The Effect of Salinity and Sand Particles Presence on Asphaltene Instability during Low-salinity Waterflooding

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

10.22078/pr.2023.5204.3313

Abstract

Low-salinity or engineered salinity waterflooding is one of the enhanced oil recovery methods, particularly for the carbonate fields in Iran and around the world. Alongside its numerous benefits, evaluating the side effects such as formation damage due to asphaltene instability and deposition is of paramount importance. Until now, research in this area has primarily focused on the investigation of oil-brine interactions, neglecting the influence of the presence of rock as an essential parameter. Therefore, in this paper, to bring the laboratory tests closer to reservoir conditions, the effect of rock presence was examined by creating contact between brine/fluid/sandstone grains and measuring the UV absorption of bulk oil before and after contact with rock and brine. In this regard, a new “indirect” procedure was developed through which the amount of asphaltene deposition in the presence of various brines was determined. Our results indicate that asphaltene deposition follows a non-monotonic trend with salinity, such that it increases at low salinities and decreases at high salinities, and reaches a minimum value at a middle salinity. The results also show that in the presence of two times diluted seawater, more asphaltene deposition occurs compared to other brines. Adding sandstone particles to the oil-brine system increases the amount of asphaltene deposition due to the creation of a new physical surface for asphaltene adsorption due to the influence of electrostatic forces. Detailed examination of the sand particles reveals that the higher the brine salinity, the higher the asphaltene deposition occurs on the particles; with formation brine leading to the highest asphaltene deposition on the particles (over 1.4 micrograms per gram sand). Ultimately, these experimental results contribute to the understanding of the role of sandstone particles on asphaltene instability during low-salinity waterflooding and provide a more accurate way of evaluating asphaltene deposition at more realistic conditions.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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Journal of Petroleum Research
Volume 34, 1403-2 - Serial Number 135
Special Issues on Water-based EOR
July and August 2024
Pages 56-71

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