He
University and reservoir engineer at the service company received the SPE “A Peer Apart” status in 2011 for reviewing
Technical Petroleum Services in Egypt. He holds MSc and BSc more than 100 papers. Nasr-El-Din was named the 2013 recipi-
degrees in petroleum engineering from Cairo University. She- ent of the SPE Distinguished Achievement Award for Petro-
hata’s current research focuses on waterflooding, LSW, leum Engineering Faculty.
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The Role of Sandstone Mineralogy and Rock Quality in the Performance of

Article in SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering · June 2016

Ahmed M. Shehata Hisham A. Nasr-El-Din

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

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The Role of Sandstone Mineralogy

Summary would decrease the effect of the low-salinity brine to improve

2016 SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering 1

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Buff Berea Gray Berea Parker Bandera

Table 1—Petrophysical properties of sandstone cores.

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Acid Number Base Number

Table 4—Properties of dead crude oil.

Buff Berea Grey Berea Bandera Parker

Table 5—Mineralogy of sandstone cores.

2016 SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering 3

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10 µm Electron Image 1 10 µm Electron Image 1

10 µm Electron Image 1 10 µm Electron Image 1

4 2016 SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering

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Backpressure regulators Oven

ISCO syringe pump

Fig. 2—A schematic of the coreflood apparatus.

2016 SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering 5

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Cumulative Oil Recovery (%OOIP)

Pressure Drop Across Core (psi)

6 2016 SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering

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Injection Rate Incremental Oil Total Oil Recovery

Injection Rate Incremental Oil Total Oil Recovery

Injection Rate Incremental Oil Total Oil Recovery

Injection Rate Slug Size Incremental Oil Total Oil Recovery

2016 SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering 7

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Cumulative Oil Recovery (%OOIP)

Pressure Drop Across Core (psi)

Pressure Drop Across Core (psi)

Injection Rate Incremental Oil Total Oil Recovery

8 2016 SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering

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Injection Rate Incremental Oil Total Oil Recovery

NaCl (5,000 ppm) NaCl (5,000 ppm)

2016 SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering 9

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Cumulative Oil Recovery (%OOIP)

Pressure Drop Across Core (psi)

Injection Rate Incremental Oil Total Oil Recovery

Table 12—Summary of coreflood Experiment D–4 for Parker sandstone at T 5 185 º F.

Injection Rate Incremental Oil Total Oil Recovery

Pressure Drop Across Core (psi)

Oil recovery 100

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Formation NaCl 600

Cumulative Oil Recovery (%OOIP)

Pressure Drop Across Core (psi)