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Laboratory Investigation of Low Salinity Waterflooding for Carbonate

Reservoirs

Article · November 2012

DOI: 10.2118/161468-MS

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SPE 161468

Laboratory Investigation of Low Salinity Waterflooding for Carbonate

Reservoirs
Amira S. Al-Harrasi, Petroleum Development Oman, Rashid S. Al-Maamari, SPE, Sultan Qaboos University, and
Shehadeh Masalmeh, SPE, Shell Technology Oman

Copyright 2012, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition & Conference held in Abu Dhabi, UAE, 11 –14 November 2012.

This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper have not been
reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect any position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its
officers, or members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper without the written consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is prohibited. Permission to
reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of SPE copy right.

Abstract
Low salinity waterflooding (LSF) research has been gaining more momentum in recent years for both sandstone and carbonate
reservoirs. Published laboratory data and field tests have shown an increase in oil recovery by changing injected brine salinity,
especially for sandstone reservoirs. It is widely accepted that low salinity water alters the wettability of the reservoir rock from
less to more water-wet conditions, oil is then released from rock surfaces and recovery is increased. The main objectives of the
current study are to: test the potential of increasing oil recovery by LSF of a carbonate reservoir and to investigate the factors
that control it. The impact of LSF on oil recovery was investigated by conducting coreflood and spontaneous imbibition
experiments at 70 oC using core samples from a carbonate reservoir, crude oil and synthetic brine (194,450 ppm) which was
mixed with distilled water in four proportions twice, 5 times, 10 times and 100 times dilution brines. Moreover, both crude
oil/brine interfacial tension measurements (IFT) and ionic exchange experiments were carried out at room temperature (25 oC).

The results of the study show higher oil recovery as a result of reducing injected water salinity in both coreflood and
spontaneous imbibition experiments. Coreflood experiments showed an increase in oil recovery by 3 to 5 % of OOIP, while
spontaneous imbibition experiments showed an increased by 16 to 21 %. Additionally, spontaneous imbibition experiments
provide direct evidence of wettability change by the LSF. The study also shows that the increase in oil recovery was obtained
at much higher water salinity than the one observed in the case of sandstone rock.

Introduction
The concept of low salinity water flooding (LSF) was tested in the laboratory more than 50 years ago, see Bernard (1967). The
study concluded that cores containing clays will produce more oil with a fresh waterflooding than with brine and if the fresh
water flood does not develop a high pressure drop then no additional oil is produced. The subject attracted significant interest
since Tang and Morrow (1997) reported an increase in oil recovery by low salinity waterflooding. The LSF is preferred over
other EOR techniques as it requires lower capital and operating costs and is easier to handle.

The influence of injecting different dilution slugs of brine into sandstone cores was studied by many researchers, see Morrow
and Buckley (2011) and references therein. The results of these studies showed that LSF in sandstones is effective in both
tertiary and secondary modes. LSF was also reported by McGuire et al. (2005) in a single well chemical tracer tests (SWCT)
in Alaska and by Webb et al. (2004) in a log-Inject-log test (LIL) which was carried out in the Middle East. According to the
SWCT, remaining oil saturation was reduced by 6 to 12 % OOIP when flooding with LSF. LIL test showed reduction of 25 to
50 % in waterflooding residual oil saturation. Moreover, evidence of LSF on improving recovery in a multi-well field scale
was observed using historical data from several fields in the Powder River basin of Wyoming which has been flooded with
LSF (Robertson, 2007).

Oil and brine composition, salinity level, clay type and the presence of connate water were reported to affect the extra oil
recovery by LSF (Filco and Sharma, 1998; Tang and Morrow, 1999; Zhang and Morrow, 2006; Zhang et al., 2007; McGuire
et al., 2005; Austad et al., 2010; RezaeiDoust et al., 2010; Pu et al., 2010). Several mechanisms are proposed for LSF effect in
sandstones. These include fine migration (Morrow and Tang, 1998), increase in pH/alkaline flooding (McGuire et al., 2005),
increase in pressure drop across the core (Zhang and Morrow, 2006), wettability alteration (Larger et al., 2008; Austad et al.,
2 SPE 161468

2010) and mineral dissolution (Pu et al., 2010). Wettability alteration is accepted as the main mechanism for LSF effect in
sandstone reservoirs. However, the process by which wettability is altered is still a topic of research.

