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

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Department of Petroleum Engineering, Petroleum University of Technology, Ahvaz, Iran

2 Department of Production Operations, Maroun Oil and Gas Production Company, Ahvaz, Iran

10.22078/pr.2024.5422.3412

Abstract

Asphaltenes cause many problems in the upstream and downstream sectors of the petroleum industry. Also, one of the main production challenges is water production along with oil in reservoirs at the second stage of their production with active aquifers or under water flooding. 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 deposition during water-oil emulsion formation. In contrast, few studies 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 effects 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. In addition, the results showed that the lowest interfacial tension for water containing magnesium chloride, calcium chloride and sodium sulfate salts was obtained at low salinities. At all salinities except for twice-diluted seawater, the interfacial tension after ten days showed greater values than for oil and water in fresh contact. Ultimately, with the presence of naphthenic acid in the oil bulk phase, a greater decrease in interfacial tension was observed compared to the case where only asphaltene is present in the bulk. Also, the lowest interfacial tension was observed for seawater salinity. Furthermore, the findings of this study will enrich the literature of enhanced oil recovery in the field studies on asphaltene and smart water.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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Journal of Petroleum Research
Volume 35, 1404-2 - Serial Number 141
July and August 2025
Pages 42-58

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