Experimental Investigation of Parameters Affecting Oil-Water Interfacial Tension for Smart Water Flooding into Asphaltene-Bearing Oil

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Petroleum University of Technology, Ahvaz, Iran

2 Petroleum University of Technology

3 Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz, Iran

10.22078/pr.2024.5422.3412

Abstract

Asphaltenes cause many problems in the upstream and downstream sectors of the petroleum industry. On the other hand, water production along with oil in reservoirs that are in the second stage of their production, have active aquifers or are under water flooding, constitutes one of the main production challenges. In such conditions, the formation of water-in-oil emulsion is inevitable and asphaltene acts as an emulsion stabilizer. As a result, most of the articles have only dealt with the problems caused by asphaltene precipitation and sedimentation in the conditions of water-oil emulsion formation. In contrast, few works have focused on the fluid-fluid interaction of water and oil during water injection into asphaltene-bearing oil reservoirs. Accordingly, this research addresses the laboratory study of interfacial tension between asphaltene-bearing oil and water during smart water injection. In order to achieve this goal, fluid/fluid interactions were carefully examined and then the effect of various parameters on the interfacial tension of smart water and oil containing asphaltene were investigated such as salinity and ionic composition of water and type of salt, the role of time, the effect of oil-model, type of asphaltene and the presence or absence of naphthenic acid. The results showed that the lowest amount of interfacial tension was obtained for magnesium chloride, calcium chloride and sodium sulfate salts at low salinities. At all salinities except for twice-diluted seawater, the interfacial tension after ten days showed greater values than when oil and fresh water were placed together. With the presence of naphthenic acid in the oil balk phase, a greater decrease in interfacial tension can be seen compared to asphaltene alone. Also, the lowest amount of interfacial tension was observed in seawater salinity. The findings of this study will enrich the literature of EOR in the field studies on asphaltene and smart water.

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Journal of Petroleum Research
Volume 35, 1404-1 - Serial Number 140
Special Issue on the Development of the Hydrogen TechnologyChain
May and June 2025

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