Similar to sandstones, LSF in carbonates was also investigated by several groups (Høgnesen et al. 2005; Tweheyo et al., 2006;
Zhang and Austad, 2006; Zhang and Morrow 2006; Zhang et al., 2007; Yousef et al. 2010; Gupta et al. 2011; Yousef et al.,
2011). Yousef et al. (2010 and 2011) studied the effect of LSF in carbonate formation by conducting waterflood experiments
using live crude oil and different salinity slugs of seawater at reservoir conditions in a tertiary recovery mode. Around 18-20%
of additional oil was recovered using slugs of diluted sea water. Contact angle and IFT measurements and NMR test were
performed to investigate possible factors behind the results of the coreflood experiments. Wettability alteration was suggested
as the mechanism behind the LSF effect.

Høgnesen et al. (2005) tested the effect of sulphate ion (SO 42-) on wettability alteration of oil wet chalk cores by conducting
spontaneous imbibition experiments at different temperatures. The results showed that oil recovery increases as sulphate
concentration and temperature increases. Adsorption of sulphate to chalk surface reduces the positive charge density on the
carbonate rock surface leading to desorption of carboxylic material from the surface. By this process, surface wettability is
shifted towards more water wet condition. This result was confirmed by other studies (Tweheyo et al., 2006; Zhang and
Austed, 2006; Zhang et al., 2007) that investigated the effect of adding Ca 2+ and Mg2+ into the imbibed fluid on wettability
alteration. It was found that the addition of these two ions increases the oil recovery during spontaneous imbibition
experiments. In a recent study (Romanuka et al., 2012) it was found that the wettability of a number of carbonate rock samples
was altered towards more water-wet by using brine with lower ionic strength. A clear exception is the experiments on Stevns
Klint chalk samples when higher oil recovery was observed with increasing sulphate concentration in the brine rather than
lowering the ionic strength.

Several coreflood experiments on limestone and dolomite samples (tertiary mode) to study the impact of adding and/or
removing ions from injection water to improve waterflooding performance were conducted by Gupta et al. (2011). The
outcomes showed that injecting seawater containing added sulphate ion resulted in incremental oil recovery of 5 to 9 % of
OOIP. However, a significant amount of oil was recovered when removing sulphate ion from seawater or using soften water
(formation water with Ca2+ and Mg2+ selectively removed) as injection fluid. Additional oil recovery was also obtained by
injecting seawater without SO42- + borate salts (15 % of OOIP) or/phosphate salt (20 % of OOIP). This was attributed to
wettability alteration by mineral dissolution or surface ion exchange.

Morrow and Buckley (2011) reported several studies of LSF in both sandstones and carbonates. However, more experimental
work of LSF in carbonates is needed to have better understanding of LSF mechanism(s) responsible for additional oil
recovery. This paper presents the results of an experimental study of the effect of LSF on oil recoveries from a carbonate
formation.

Experimental Procedures

Fluid Properties
Dead crude oil and synthetic formation brine were used in this study. The brine composition and salt concentrations are shown
in Tables 1 and 2, respectively. As shown in the tables the formation brine is highly saline and has high concentration of
divalent ions (Mg2+ and Ca2+). In this study, four different low salinity brines were prepared by mixing the formation brine
with distilled water, see Table 3. The density and viscosity of the brine and crude oil were measured at room temperature and
70 oC. The results are provided in Tables 4 and 5.The crude oil was filtered to take out any contaminants that may causes
experimental problems during coreflood experiments.

Rock Samples Selection and Preparation

The core plugs used in this study were taken from a carbonate reservoir in Oman. These plugs were first cleaned with a
cleaning mixture (750 ml chloroform, 250 ml methanol, 2.5 ml methylene and 2.5 ml water) in soxhlet extractor for a month to
get rid of hydrocarbons, water and soluble salts. The cores were then flushed with methanol for two days to make sure that all
salts are removed from the sample. The samples were then dried in an oven at 70 oC. Dimensions, air permeability, porosity
and pore volume of core plugs were measured. The core plugs were aged in brine in a desiccator by applying vacuum for two
days. The core plugs were scanned using X-ray Computerized Tomography (CT-scan) to check the homogeneity of the
samples.

