WETTABILITY ALTERATION

Kai Lang Huang, China University of Petroleum, Beijing Campus (CUP)

Abstract
Wettability of rocks is a combined character reflecting the
interaction between the rock mineral and the reservoir fluids, as
important as other parameters such as porosity, the permeability,
the saturation, and the pore pressure. Wettability alteration, refers
to the reversal of wettability of rock from oil-wet to water-wet or
from water-wet to oil-wet similarly, making a great contribution to
enhancing oil recovery, caused by the injected soluble surfactants
mainly researched in this paper. When the formation is water-wet, a
large amount of oil can be drive out. This paper mainly research the
mechanisms for wettability alteration, and its application in EOR
and what type and kind of surfactants can be used to improve oil
recovery.

Introduction
Wettability is evaluated by measuring water-oil contact angles,
when measured at different stages, different angle can obtain thus
indicating the rock is oil-wet or water-wet. The term wettability
alteration, also called wettability reversal refers to reversal of the
wettability of a solid surface where surface-active substances are
adsorbed. For example sand, are water-wet originally, but when the
rock core was saturated with surface-active substance, due to
adsorption, sand grain can become oil-wet. Similarly, for some rock,
oil-wetting originally can also undergo a wettability alteration.
Wettability alteration can take place during active production stage
and also depending on the variations of surface properties of grains
and fluid compositions changes across the reservoir.
It has been recognized that half of the worlds known oil
reservoir are in carbonate reservoirs. Many of these carbonate
reservoir

are

naturally

fractured,

however

most

carbonate

reservoirs(about most 80%) are oil-wet or mix-wet , thus if the

formation is water-wet , the positive capitally forces helps in

imbibing water into the matrix and expelling the oil out, enhancing
the oil recovery by the wettability alteration during surfactant
flooding or Surfactant-polymer flooding in carbonate reservoirs.
Hence fractured reservoir with high low matrix permeability need
EOR technique to achieve maximum production, dilute surfactants
with appropriated amounts are developed to dramatically improve
the oil recovery from the fractured carbonates.

The mechanism of the wettability alteration

Wettability is a major factor in controlling the location, flow, and
distribution of fluids in a reservoir. Polar crude oil components can
be adsorb on mineral surfaces and alter their wetting properties. Its
essential to recognize that the polar components of the crude oils
can be adsorb by several distinct mechanisms, depending on factors
that include brine composition and the solvent quality of the oil for
its asphaltenes. Its recognized that there exit four types of
mechanical interaction. ( I ) polar interaction that predominate in
the absence of a water film between oil and solid, ( ii ) surface
precipitation .dependent mainly on crude oil solvent properties with
respect to the asphaltenes, ( iii ) acid/base interaction that control
surface charge at oil/water and solid/water interfaces, ( iv ) ion
binding or specific interactions between charged sites and higher
high valence ions. Fig a clearly shows the mechanism of the function
of surfactant, it indicates that molecules of the anionic surfactant
(red circles show) can be adsorb by several distinct mechanisms
into the interface, while the polar components of the crude oil are
also be adsorb into the interface, during the spontaneous imbibition
of anionic surfactants into the oil-wet carbonate, active surfactants
reduce the contact angle thus alert the wettability of the rock, the
capillary pressure as driving force, increase the oil production.

The Effect of Wettability alteration

As saturation is one of the key parameters in the calculations of
the volumetric estimates of hydrocarbon reserves.it appears that all
the physical properties that are related to the saturation are
affected by the rocks wettability. For instance, capillary pressure
curves behave differently depending on the degree of wettability as
depicted in fig.2 for the both water-and oil-wet rocks.

In the formation the wettability affect many parameter, when

the wettability reverse it will definitely cause great effect on the
reservoir. Here list the relationship between the rock physical
parameters (porous plate capillary pressure. Nuclear Magnetic

Resonance electrical resistivity, acoustic velocity etc.)And saturation

measurements under laboratory conditions. When the wettability
reverse, it will cause great change the parameters calculation for
the formation.

