The Development of a Workflow to Improve Predictive Capability of Low Salinity Response

摘要

Low Salinity Waterflooding (LSF) is an emerging improved oil recovery (IOR) technology that has been shown to work in a number of cases, while sometimes – unexpectedly – no incremental oil production is observed. Industry has not yet reached consensus on the mechanism behind LSF, which precludes effective screening and prioritization of LSF candidate fields. In this paper a workflow is introduced that improves the way fields are screened for their LSF potential. It employs closely interlinked experiments and modeling work from the molecular scale to the macroscopic Darcy scale, thereby closing gaps that previously impeded the predictability of the low salinity effect. The new workflow is based on the notion that wettability is a surface phenomenon. Elucidation of the low salinity mechanism should thus not be based on bulk measurements, but rather on the characterization of surface compositions and forces.