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Experimental Investigation of the Displacement Efficiency of Surfactant Flooding in Fractured Porous Medium Using One-Quarter Five Spot Micromodel

Kianinejad, Amir | 2010

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  1. Type of Document: M.Sc. Thesis
  2. Language: Farsi
  3. Document No: 41162 (06)
  4. University: Sharif University of Technology
  5. Department: Chemical and Petroleum Engineering
  6. Advisor(s): Rashtchian, Davood; Kharraat, Riaz; Ghazanfari, Mohammad
  7. Abstract:
  8. Naturally fractured oil reservoirs represent over 20% of the world's oil reserves, while over 60% of the world’s remaining oil lies trapped in fractured reservoirs. However, relatively little success has been achieved in increasing oil production from these complex reservoirs. Water flooding process leaves much oil in the reservoir, especially in fractured reservoirs. Surfactant flooding is known to lower the interfacial tension and hence, reduces capillary forces responsible for trapping oil and increasing recovery. However, fundamental understanding how the fracture geometrical properties affect the oil recovery efficiency during surfactant flooding remains a topic of debate in the literature. Especially for five-spot systems. In this vein, laboratory experiments involving flow visualization, using glass micromodels, represent a valuable tool for gaining a better understanding of the effect of various characteristics of a porous medium such as different fracture geometrical properties on the fluid flow behavior in pore scale. To do so, flow patterns with different fractures geometrical properties were designed and constructed. These patterns were used to investigate the effect of different fractures parameters such as length, orientation, density, arrangement, scattering on continuity in porous media. Two surfactant solutions -SDS and LABS- as well as distilled water were used to investigate the effect of fractures geometrical properties on oil recovery efficiency during surfactant injection in one-quarter five spot glass micromodels. Precise analyses of continuously recorded pictures during the experiments were used to determine the oil recovery efficiency. In addition, using microscopic pictures, pore scale events were also investigated. The results showed that, the average oil recovery during water injection is a strong function of the fracture properties, whereas use of Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate solution extremely reduces the effect of fracture geometrical properties. In the second part of this study, surfactant solutions containing worm-like micelles with extremely high surface activity as well as high viscosity and viscoelasticity behavior were prepared as a good candidate for high efficient flooding type in heavy oil reservoirs. The recovery efficiencies of these worm-like solutions then were studied using micromodel system. The results demonstrate the high recovery efficiency of these worm-like surfactant solutions. Finally, using one of commercial petroleum reservoir simulator softwares, the micromodel experiments were simulated and matched with experimental results of this project
  9. Keywords:
  10. Five-Spot Micromodel ; Enhanced Oil Recovery ; Experimental Method ; Surfactants ; Fracture Geometrical Properties ; Surfactant Worm-Like Micelles

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