Homogeneous core plugs with similar porosity and permeability were selected for coreflood and spontaneous imbibition
experiments. The petrophysical properties of the selected plugs are shown in Table 6. XRD analysis showed that core samples
used in this study are mainly composed of 98.5 % calcite (CaCO3) and very small amounts of dolomite mineral (CaMg(CO 3)2).
SPE 161468 3

IFT Measurements
The IFT between the crude oil and brine was measured using spinning drop interfacial tension tensiometer (Model 500,
University of Texas, Austin). The measurements were carried out at 70 oC.

Spontaneous Imbibition Experiments

Spontaneous imbibition experiments were conducted to check the initial wettability state of the samples and the potential
change of wettability by low salinity water. The Spontaneous imbibition experiments are conducted as follows:
1- The core is saturated with the high salinity formation brine and then placed in the core holder. A confining pressure of
1120 psi and back pressure of 147 psi were applied.
2- Formation brine is then injected into the core at different flow rates 0.3, 0.8, 1. 7, 5.0 and 8.3 cc/minute. For each rate,
the pressure drop a cross the core was recorded. The objectives of this step are to make sure that the core is fully
saturated with brine at reservoir temperature and to provide the required data to calculate the absolute permeability of
the sample.
3- Oil is injected into the core at different flow rates 0.3, 0.7 and 1.0 cc/m to establish Swi.
4- The cores are aged for 20-30 days to restore wettability and then they were placed in Amott cells in an oven at 70 oC.
5- The cores are surrounded by the high salinity formation brine (i.e., the Amott cell is filled with the formation brine).
6- Oil production by spontaneous imbibition was recorded as a function of time.
7- Once the oil production stops, the surrounding formation brine is replaced with one of the diluted brines. In some
experiments, the diluted brine was refreshed to make sure no more is produced before using brine of different level of
dilution.

Coreflood Experiments
The experimental set-up is made of a volumetric pump, a Hassler cell containing the core (in a Viton sleeve) placed in an oven
at 70°C and fluids accumulators (Fig. 1). The experimental procedure followed in this study is:
1- Core initialisation followed the same procedure described above, steps 1-4.
2- Formation brine is injected to displace the oil at different flow rates (0.4, 0.7 and 1.3 cc/minute) to make sure that all
movable oil is produced and to overcome capillary end effect.
3- After establishing Sor, brines of different dilutions were injected (in tertiary mode) at various rates.
4- Oil production, flow rates and pressure drop versus time were recorded in all the flooding experiments.

Experimental Results

Spontaneous Imbibition Experiments

Four spontaneous imbibition (SI) experiments were performed at 70 oC. The results of these set of experiments are shown in
Figs. 2 to 5. In the first experiment (Core 301) five different brine salinities were used, one after another, starting with the
formation brine (0D), twice diluted formation brine (2D), five time diluted formation brine (5D), ten times diluted formation
brine (10D) and finaly hundred times diluted formation brine (100D). The imbibing brine was replaced once oil production
stops. In some cases the imbibing brine was refreshed once before using new brine, see Figs. 2-4. About 10 % of OOIP was
obtained from the formation brine (0D). Lowering salinity of the brine resulted in additional 16.1 % of OOIP, were the 2D and
5D brines provided 6.2 % and 5.8 % of OOIP, respectively. Both 10D and 100D brines showed an increase in oil recovery by
1.7 % of OOIP. As it can be seen from Fig. 2, refreshing the 5-times dilution brine (F.5D) and 10-times dilution (F.10D) were
tested to see if any extra oil recovery will be obtained. F.5D recovered very small amount of oil estimated at 0.8 % of OOIP
and no incremental oil production was observed for the F.10D brine.

The second spontaneous imbibition experiment (core 288) started with formation brine (0D), followed by 100D and finally
10D. The spontaneous imbibition of formation brine recovered about 11 % of OOIP. Additional 13.1 % of OOIP were
recovered with the 100 times diluted brine. The use of 100D brine after the formation brine resulted in a faster rate of
imbibition and high oil recovery compared to 2D brine in the first spontaneous imbibition experiment (SI1). From Fig. 3, it
can be noticed that shifting from 100D to 10D was performed before oil production was stabilized. Thus the production
observed during 10D and F.10D could also be recovered with 100D brine. This is estimated at around 7.6 % of OOIP.

The third experiment was conducted using core 317. Three brines were used (0D, 2D and 100D). The formation brine (0D)
provided 9 % of OOIP, see Fig. 4. Recovery from 2D and 100D was equal and estimated at 8.2 % of OOIP. The rate of
imbibition of 2D in this experiment is similar to that obtained from first experiment (Fig. 2) for the same brine. However, the
rate of 100D is higher than that obtained from the second experiment (Fig. 3). F.100D recovered around 2.5 % of OOIP. At the
end of the experiment, the same core sample was used in a flooding experiment which will be discussed in the next section.

