SPE-174599-MS

The Potential of Nanoparticles to Improve Oil Recovery in Bahariya

Formation, Egypt: An Experimental Study
Abdelrahman Ibrahim El-Diasty, American University in Cairo (AUC)

Copyright 2015, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Enhanced Oil Recovery Conference held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 11–13 August 2015.

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Abstract
In recent years, several innovative techniques that seek to maximize total reservoir recovery have gained
great interest and attention worldwide. Nanoparticles have been developed for various applications in
reservoir engineering and EOR fields. Using nanoparticles for these applications refers to their small size
compared to the pore throat sizes; therefore they could easily move into porous rocks without severe
influence on permeability.
Nanofluids; Nanoparticles Colloidal Dispersions, have been investigated as an enhanced oil recovery
method. The nanoparticles, present in the three phase contact region of rock, hydrocarbon and the
nanofluid, tend to form a self-assembled wedge-shaped film and force themselves between the discon-
tinuous phase and the substrate. This wedge film acts to remove the hydrocarbon from the formation
surface, which results in increasing the recovered oil much more than other conventional EOR methods.
Although most of recent studies concluded that using silica nanoparticles dispersed in water results in
decreased residual oil saturation after water-flooding and subsequently incremental ultimate oil recovery,
the oil displacement mechanism using nanoparticles is not clearly understood yet. The focus of this study
is to investigate the probable mechanism of nanoparticles dispersions to improve the recovery.
In this study, silica nanoparticles dispersions were used in core flooding experiments using plugs from
Bahariya formation; Egyptian sandstone formation, to evaluate the effect of four different sizes of
hydrophilic silica nanoparticles with diameters range from 5 to 60 nm and concentrations range from 0.01
wt.% to 3 wt.%. Results obtained from the experiments indicate that 15–20 nm silica particles 3% wt.
dispersions are highly recommended to be used as advanced EOR method as the recovered oil was more
than 65% of the IOIP, just at the breakthrough point, compared with 36% recovered by water flooding.
Unlike the traditional displacement mechanisms, focus on three forces: capillary, viscous and gravity,
nanotechnology focuses on nano-scale forces such as disjoining force. Analysis and interpretation of the
results showed that the main energies, driving the disjoining pressure mechanism, are Brownian motion
and electrostatic repulsion between the nanoparticles. Particle size affects the strength of this disjoining
force: the smaller the particle size, the higher the charge density, and the larger the electrostatic repulsion
between particles. When this force is confined to the vertex of the discontinuous phases, displacement
occurs in an attempt to regain equilibrium. These results indicate that nanofluids are expected as a future
promising EOR method.
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This paper also summarizes the mechanism of preparing the nanofluids and the ability of exploiting
Egyptian resources of pure silica sand to produce nanosilica particles with a simple and cheap method.
Trial experiments have been done to prepare the nanosilica particles mechanically and the results are
illustrated.

Introduction
Nanotechnology is science, engineering and technology concerned with understanding, controlling and
manipulation of matter on an atomic and molecular scale (nano-scale). In a more generalized definition,
National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) described the nanotechnology as the manipulation of matter
with at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometers.
By exploiting the distinct properties and unique phenomena, at that scale ranging from individual atoms
or molecules to about 100 nanometers as compared to those associated with bulk behavior, novel real
applications of materials, devices and systems have been available in many industries.
“Nano” means one-billionth. Therefore nanotechnology draws its name from the scale at which the
technology operates—at nanometers, or 1/1,000,000,000 (one billionth) of a meter. There is a common
example, to show how small the nano-scale is, that one Nanometer is 100,000 times thinner than a strand
of human hair. Researchers tried to put that scale of (Nano) in another context, the comparative size of
a nanometer to a meter is the same as that of a marble to the size of the earth. As shown in Figure 1, it
is a comparison between different scale things referenced to the nanometer.

