Chapter 1 N 5 Shah-Edited

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of Study
Generally, oil recovery occurs through two main processes, which are
primary recovery and secondary recovery. Primary recovery commonly comes from
natural drives; which are rock and liquid expansion drive, depletion drive, gas cap
drive, water drive, and gravity drainage drive. Meanwhile, secondary recovery refers
to the introduction of additional energy into the reservoir. One of most common
technique in secondary recovery is water injection or waterflooding. Briefly, the
purpose of waterflooding is to maintain the reservoir pressure and displace the
remaining oil in the reservoir. Satter et al., (2008) mentioned that waterflooding
technique has been widely used mainly due to wide availability of water , and lower
capital investment and operating costs. Ordinarily, maximum total oil recovery after
primarily and secondary stage is 40% to 60% (Farouq and Thomas, 1996). The
remaining oil is trapped mostly because of the heterogeneity of reservoir,
unfavorable wettability and capillary trapping. To recover this remaining oil,
advanced methods, which have become known as enhanced oil recovery (EOR)
method is necessary.
About more than 60% worlds oil reserves are held in carbonate reservoirs
(Sheng et al., 2010). It is noted that oil recovery in these reservoirs is lower ascribed
by two leading factors that are fractured reservoir and oil-wet rock. Therefore, many
researches conducted have been focusing on wettability alteration of the rock and
apparently, there is an increasing interest in using chemical for this purpose. Adding
chemical agents such as surfactants can modify the wettability of carbonate rock
system from oil-wet to more water-wet condition (Mohammadi et al., 2014).
Wettability alteration of rock by surfactants was studied and the usage of ionic
surfactants has been considered as feasible method for the recovery of oil reservoirs
by modifying the wettability of rock surface from oil-wet to water-wet.
In 2010, Chabert et al perceived 80 % of carbonate reservoir classified as

neutral to oil-wet due to the positive zeta potential of the rock surface. The
adsorption of polar organic component presents in crude oil might change the
original water-wet calcite surfaces to be oil-wet. Cationic surfactant was observed to
perform better than anionic surfactant in changing wettability of carbonate rock from
oil-wet to more water-wet. This is due to the formation of ion pairs between the
cationic heads of the surfactants molecules and the acidic components of the crude
oil absorbed on the surface of carbonate rock (Austad et al., 1997). However,
according to Salehi et al., (2008) anionic surfactant molecules form a monolayer on
the surface of carbonate rock through hydrophobic interaction of the tails of the
surfactants molecules with the absorbed crude oil components on the rock surfaces.
In addition, the hydrophobic interaction are much weaker than ion pair interaction,
this explains why cationic surfactants have better performance than anionic
surfactants in altering carbonate rocks wettability to a more water-wet state.
Nanotechnology is developing in oil and gas industry due to its potential to

solve or manage several problems in the petroleum industries. EOR is one of the
potential areas of nanotechnology application. Nanoparticles have the ability to alter
certain factors in the formations and oil properties and this can be advantageous to
enhance oil recovery (Ogolo et al., 2012). The author also reported that the
wettability of a formation could be changed by applications of nanoparticles. Several
studies have been conducted and the applications of nanoparticles to change rock
wettability and its subsequent effects on oil recovery have been documented by
several authors (Karimi et al., 2012, Ogolo et al., 2012, and Hendraningrat et al.,
2013). Nanoparticles can enhance the recovery through two major mechanisms, via
interfacial tension reduction or wettability alterations (Roustaei et al., 2012). In
2013, Hendraningrat et al. stated that the displacement mechanism by nanoparticles
is called as structural disjoining pressure mechanism. Brownian motion and
electrostatic repulsion between the nanoparticles are the energies that drive this
mechanism in which smaller size nanoparticles would cause a bigger repulsion force.
Structural disjoining pressure is associated to the fluids ability to spread along the
surface of a substrate due to the imbalance interfacial forces among solid, oil phase
and aqueous phase, which is the nanofluid. The interfacial forces will cause the
nanofluids contact angle to decrease and the result is called as wedge film and this
wedge film will act to separate formation fluids such as oil from the formation
surface (Liu et al., 2012).
Nanoparticles have high energy surface and therefore the adsorption of