The fourth spontaneous imbibition experiment was conducted on core 290 that was used in one of the coreflood experiments.
The plug was cleaned, initialised and used in this spontaneous imbibition experiment. The initial water saturation (Swi) is 14.7
%. In this experiment, the core was placed in 100D brine immediately in order to test the spontaneous imbibition experiments
4 SPE 161468

in secondry mode. The results are similar to those in Fig. 3, the rate of imbibition was fast and oil recovery was high (20 % of
OOIP), as indicated in Fig. 5.

Coreflooding Experiments
Four coreflood experiments were performed at 70 oC. The results of these experiments are discussed below. In the first
experiment the core (core 315) was flooded first with formation water (0D) followed by 2D and finally 100D at different rates.
As shown in Fig. 6, most of the oil was produced after injecting 3 PVs of brine. The formation brine was injected at 0.4
cc/minute until no more oil was recovered. Then the rate was raised to 0.7 cc/minute, which provided additional 6 % of OOIP
after injecting 11 PVs. The rate was then increased to 1cc/minute and no more oil was produced. A small amount of oil was
produced at 1.3 cc/minute (0.2 cc), which might be due to having some oil sticking at the surface of the pipes. Twice dilution
brine was then injected into the core at rates of 0.4, 0.8 and 1.3 cc/minute, consequently. Additional 3 % of OOIP was
recovered after injecting 0.3 PVs at 0.4 cc/minute. Finally, 100D brine was injected leading to an additional oil recovery of 1.7
% of OOIP. The cumulative oil production was 68.5 % of OOIP. Increment in oil recovery by LSF is ~5 % and Sor dropped
from 32 % to 28%.

The second coreflood experiment (core 290) started by injecting formation brine followed by 100D and then 10D brines at
various rates (0.4, 0.8 and 1.3 cc/minute). Flooding with formation brine recovered 77.6 % of OOIP. Most of this production
was recovered after injecting 6 PVs at 0.4 cc/m. After reaching equilibrium in both pressure and production with 0D brine,
100D brine was injected an additional ~3% of OOIP was recovered after injecting 1 PV, as shown in Fig. 7. Injection of
additional 37 PVs of brine at different rates resulted in no increase in oil recovery. Injecting 10D brine after 100D resulted in
no additional recovery.

Core 315 (used in the first coreflood experiment) was cleaned and reused again. In this experiment five different types of brine
salinity were injected, starting with the formation brine (0D), twice diluted formation brine (2D), five time diluted formation
brine (5D), ten times diluted formation brine (10D) and finaly hundred times diluted formation brine (100D). Different flow
rates were used (0.1, 0.5 and 1.5 cc/minute). Cumulative oil recovery by injecting the formation brine (0D) was 82 %. The
injected brine was then replaced with 2D brine which recovered additional 2.3 % of OOIP. Similar amount of oil was
produced from both 5D and 100D brine (0.5% OOIP) while no oil recovery was obtained with 10D brine. LSF gave a total of
3.3 % of additional oil recovery. The residual oil saturation (Sor) was reduced from around 14 % to 11.6 %. Oil recovery and
pressure data are shown in Fig. 8.

The fourth flooding experiment was performed on sample 317. The same core sample was first used in spontaneous imbibition
(Fig. 4). The objective of this experiment is to check whether the results of the coreflood will be affected by the SI experiment
done on the same sample. The core sample was flooded with 100D brine (the same brine used in the last SI step) at different
rates (0.1, 0.5 and 1.5 cc/minute). Additional 54 % of OOIP was recovered from this coreflood experiment (Fig. 9) which
brings the total recovery by both spontaneous imbibtion and coreflooding to 82%.

In all of the above coreflood experiments, it has been noticed that as the salinity of the injected brine decreases, the pressure
drop across the core sample decreases as well. Pressure decrease was due to the lower viscosity of the low salinity brine
compared to the high salinity brine.

Interfacial tension (IFT) measurements

Crude oil/ brine IFT were measured at room temperature. The results are plotted in Fig. 10. As it can be seen from this figure,
IFT decreases only slightly as the salinity of the brine decreases (16 to 15 mN/m).

