EFFECT OF WETTABILITY ON THE OIL RECOVERY MECHANISMS

Abstract

Abstract: In hydrocarbon reservoirs the ultimate oil recovery is the main goal for all petroleum companies, the recovery mechanism are different from reservoir to another and it depends of several criteria, either in microscopic or macroscopic level. The wettability of the rock to a fluid is a fundamental factor as it impacts on the capillary phenomena in particular while the two main flowing process, the imbibition (the re-saturation) process can be happen spontaneous or forced it depends of the value of the capillary pressure (Pc). A spontaneous or forced imbibition process impacts directly to oil recovery factor for a water-wet system, the important amount of the oil is recovery by applying the spontaneous imbibition process, and no further increase in water saturation in the forced imbibition process. Otherwise, for an oil-wet the process there will be a significant recovery by forced water injection and for a mixed wet system layers can lead to medium oil recovery by spontaneous imbibition, followed by significant further recovery by forced water injection as a greater force is applied to displace the oil. Through this project a bibliographic research work will be done to check the impact of the wettability on the oil recovery mechanism and the different factors altering the rock wettability. Reservoir wettability plays an important role in various oil recovery processes. It is a significant issue in multiphase flow problems ranging from oil migration from source rocks to such enhanced recovery processes as alternate injection of CO2 and water. Key words: enhanced oil recovery, wettability, alteration, recovery, injection.