Engineering Commons^™

Preformed Partial Gel Injection Chased By Low-Salinity Waterflooding In Fractured Carbonate Cores, Ali K. Alhuraishawy, Baojun Bai, Mingzhen Wei, Abdullah Almansour

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Fractures and oil-wet conditions significantly limit oil recovery in carbonate reservoirs. Gel treatment has been applied in injector wells to modify the prevailing reservoir streamlines and significantly reduce fracture permeability, whereas low-salinity waterflooding has been applied experimentally to modify rock wettability toward water-wet for improved oil recovery. However, both processes have limitations that cannot be resolved using a single method. The objective of this study was to test whether low-salinity water could enable gel particles to move deeply into fractures to efficiently increase oil recovery and control water production. A semitransparent fracture model of carbonate cores and acrylic plates was …