Low Salinity Waterflooding; A Promising Prospect to Improve Oil Recovery in the Niger Delta Oil Fields

Abstract

Low salinity waterflooding is considered one of the most promising and cost–effective methods in oil recovery as a result of wettability change from oil-wet to water-wet. This work considered reducing the residual oil saturation by injection of low salt concentration in order to improve oil recovery. The objective of the study is to reduce the residual oil saturation. In this study, Simulation has been carried out on a synthetic model by using (ECLIPSE 100) as the simulator. Different Salinities of 500ppm,1000ppm, 1500ppm, 2000ppm, 5000ppm, 7000ppm, 10000ppm,30000ppm and 40000ppm were evaluated. Low salinity water was injected at the first year of production and continues to the end of the production life.Effect of salinity on oil recovery was also evaluated. The results obtained showed that low salinity waterflooding improved oil recovery at different salinity as compared to fresh water waterflooding. In conclusion, based on the results of this work, it is possible to choose the best salinity ratio that gives the lowest residual oil saturation.