A Laboratory and Field Study of Wettability Adjustment in Water Flooding
Authors: Leach R.O. , Wagner O.R. , Wood H.W. , Harpke C.F. 
Published: December 2007

A field test has been made in which additional oil recovery was obtained from a previously-waterflooded "oil-wet" sandstone reservoir. This recovery improvement was accomplished by adjusting the reservoir wettability through chemical treatment of the flood water. The test was made in the Muddy "J" sand of the West Harrisburg Unit, Neb. The chemical used, sodium hydroxide, was injected as a slug of dilute caustic solution through a water-injection well. The natural wettability of the reservoir and the chemical requirements for reversing wettability were determined in the laboratory from contact-angle studies using field water and oil samples. Laboratory flood tests with a synthetic system had shown that reversing the wettability of an oil-wet consolidated core would lead to improved oil recovery. The field performance indicates that the mechanism by which increased oil recovery is obtained in the field is the same as that observed in the laboratory. Laboratory studies indicate that higher ultimate recoveries and decreased water-injection requirements result when the adjusting agent is added early in the life of the flood. However, a previously waterflooded area was intentionally chosen for the field test so that unambiguous conclusions could be made about the effects of chemical injection on wettability and the extent of oil-recovery improvement afforded by wettability reversal.

Introduction

Forces existing at the fluid-solid and fluid-fluid interfaces in a porous medium have an important effect on oil recovery during a water flood. Modifying these interfacial forces in the reservoir to improve oil recovery has been the object of much research. Several papers have discussed the use of surfactants to lower the water-oil interfacial tension. This paper describes work concerned with improving oil recovery by modifying the forces at the fluid-solid interfaces--that is, by changing the preferential wettability. An earlier paper presented evidence to show that some reservoir systems could be changed from preferentially oil-wet to preferentially water-wet by the action of simple chemicals added to the water to increase waterflood oil recovery. The process was attractive for further study because it used only inexpensive chemicals and because it called for a gross "wettability reversal" rather than for a precise adjustment. The present paper is an extension of the earlier work. Laboratory flow tests were made using treated water and oil in a consolidated core to determine the amount of additional oil recovery and the producing performance which might be expected from reversing the wettability of an oil-wet reservoir during a flood. A contact-angle study using water and oil from the Muddy "J" sand of the Harrisburg field, Banner County, Neb., indicated the reservoir to he preferentially oil-wet and susceptible to wettability reversal through chemical injection. Based on these studies, a field trial of wettability-reversal water flooding was initiated in the Harrisburg field. The primary purpose of the trial was to determine if wettability-reversal flooding would improve oil recovery in an actual field situation. The field trial was also an important test of the laboratory technique used to determine the effect on oil recovery of certain wettability manipulations, as well as a test of the contact-angle method of determining reservoir wettability. The paper is presented in two parts. The first part covers the laboratory experiments leading up to the field trial, and the second part covers the field trial.

PART I-LABORATORY STUDY

The laboratory experiments consisted of displacement tests using an idealized fluid system and of a contact-angle study with crude and water from the Muddy "J" sand of the West Harrisburg Unit, Banner County, Neb. The displacement tests were designed to determine the effects of a particular wettability manipulation, oil-wet to water-wet, on oil displacement in a water flood. The contact-angle measurements were made to determine the natural wettability of the reservoir and to determine if beneficial wetting changes could be brought about by a chemical addition to the flood water.

JPT

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