Study of the effect of Illite and Kaolinite on low salinity water injection

Low salinity water flooding as an Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) Technique refers to the injection of brine with\ud a lower salt content or ionic strength into an oil reservoir. Although the mechanisms have not yet been verified,\ud the solution and surface chemistry as well as rock/fluid interactions have important roles that can be attributed to\ud reservoir minerals being sensitive to small changes in solution properties.\ud Among the proposed mechanisms, the clay content of rock and type of clay has been of significant interest in\ud shedding light on the low salinity water flooding process. In this paper, two clay types (illite and kaolinite) have\ud been selected to investigate the individual contribution of each on the rock surface characterization andlow\ud salinity water flooding performance.\ud The results from contact angle measurement on the oil-wet calcite by low salinity water at room temperature\ud show that the presence of low content of illite in the rock materials, in contrast to the kaolinite, reduces the\ud contact angle significantly. This observation demonstrates that the low salinity water flooding performance\ud depends strongly on the type of clay not on the amount of clay.\u