There are many carbonate reservoirs in US (and the world) with light oil and fracture pressure below its minimum miscibility pressure (or reservoir may be naturally fractured). Many carbonate reservoirs are naturally fractured. Waterflooding is effective in fractured reservoirs, if the formation is water-wet. Many fractured carbonate reservoirs, however, are mixed-wet and recoveries with conventional methods are low (less than 10%). Thermal and miscible tertiary recovery techniques are not effective in these reservoirs. Surfactant flooding (or huff-n-puff) is the only hope, yet it was developed for sandstone reservoirs in the past. The goal of this research is to evaluate dilute (hence relatively inexpensive) surfactant methods for carbonate formations and identify conditions under which they can be effective. Anionic surfactants (SS-6656, Alfoterra 35, 38, 63,65,68) have been identified which can change the wettability of the calcite surface to intermediate/water-wet condition as well or better than the cationic surfactant DTAB with a West Texas crude oil in the presence of Na{sub 2}CO{sub 3}. All the carbonate surfaces (Lithographic Limestone, Marble, Dolomite and Calcite) show similar behavior with respect to wettability alteration with surfactant 4-22. Anionic surfactants (5-166, Alfoterra-33 and Alfoterra-38 and Alfoterra-68), which lower the interfacial tension with a West Texas crude …

There are many carbonate reservoirs in US (and the world) with light oil and fracture pressure below its minimum miscibility pressure (or reservoir may be naturally fractured). Many carbonate reservoirs are naturally fractured. Waterflooding is effective in fractured reservoirs, if the formation is water-wet. Many fractured carbonate reservoirs, however, are mixed-wet and recoveries with conventional methods are low (less than 10%). Thermal and miscible tertiary recovery techniques are not effective in these reservoirs. Surfactant flooding (or huff-n-puff) is the only hope, yet it was developed for sandstone reservoirs in the past. The goal of this research is to evaluate dilute (hence relatively inexpensive) surfactant methods for carbonate formations and identify conditions under which they can be effective. Imbibition in an originally oil-wet 2D capillary is the fastest in the case of Alf-38 and slowest in the case of DTAB (among the surfactants studied). Force of adhesion studies and contact angle measurements show that greater wettability alteration is possible with these anionic surfactants than the cationic surfactant studied. The water imbibition rate does not increase monotonically with an increase in the surfactant concentration. A numerical model has been developed that fits the rate of imbibition. Plans for the next quarter include …

There are many carbonate reservoirs in US (and the world) with light oil and fracture pressure below its minimum miscibility pressure (or reservoir may be naturally fractured). Many carbonate reservoirs are naturally fractured. Waterflooding is effective in fractured reservoirs, if the formation is water-wet. Many fractured carbonate reservoirs, however, are mixed-wet and recoveries with conventional methods are low (less than 10%). Thermal and miscible tertiary recovery techniques are not effective in these reservoirs. Surfactant flooding (or huff-n-puff) is the only hope, yet it was developed for sandstone reservoirs in the past. The goal of this research is to evaluate dilute (hence relatively inexpensive) surfactant methods for carbonate formations and identify conditions under which they can be effective. We have acquired field oil and core samples and field brine compositions from Marathon. We have conducted preliminary adsorption and wettability studies. Addition of Na{sub 2}CO{sub 3} decreases anionic surfactant adsorption on calcite surface. Receding contact angles increase with surfactant adsorption. Plans for the next quarter include conducting adsorption, phase behavior and wettability studies.