Date of Award

3-2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Petroleum Engineering (MSPE)

Department

Chemical and Petroleum Engineering

First Advisor

Dr. Hazim Al Attar

Second Advisor

Dr. Abdulrazaq Zekri

Third Advisor

Dr. Gamal Abdalla Alusta

Abstract

Water flooding has been regarded as a well-known secondary oil recovery method. In the recent years, extensive research on crude oil, brine, and rock systems has acknowledged that the composition of the injected water can change wetting properties of the reservoir during a water flood in a promising way to improve oil recovery. Hence, injection of “smart water” with correct salinity and composition is considered as a tertiary recovery method. The mechanism behind wettability alteration that is promoted by smart water injection has been a topic of discussion in carbonate and sandstone formations. In this work, some key properties of sea water and its dilutions with natural and spiked sulphate concentrations have been thoroughly investigated in the laboratory. Interfacial tension (IFT) of crude oil/brine system was monitored at ambient and high pressure-high temperature conditions. The brine with the least IFT was then used as a non-wetting phase with aged samples of rock for the measurement of contact angle at high pressure-high temperature conditions. The rock samples are carbonates of a selected onshore oil field in UAE. The results of this work show that sea water of salinity 57,539 mg/l without sulphate spiking may be considered as the smart water for further core flooding investigation.

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