Improved Recovery by Optimizing Water Flooding- An Experimental Approach

Since the inception of water flooding it has been used to improve recovery from oil reservoirs mainly light and medium oil and has very high success rate than other methods due to high recovery factor and low costs associated with it. Clay minerals are present as rock matrix in sandstone reservoir and adversely affect during water flooding as they swell and decrease the porosity and block the pore throat thus resulting in reduced production. An experimental study was done to determine formation damage due to clay swelling, and to identify a cost effective clay stabilizer to be used in the injection water. The study included performing core flood experiments using sandstone reservoir cores, analysing the effects of stabilizer type and concentration on permeability of core in detail and selecting critical salt concentration, below which there is loss of permeability occurs. Based on the data obtained, analysis of change in porosity and permeability was done. With the help of data obtained, clay swelling effect has been seen while flooding with distilled water; it reduces by the use of clay stabilizer. At the same time use of brine in place of distilled water increases recovery efficiency of water flooding, thus improving recovery