Discussion and Conclusions

The impact of low salinity waterflood (LSF) on oil recovery of carbonate core samples was investigated throughout this study
through a combination of spontaneous imbibition and flooding experiments. The spontaneous imbibition experiments showed
consistently that using formation brine recovered about 10% of the OOIP, see Figs. 2-4. In all cases, more oil was produced
upon replacing the formation brine with low salinity brine, even for the case of using twice diluted formation brine which still
has a salinity of more than 97000 ppm. To our knowledge, it is the first time that low salinity effect is reported for such a high
salinity. These sponaneous imbibition experiments provide a direct evidence of the change of wettability upon replacing the
formation brine by low salinity brine. As demonstrated in Figs 2-5, more oil is produced with reducing the salinity of the brine
and the 100 times diluted brine resulted in the maximum oil production and faster rate. Both observations confirm that the
lower salinity brine led to more wettability alteration. In total up to 21% of OOIP was produced by spontaneous imbibition of
low salinity water.

Spontaneous imbibition recovery data can not be directly used in evaluating the potential of the low salinity water flooding for
field application, especially for non-fractured reservoirs. Therefore, a number of flooding experiments were carried out in this
SPE 161468 5

study. Most of the flooding experimental data presented in the literature (apart of the work by Yousef et al. 2010) were
performed using low flooding rate (~ 1ft/day). Under these conditions, capillary forces may dominate the flow and oil
production will be strongly affected by capillary end effect, especially for non-water-wet rock, see Masalmeh (2012). As low
salinity waterflooding starts and due to wettability alteration (towards more water-wet), capillary end effect will be reduced
and oil production will increase. This increase in oil recovery is partly an experimental artifact as no capillary end effect is
experienced in the field.

Moreover, in some of the cases presented in the literature, lower IFT was reported between LSF and crude oil which also
reduces capillary pressure and capillary end effect. Gupta et al. (2011), reported a factor of 2 reduction in IFT when phosphate
was added to the injected brine. Reduction of capillary pressure by a factor of 2 is then expected which leads to lower capillary
end effect and higher oil recovery.

To exclude any experimental artifact in this study, higher injection rates were used during the high salinity waterflooding to
overcome capillary end effects before injecting low salinity water, as discussed in the experimental procedure section. Similar
to the spontaneous imbibition experiments, the low salinity waterflooding resulted in higher oil recovery of 3-5%. The increase
in oil recovery by LSF was obtained within the first pore volume of injected fluid, and at much higher salinity level than
reported in literature for both sandstone and carbonate. However, the LSF effect is lower than what was observed in the
spontaneous imbibition experiments. Therefore, while the spontaneous imbibition experiments can provide first indication of
the potential of low salinity, the data can not be used to quantify the effect on field scale at least for non-fractured reservoirs.

The last flooding experiment performed in this study was done after a spontaneous imbibition test using the same sample, see
the data in Figs. 4 and 9. The objective of this test was to investigate whether the spontaneous imbibition experiment could
lead to different fluid distribution which subsequently negatively affects the flooding experimental data. The results indicate
no negative effect and the total recovery of both spontaneous imbibition and core flood was quite high, ~82%.

The experimental data also shows that there was an insignificant change in IFT between the different types of brine and oil
used in this study. This excludes the possibility of IFT reduction as a mechanism to explain the low salinity effect. In
conclusion, the IFT measurements in combination with both spontaneous imbibition and core flood experiments support the
view that wettability alteration is the underlying mechanisim for the low salinity effect.

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SPE 161468 7

TABLE 1―GEOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF THE BRINE

Component Quantity (kg/m3)
Sodium 59.970
Calcium 11.618
Magnesium 2.153
Chloride 118.791
Sulphate 0.689
Bicarbonate 0.009
Total dissolved solids 193.230
Total hardness 37.865
Salinity 194.450

TABLE 2―SALT CONCENTRATION OF THE BRINE

Salts Concentration (g/l)
NaCl 151.600
CaCl2 32.170
MgCl2 18.010
NaSO4 1.010
NaHCO3 0.012

TABLE 3―SALINITY LEVEL OF EACH DILUTED VERSION OF THE BRINE

Brine Type Salinity (ppm)
twice dilution (50 % salinity of original) 97,225
5 times dilution (20 % salinity of original) 38,890
10 times dilution (10 % salinity of original) 19,445
100 times dilution (1 % salinity of original) 1,944