Wettability depends on the brine, oil and mineral compositions

as well as temperature and other factors, if the wettability is altered
to water-wet, large amount of oil can be recovered through

spontaneous imbibition.

Impact of wettability alteration on recovery

factor
Half the worlds known oil reservoir are in carbonate reservoirs.
Many of these carbonate reservoir are naturally fractured. About
half of the worlds Wettability alteration during surfactant flooding of
carbonate reservoirs. According to pervious researches, recovery
from fractured, oil-wet/mixed-wet, carbonate reservoirs by water-

flooding is poor. And the reason can be easily classified as in

fractured reservoir, the production mainly relies on the imbibition of
the injection fluid into matrix blocks which expel oil into the fracture
network which, in turn, transport it to the production wells. The oil
recovery from conventional water flooding of fractured carbonate
reservoirs is low due to poor imbibition of water into oil-wet matrix.
On average, primary and water flooding methods leave about 80%
of the original oil in the fractured reservoirs.
Hence fractured reservoir with high low matrix permeability
need EOR technique to achieve maximum production, chemical
enhanced oil recovery in carbonate reservoirs has been studied for
many years and has gained more interest in recent year due to the
high oil prices (although the oil prices are in volatility in short
period). Wettability alteration has received more attention because
carbonate reservoir are much more likely to be fractured and oilwet, surfactant solutions are injected with the aim of changing the
wettability of the matrix to a more water state, and hence
enchanting the spontaneous imbibition process, leading to a higher
oil recovery. There are a wide range of choices in the selection of
surfactants: nonionic surfactant, cationic surfactants and anionic
surfactants.
Here an experiment show the process of the wettability reversal
by nonionic surfactant (A Nonionic Surfactant Ethomeen T/25 was
from Akzo Nobel.), Eight anionic surfactants (A1 to A8: alkyl ether
sulphates and internal olefin sulphonates) and three nonionic
surfactants (N1, N2 and N3) were tested in this study. ethoxy groups
(most in N3, least in N1) The picture of oil droplets on cristobalite
plates submerged in surfactant/brine solution in an optical cell, after
a certain period time ,we can see the contact angle change, thus
the reversion of the wettability taking place.

Here

fig3

is

another

experiment

called

the

imbibition

experiments performed with the surfactants which altered the

wettability of Cristobalite plates.
The picture vividly shows an oil-wet reservoir core. A water drop
placed on top of the aged core does not imbibe, con firming the oil-

wetness of the core.

Fig 3
Fig 4, shows one of the cores placed in a surfactant solution. Oil
droplets come out of the core on all sides as brine imbibes. This
suggests that the dominant imbibition mechanism is the counter
current imbibition due to the capillary pressure gradient caused by
the wettability alteration. High values of inverse bond number imply
high capillary forces compared to buoyancy forces. If the wettability
is altered, these capillary forces aid in the imbibition of brine
through the periphery of the core (Gupta et al. 2008).

Fig 4
A wide range of choices in the selection of surfactants: nonionic
surfactant, cationic surfactants and anionic surfactants.
And Fig 5 indicate the relationship between the extent of
wettability alteration with oil recovery.
Figure 5: Effect of extent of wettability alteration on oil recovery.

Conclusion
Recovery factor is one of the key elements in determining
commercial viability of hydrocarbon filed, as mentioned before,

recovery apart other parameter, depends on wettability of the

reservoir rocks .When the matrix is oil-wet or mix-wet, little oil can
be recovered by imbibition.at the same time, wettability also affect
calculation of other parameters used in the volumetric equation. So
in order to enhance oil recovery, the originally oil-wet solid surface
is reversed to water-wet by injection of a certain deal of active water
into the formation, which makes it easier for the oil to be driven
away and ensure a higher recovery.

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