An Experimental Investigation of High and Low Salinity Waterflood Displacement Under the Steady-State Condition

Oil recovery by low salinity waterflood is significantly affected by fluid-fluid interaction through the micro-dispersion effect. This interaction influences rock wettability and relative permeability functions. Therefore, to gain a better insight into multiphase flow in porous media and perform numerical simulations, reliable relative permeability data is crucial. Unsteady-state or steady-state displacement methods are commonly used in the laboratory to measure water-oil relative permeability curves of a core sample. Experimentally, the unsteady-state core flood technique is more straightforward and less time-consuming compared to the steady-state method. However, the obtained data is limited to a small saturation range, and the associated uncertainty is not negligible. On the other hand, the steady-state method provides a more accurate dataset of two-phase relative permeability needed in the reservoir simulator for a reliable prediction of the high salinity and low salinity waterflood displacement performance. Considering the limitations of the unsteady state method, steady-state high salinity and low salinity brine experiments waterflood experiments were performed to compare the obtained relative permeability curves. The experiments were performed on a carbonate reservoir sample using a live reservoir crude oil under reservoir conditions. The test was designed so that the production and pressure drop curve covers a wider saturation range and provides enough data for analysis. Consequently, reliable relative permeability functions were obtained, initially, for a better comparison and prediction of the high salinity and the low salinity waterflood injections and then, to quantify the effect of low salinity waterflood under steady-state conditions. The results confirm the difference in relative permeability curves between high salinity and low salinity injections due to the micro-dispersion effect, which caused a decrease in water relative permeability and an increase in the oil relative permeability. These results also proved that low salinity brine can change the rock wettability from oil-wet or mixed-wet to more water-wet conditions. Furthermore, the obtained relative permeability curves extend across a substantial saturation range, making it valuable information required for numerical simulations. To the best of our knowledge, the reported data in this work is a pioneer in quantifying the impact of low salinity waterflood at steady-state conditions using a reservoir crude oil and reservoir rock, which is of utmost importance for the oil and gas industry.