The petroleum industry faces a significant problem in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) from carbonate reservoirs because of their mostly oil-wet character, which restricts hydrocarbon extraction. To better understand how surfactant-polymer techniques can enhance oil recovery, this study investigates the effectiveness of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as a stand-alone agent and the function of ionically modified smart water on carbonate properties. The study focuses on its effect on critical parameters essential for effective oil displacement and recovery, such as wettability alteration, interfacial tension, and surface tension (ST) using different brines (smart water). The ability of the polymer PVA to lower interfacial and surface tensi

This work was conducted to study limestone rock wettability alteration to enhance oil recovery by flooding using different Nano silica (NS) sizes suspended in saline water and compared with flooding solution of polyethylene glycol (PEG) polymer and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) surfactant, the stability of nanofluids measured by zeta potential. In the flooding system, the secondary recovery by silica nanofluids (0.01 wt. % NS concentration) achieved an oil recovery of 35vol. % and 26.08 vol. % for 10, 52 nm after primary recovery respectively, while PEG polymer and SDS surfactant achieved oil recovery of 5 vol. % and 10 vol. % only respectively. The stability of pressure difference approved that silica nanoparticle never causes any p

Changing oil-wet surfaces toward higher water wettability is of key importance in subsurface engineering applications. This includes petroleum recovery from fractured limestone reservoirs, which are typically mixed or oil-wet, resulting in poor productivity as conventional waterflooding techniques are inefficient. A wettability change toward more water-wet would significantly improve oil displacement efficiency, and thus productivity. Another area where such a wettability shift would be highly beneficial is carbon geo-sequestration, where compressed CO2 is pumped underground for storage. It has recently been identified that more water-wet formations can store more CO2. We thus examined how silica based nanofluids can induce such a wettabil

Oil recovery from carbonate reservoirs is one of the critical challenges in the oil industry due to the strongly oil-wet nature, natural fractures, and the heterogeneity of carbonate rocks. Subsequently, waterflooding can only displace oil from large fractures, leaving the majority of oil trapped in the rock matrix. This work suggests that nanofluid flooding, as a predesigned flooding method, is an alternative to conventional waterflooding. Various concentrations of silica nanofluid at different nanoparticle concentrations were formulated and systematically investigated for their characteristics, stability at reservoir conditions, and their influence on wettability and oil recovery. Silica nanoparticles were sustainably synthesized

Nanofluid treatment of oil reservoirs is being developed to enhance oil recovery and increase residual trapping capacities of CO2 at the reservoir scale. Recent studies have demonstrated good potential for silica nanoparticles for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) at ambient conditions. Nanofluid composition and exposure time have shown significant effects on the efficiency of EOR. However, there is a serious lack of information regarding the influence of temperature on nanofluid performance; thus the effects of temperature, exposure time and particle size on wettability alteration of oil-wet calcite surface were comprehensively investigated; moreover, the stability of the nanofluids was examined. We found that nanofluid treatment is more efficie

Naturally carbonate reservoirs have very low oil recovery efficiency owing to their wettability and tightness of matrix. However, adding surfactant to brine solution can enhance oil recovery by changing the wettability of the carbonate rock surface from oil-wet to water-wet. In the present study, the effects of different brines in the presence of surfactant hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), on the wettability of carbonate rock were investigated through different characteristics such as surface tension interfacial tension and contact angle. The best concentration of CTAB was investigated at 500 ppm in brine (NaCl) reduced surface tension and interfacial tensions to 42 mN/m and 15 mN/m respectively and prevented reservoir fro

Nanofluids, liquid suspensions of nanoparticles (Np), are an effective agent to alter the wettability of oil-wet reservoirs to water-wet thus promoting hydrocarbon recovery. It can also have an application to more efficient carbon storage. We present a series of contact angle (θ) investigations on initially oil-wet calcite surfaces to quantify the performance of hydrophilic silica nanoparticles for wettability alteration. These tests are conducted at typical in-situ high pressure (CO2), temperature and salinity conditions. A high pressure–temperature (P/T) optical cell with a regulated tilted surface was used to measure the advancing and receding contact angles at the desired conditions. The results showed that silica nanofluids can alte