• Login
    View Item 
    •   Home
    • Theses & Dissertations
    • 2014 - Mines Theses & Dissertations
    • View Item
    •   Home
    • Theses & Dissertations
    • 2014 - Mines Theses & Dissertations
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Browse

    All of Mines RepositoryCommunitiesPublication DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionPublication DateAuthorsTitlesSubjects

    My Account

    Login

    Mines Links

    Arthur Lakes LibraryColorado School of Mines

    Statistics

    Display Statistics

    Evaluation of low salinity waterflooding in carbonates using simulation and economics, An

    • CSV
    • RefMan
    • EndNote
    • BibTex
    • RefWorks
    Thumbnail
    Name:
    Althani_mines_0052N_10466.pdf
    Size:
    5.106Mb
    Format:
    PDF
    Description:
    An evaluation of low salinity ...
    Download
    Author
    Althani, Mohammed G.
    Advisor
    Hoffman, B. Todd
    Date issued
    2014
    Date submitted
    2014
    Keywords
    low salinity
    IOR
    Oil field flooding
    Oil field flooding -- Computer simulation
    Oil saturation in reservoirs
    Permeability
    Enhanced oil recovery -- Economic aspects
    
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/11124/461
    Abstract
    Improving oil recovery by low salinity waterflooding (LSWF) has gained a lot of attention in the last two decades. The effect of LSWF was demonstrated by coreflooding experiments in several core samples from sandstone and carbonate reservoirs around the world. This effect has also been shown in a field scale by some field pilot trials. While the exact mechanisms that cause increased recovery due to LSWF are not fully understood, most agree that changes in wettability and interfacial tension are the reasons that LSWF perform better than high salinity waterflooding (HSWF). LSWF can therefore be modeled by changing the property that determines the effect of wettability in fluid flow equations, which is the relative permeability. In this research, coreflooding results from a carbonate reservoir are used to find the relation between the relative permeability curves for HSWF and LSWF. A numerical simulation model of the coreflooding experiment showed that the relative permeability for the LSWF can be estimated by changing only one parameter in the Corey-type relative permeability equation of the HSWF: residual oil saturation. An application of this result was performed on a full-field simulation model to evaluate the effect of LSWF using simulation and economics. The field model was built for a carbonate reservoir in the Madison formation of Wyoming. The simulation results showed an increase in the recovery by more than 5% of the oil in place by using LSWF instead of HSWF. An economic analysis was performed to determine if the additional oil would justify the expense of making low salinity water. With proper assumptions of the construction and operating costs of a water desalination plant, a development plan with LSWF showed a higher net present value than a development with HSWF. This research provides a practical approach to evaluate the effect of LSWF on certain fields using simulation. It provides a screening tool to quickly evaluate the oil gain from the LSWF before spending money on core samples testing for further research.
    Rights
    Copyright of the original work is retained by the author.
    Collections
    2014 - Mines Theses & Dissertations

    entitlement

     
    DSpace software (copyright © 2002 - 2022)  DuraSpace
    Quick Guide | Contact Us
    Open Repository is a service operated by 
    Atmire NV
     

    Export search results

    The export option will allow you to export the current search results of the entered query to a file. Different formats are available for download. To export the items, click on the button corresponding with the preferred download format.

    By default, clicking on the export buttons will result in a download of the allowed maximum amount of items.

    To select a subset of the search results, click "Selective Export" button and make a selection of the items you want to export. The amount of items that can be exported at once is similarly restricted as the full export.

    After making a selection, click one of the export format buttons. The amount of items that will be exported is indicated in the bubble next to export format.