Sharif Digital Repository

Low Salinity Waterflooding (LSWF) has become a popular tertiary injection EOR method recently. Both fluid-fluid and fluid-rock interactions are suggested as the contributing mechanisms on the effectiveness of LSWF. Considering the contradictory remarks in the literature, the dominating mechanisms and necessary conditions for Low Salinity Effect (LSE) varies for different crude oil-brine-rock (CBR) systems. The aim of the present study is to investigate LSE for an oil field in the Middle East that is composed of separate sandstone and limestone layers. Contact angles and Interfacial Tension (IFT) are measured to have more insight on the CBR under investigation. Visual experiments were... 

In this work, a series of solvent- and water-injection scenarios were conducted on horizontal five-spot glass micromodels that were saturated initially with heavy oil. Sandstone and limestone rock look-alike and network patterns with different pore structures were used in the experiments. The results show that the ultimate oil recovery of a water-alternating-solvent (WAS) scheme was greater than that of a simultaneously water-alternating-solvent (SWAS) scheme, and the efficiency of a solvent-soak scheme also offers a greater recovery. Likewise, the WAS scheme resulted in greater oil recovery when compared with continuous solvent injection (CSI), with the same amount of solvent consumption.... 

A twodimensional model, based on conservation of mass, momentum and energy equations, is represented in this paper in which the coke combustion process, for iron ore sintering in a packed bed, is simulated numerically. The aforementioned packed bed consists of iron ore, coke, limestone and moisture. The main objective of iron ore sintering is producing resistant agglomerates which can be used in blast furnaces. For this purpose, the sinter mixture is partially melted in high temperature and finally molten is allowed to cool. The molten production and subsequently, the solidification process are totally dependent on composition and components of mixture. Changes in bed porosity, caused by... 

The effect of an efficient biosurfactant produced from Pseudomonas aeroginosa MR01, a bacterial strain isolated from oil excavation areas in southern Iran, on the recovery of residual oil trapped within carbonate rocks, was investigated. In a core holder set-up, bearing a number of limestone-and dolomite-containing core samples, biosurfactant flooding resulted in oil recoveries as large as 20% to 28% Residual Oil (R.O). Biosurfactant injection in less permeable rocks in a range of 0.5 to 32 md was more successful, in terms of oil production. In the case of the least oil recovery via biosurfactant flooding, incubation of the core with a biosurfactant solution at reservoir conditions,... 

A large amount of the discovered oil reserves are reserved in carbonate formations, which are mostly naturally fractured oil-wet. Wettability alteration towards more water-wet state reduces the capillary barrier, hence improving the oil recovery efficiency in such reservoirs. In this study, wettability alteration towards favorable wetting state was investigated by combining modified low salinity brine with surfactant during water flooding. The diluted brine was modified by increasing the concentration of Mg2+ and SO4 2−, individually as well as both ions in combination. Different brine formulations were tested experimentally through the observations of contact angle measurements and... 

Filtrate and solid invasion from drilling fluids are two key sources of formation damage, and can result in formation permeability impairment. Typically, spurt invasion of mud solids causes the evolution of an external mud cake which tends to reduce further solids and filtrate influx. However, uncontrolled spurt and filtrate invasion are detrimental because they reduce the permeability of the formation. Mud composition, formation rock's permeability and porosity, and temperature can influence both spurt and filtrate invasion. The sizes of mud solids relative to the average pore size of a rock are also important in predicting the extent of mud invasion and permeability impairment. In this... 

Capillary imbibition is an important recovery mechanism in naturally fractured reservoirs when water-filled fractures surround water-wet matrix blocks. A large amount of studies of imbibition process is simply total or partial immersion of nonwetting phase saturated rock in aqueous wetting phase. However, water advance in fractures during water flooding or water encroachment from an active aquifer introduces time dependent boundary conditions where invariant exposure of rock surface to water is not representative. In this work, a laboratory simulated matrix-fracture system was used to investigate different aspects of imbibition in the presence of fracture fluid flow (namely dynamic... 

The petroleum industry suffers from reservoir souring phenomena, which has negative impacts on production facilities, health, and environment. Injection of incompatible water into the reservoir (waterflooding), which is considered as an enhanced oil recovery (EOR) method, is one of the most common causes of reservoir souring. In general, injected brine, especially seawater, contains high amounts of sulfate ion (SO42−). A high concentration of sulfate in the presence of sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) leads to the microbial reservoir souring. During this phenomenon, sulfide, specifically hydrogen sulfide gas (H2S) appears in the producing fluid of the reservoir. In this paper, a coupled... 

Low Salinity Waterflooding (LSWF) has become a popular tertiary injection EOR method recently. Both fluid-fluid and fluid-rock interactions are suggested as the contributing mechanisms on the effectiveness of LSWF. Considering the contradictory remarks in the literature, the dominating mechanisms and necessary conditions for Low Salinity Effect (LSE) varies for different crude oil-brine-rock (CBR) systems. The aim of the present study is to investigate LSE for an oil field in the Middle East that is composed of separate sandstone and limestone layers. Contact angles and Interfacial Tension (IFT) are measured to have more insight on the CBR under investigation. Visual experiments were... 

Employing an effective rheological model for the flow of drilling fluid that can accurately predict changing conditions is of significant importance in drilling fluid optimization. Traditional generalized Newtonian models cannot predict the time change condition, viscoelastic behavior, role of each component, or microstructural behaviors within the fluid. Consequently, the present research aims to develop constitutive equations in the framework of generalized bracket formalisms and the extra tensor concept that connect the microscopic and macroscopic properties and can overcome the aforementioned problems of traditional rheological models. The developed model is applicable for drilling fluid... 

Mud filtration happens during an overbalanced drilling operation that causes mud invasion into pores and fractures. The productivity of a formation is significantly affected by the invasion of the mud into the near-wellbore area during the mud loss process. A considerable number of studies have evaluated mud filtration statically; however, a few studies have considered the dynamic behavior of a mud loss process during overbalanced drilling, which results in the inadequate prediction of the mud loss volume and inflicted damage to the formation. In this study, a near-wellbore simulation system (NeWSS) was designed to evaluate the dynamic mud loss behavior using dimensionless parameters and... 

Employing an effective rheological model for the flow of drilling fluid that can accurately predict changing conditions is of significant importance in drilling fluid optimization. Traditional generalized Newtonian models cannot predict the time change condition, viscoelastic behavior, role of each component, or microstructural behaviors within the fluid. Consequently, the present research aims to develop constitutive equations in the framework of generalized bracket formalisms and the extra tensor concept that connect the microscopic and macroscopic properties and can overcome the aforementioned problems of traditional rheological models. The developed model is applicable for drilling fluid...