nanoparticles on a solid surface can change the surface energy and subsequently
change the wettability of the rocks. In this research, the introduction of nanofluids to
alter the wettability of carbonate rock is studied by experimental approach in which
the experiment is also covering the stability of nanofluids the effect of nanofluids on
IFT.
1.2 Problem Statement
Current world oil production mostly comes from mature fields and over the
past decades, oil-based companies are maximizing the oil production from these
fields. However, stagnant oil production and unimpressive recovery by primary and
secondary recovery caused the situation to be more precarious (Roustaei et al, 2012).
Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technologies are necessary to meet the energy demand
in many more years to come.
There is a huge interest to enhance recovery from the carbonate rock system
by considering the remaining amount of oil in place. The addition of some chemical
agents such as surfactants and nanoparticles into the injecting water can modify the
wettability of the rock surface. In spite of all reported studies, the performance of
aluminium oxide nanoparticles and zirconium oxide nanoparticles in cationic
surfactant to alter wettability of oil-wet dolomite to more oil-wet condition has not
yet well studied.
Therefore, this research is carried out to investigate and identify the types of
nanoparticles that are effective as wettability modifiers. The challenging part in this
study is to understand the mechanisms involved in this alteration. Parameters such as
the nanofluids concentrations and the stability of the colloids are very important and
are investigated in order to achieve optimized conditions in this study.
1.3 Objectives of Study
The objectives of this research are as follows:
I. To study the stability of nano solution and the quantities of

nanoparticles deposition during the transport through
dolomite rock.
II. To investigate the wettability alteration of dolomite rock
system after introduction of nano solution.
III. To study the effect of wettability alteration on the oil recovery.
1.4 Scopes of Work
The research scopes are as follows:
I. Preparation of nano solution by dispersing nanoparticles in cationic

surfactant with presence of sodium chloride.
II. Investigation of the stability of the nano solution by conducting zeta
potential, sedimentation test and transport of nanoparticles through porous
media.
III. Investigation of the effect of nanoparticles on IFT reduction by conducting
interfacial tension (IFT) before and after addition of nanoparticles into the
solution.
IV. Evaluation of the adsorption mechanism of CTAB on dolomite rock by
performing kinetic adsorption study of the surfactant.
V. Alteration of rocks wettability under static condition.
VI. Evaluation of the wettability of the rocks by quantitative method will be by
measuring the contact angle at ambient condition.
VII. Investigation of the effectiveness of nano solution to act as enhanced oil
recovery agent by conducting an oil displacement experiment in sand pack
model at ambient condition.
1.5 Significant of Study

Discovering new field is very challenging and most carbonate rock system is
oil-wet and the recovery from these reservoirs is relatively low. Hence, optimizing
oil production from the existing well is one of the best ways. However, unfavorable
wettability from these reservoirs may become a great challenge. Therefore, by
altering wettability of carbonate oil reservoir, the spontaneous water imbibition into
matrix block can be accelerated and thus increasing the oil recovery during
waterflooding. Besides that, the ability of nanoparticles to alter certain factors stands
as an excellent option to the enhanced oil recovery.
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSION AND RECOMENDATION
5.1 Conclusion
Favorable wettability of the reservoir rock can enhance the oil