TABLE 4―DENSITY AND VISCOSITY OF DIFFERENT BRINES

Viscosity (cp) Density (g/cc)
Brine
25 oC 70 oC 25 oC 70 oC
Brine 1.47 0.65 1.13 1.12
2D 1.03 0.50 1.07 1.04
5D 0.86 0.46 1.03 1.01
10D 0.81 0.45 1.02 1.00
100D 0.74 0.41 1.01 0.98

TABLE 5―DENSITY AND VISCOSITY OF CRUDE OIL

Temperature (oC) Density (g/cc) Viscosity (cp)
25 0.87 10.20
70 0.83 3.92

TABLE 6―PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF CORE SAMPLES

Core L D A Vb Ka Kw Φ WD WW PV Swi Type of

no. (cm) (cm) (cm2) (cc) (mD) (mD) (%) (g) (g) (cc) (%) Exp.

288 4.6 3.8 11.2 50.9 5.7 4.2 25.9 112.7 97.8 13.2 10.5 SI
CF and
290 4.7 3.8 11.2 52.2 5.1 3.3 22.4 114.4 101.2 11.7 11.7
then SI
301 4.9 3.8 11.2 54.1 5.1 2.9 26.2 119..9 103.9 14.2 14.5 SI
315 4.6 3.7 11.2 51.9 5.2 3.1 25.5 113.6 98.7 13.2 11.2 CF
SI and
317 4.8 3.8 11.2 54.0 5.7 3.5 26.4 119.3 103.2 14.3 14.3
then CF
8 SPE 161468

Fig. 1―Coreflood System Set-up

Oil Recovery (% OOIP )

F.10D
F.5D

100D
0D

10D
2D

5D

Times (days)

Fig. 2―Results of spontaneous imbibition experiment for core 301

SPE 161468 9

Oil Recovery (% OOIP)

0D 100D 10D F.10D

Time (days)

Fig. 3― Results of spontaneous imbibition experiment for core 288

Oil Recovery (% OOIP)

0D 2D 100D F.100D

Time (days)

Fig. 4―Results of spontaneous imbibition experiment for core 317

10 SPE 161468

Oil Recovery (% OOIP)

Time (days)

Fig. 5―Results of spontaneous imbibition experiment for Core 290

Oil Recovery (% OOIP) Pressure Drop (psi)

100 100
0D 2D 100D

80 1.3 80
cc/m
Oil Recovery (% OOIP )

Pressure Drop (psi)

1.3
60 cc/m 60
1.0
cc/m 0.8
cc/m
40 0.7 40
0.4 cc/m
cc/m
0.4
20 cc/m 20

0 0
0 15 30 45 60 75 90 105

PV Injected

Fig. 6―Oil recovery and pressure drop versus pore volume injected for Core 315
SPE 161468 11

Oil Recovery (% OOIP) Pressure Drop (psi)

100 100
OD 100D 10D
80 80
Oil Recovery (% OOIP)

1.3

Pressure Drop (psi)

cc/m

60 60
0.8 1.3
cc/m cc/m
1.3
cc/m
40 40
0.8
0.4 cc/m 0.8
cc/m cc/m
20 20
0.4 0.4
cc/m cc/m

0 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120

PV Injected

Fig. 7―Oil recovery and pressure drop versus pore volume injected for Core 290

Oil Recovery (% OOIP) Pressure Drop (psi)

100 100
0D 2D 5D 10D 100D

80 1.5 80
Oil Recovery (% OOIP)

cc/m Pressure Drop (psi)

1.5 1.5
cc/m cc/m
60 1.5 60
cc/m 1.5
cc/m

40 40

0.5 0.5 0.5

cc/m cc/m cc/m
20 20
0.5 0.5
0.1 cc/m cc/m
0.1 cc/m 0.1 0.1 0.1
cc/m
0 0
0 15 30 45 60 75 90 105
PV Injected
Fig. 8― Oil recovery and pressure drop versus pore volume injected for Core 315, this is a second experiment performed on the
same sample shown in Fig. 6 after re-cleaning and re-saturating it again with crude oil
12 SPE 161468

Fig. 9― Oil recovery and pressure drop versus pore volume injected for Core 317, the flooding experiment was performed after the
spontaneous imbibition experiment shown in Fig. 4
IFT (mN/m)

0D 2D 5D 10D 100D
Fig. 11―Results of the IFT measurements at room temperature

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