recovery from the reservoir. Wettability alteration by using
chemical and nanoparticles has gain a lot of attention from many
researchers and in this study, application of CTAB surfactant and
nanoparticles to alter wettability of oil-wet dolomite rock was
studied. From the screening process, it was found that Al 2O3 and
ZrO2 were the top two from nine other nanoparticles in altering oil-
wet dolomite rock to more water-wet condition and therefore they
were subjected for further testing. Few conclusions can be drawn
from this study are:
1. The stability of Al2O3 and ZrO2 nano solution were studied and
it was found that for both nanoparticles, the most stable
mass concentration of nanoparticles was at 0.5 wt %. The
zeta potential for 0.5 wt % Al2O3 nano solution and ZrO2 nano
solution was +17.4 mV and +10.9 mV respectively. In
comparison, Al2O3 nano solution was discovered to be more
stable than ZrO2 nano solution. Supplementary to that, in
nanoparticles transport test, the amount of Al2O3
nanoparticles that can be recovered was 55 % meanwhile
ZrO2 nanoparticles recovery was 52.5%. The higher recovery
of Al2O3 shows a higher stability of the colloidal.
2. Wettability alteration of oil-wet dolomite rock was determined by
measuring the contact angle of the water droplet on the rock
surface. CTAB can alter the wettability of oil-wet dolomite rock to
water-wet condition and dispersion of nanoparticles into the CTAB
surfactant can enhance the alteration to a stronger water wet
condition. At below CMC value, the water droplet contact angle
decreased with the increase of surfactant concentration. At above
CMC value, the reduction of contact angle was not significant with
the increase of surfactant concentration. The highest contact angle
reduction occurred at surfactant concentration of 0.2 wt % with
contact angle of water droplet was decreased to 68 . The results also
found that, the reduction of contact angle can be improved by treatment with addition
of nanoparticles into the surfactant. The highest contact angle reduction of the
dolomite rock after treatment with Al2O3 nano solution and ZrO2 nano
solution was at mass concentration of 0.5 wt %. The wettability
alteration by Al2O3 nano solution was found to be better than ZrO 2
nano solution.
3. Oil displacement test results shows the effectiveness of
nanoparticles to act as enhanced oil recovery agent. The oil
recovery by CTAB surfactant was 14.1% from the remaining oil
trapped in the reservoir. Nonetheless, the sand pack model that was
treated with Al2O3 nano solution and ZrO2 nano solution shows a
higher recovery. The additional oil recovery by Al 2O3 nano solution
was 20 % and 16.7 % for ZrO2 nano solution from the remaining oil
trapped after secondary recovery. Through contact angle test result,
alteration of wettability by Al2O3 was greater than ZrO2, thus the oil
recovery by Al2O3 was higher than ZrO2. Generally, it can be
concluded that Al2O3 nanoparticles can perform better than ZrO2.
5.2 Recommendation
There are many part in this study need to be improved in order

toobtain good results and worthy for further investigations. The following
are few recommendations for the future works:
To study the effect of pH on stability of nanoparticles and transport

of nanoparticles through the porous media.
To study the effect of ionic strength on nanoparticles stability by
using different type of salt at different concentration.
To study the isotherm adsorption of the surfactant on the dolomite
rock.
To study the effect of salinity on wettability alteration and oil
recovery during secondary and tertiary recovery.
To study the microscopic displacement of oil after injection of
nanoparticles by using micro model.

Chapter 1 N 5 Shah-Edited

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Chapter 1 N 5 Shah-Edited

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Chapter 1 N 5 Shah-Edited

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

CHAPTER 1

1.1 Background of Study

In 2010, Chabert et al perceived 80 % of carbonate reservoir classified as

Nanotechnology is developing in oil and gas industry due to its potential to

Nanoparticles have high energy surface and therefore the adsorption of

1.2 Problem Statement

1.3 Objectives of Study

The objectives of this research are as follows:

I. To study the stability of nano solution and the quantities of

The research scopes are as follows:

I. Preparation of nano solution by dispersing nanoparticles in cationic

1.5 Significant of Study

Favorable wettability of the reservoir rock can enhance the oil

There are many part in this study need to be improved in order

To study the effect of pH on stability of nanoparticles and transport

You might also like