Figure 1—The Scale of things referenced to Nanometer

The main advantage of using the nanoparticles, is the high surface area to volume ration which makes
them very reactive. Figure 2 explains the concept of increasing the surface area with decreasing the size
of the particles. At each step in the figure, the same mass and volume of the sample, but higher surface
area with each smaller size. For example; 1 gram of 5 nm particles can have 300 m2 surface area.
SPE-174599-MS 3

Figure 2—High surface area relative to volume of nanoparticles

Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) has become one of the recent interesting areas of nanotechnology
applications in oil and gas industry, El-Diasty, 2014 [1]. Egypt’s domestic demand for oil is increasing
very rapidly. There is an increasing gap between the oil production and consumption rates. Oil consump-
tion has grown by more than 30% in the past 10 years and is expected to increase more by 50% in the
next 20 years. Also, the hydrocarbon reserves in Egypt have witnessed an average increase of 5% per year
over the past seven years, while the average recovery factor is still stuck at the 35% (Figure 3).

Figure 3—Total Oil Production and Consumption in Egypt 2005–2014 Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, International
Energy Statistics

EOR is rarely applied in Egypt in spite of the recent local rise in energy demand which is expected to
be met by the oil and gas industry. The ability of nanoparticles to alter certain factors in the formation and
in oil properties can be taken advantage of to enhance the recovery. This involves introducing these
nanoparticles into formations and studying their effect on oil recovery. A trial experiment has been done
on Baharyia Sandstone Formation to approve the possibility of using nanofluids as an advanced EOR
method in Egypt in an attempt to meet the domestic oil demand.
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Background
Nanoparticles propagate easily through a pore system, and due to their natural occurrence in the reservoir,
they pose no harm to the environment. They also seem to be too small to strain or block pores, which make
them of great interest for EOR purposes.
The nanoparticles in an aqueous dispersion will assemble themselves into structural arrays at a
discontinuous phase such as oil, gas, paraffin, or polymer. The nanoparticles that are present in the
three-phase contact region tend to form a wedge-like structure and force themselves between the
discontinuous phase and the substrate as explained in Figure 4.

Figure 4 —Nanoparticle structuring in the wedge-film resulting in structural disjoining pressure gradient at the wedge vertex

Particles present in the bulk fluid exert pressure forcing the particles in the confined region forward,
imparting the disjoining pressure force. The energies that drive this mechanism are Brownian motion,
and electrostatic repulsion between the particles, Kondiparty, 2012 [2].
The force imparted by a single particle is extremely weak, but when large amounts of small particles
are present, referred to as the particle volume fraction, the force can be upwards of 50,000 Pa at the vertex
as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5—Nanoparticle structuring in the wedge-film

When this force is confined to the vertex of the discontinuous phases, displacement occurs in an
attempt to regain equilibrium. Ogolo, 2012 [3] used nanoparticles oxides of Aluminum, Zinc, Magnesium,
Iron, Zirconium, Nickel, Tin and Silicon. It was imperative to find out the effect of these nanoparticle
oxides on oil recovery since this is the primary objective of the oil industry.
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Ogolo, 2012 [3] used nanoparticles to conduct EOR experiments under surface conditions. Distilled
water, brine, ethanol and diesel were used as the dispersing media for the nanoparticles. Two sets of
experiments were conducted. The first involved displacing the injected oil with the nanofluids. In the
second case, the sands were soaked in nanofluids for 60 days before oil was injected into the system and
displaced with low salinity brine. Generally, their results indicated that using nanofluids to displace oil
produced a better result.
This paper tries to investigate the using of nanofluid for EOR in an Egyptian formation. Silica
nanoparticles; with preferred size and concentration, are used in my experiment.

Experimental Work
The Bahariya Formation (Baharija Formation) is a fossil bearing geologic formation dating back to the
Early Cenomanian, which outcrops within the Bahariya depression, and is known from oil exploration
drilling across much of the Western Desert where it forms an important oil reservoir.
The Bahariya Formation forms the base of the depression, the lower part of the enclosing escarpment
and all of the small hills within. [4]
A core sample of Bahariya Sandstone formation (western Desert, Egypt) was obtained. It was plugged,
trimmed and grinded as shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6 —Plugging, trimming, and grinding the core sample (AUC Core Lab.)

Dean Stark apparatus, shown in Figure 7, and oven, displayed in Figure 8, were used to clean and dry
the core plugs. Porosity and permeability were measured for the plugs and the results are shown in Table
1.
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Figure 7—Dean Stark (AUC Core Lab.)

Figure 8 —Oven used in core drying (AUC Core Lab.)

Table 1—The used core plug dimensions and properties

Sample Length (mm) 76.97 mm
Sample Diameter (mm) 25.23 mm
Core Porosity (%) 26 %
Core Absolute Permeability (mD) 378.73 mD

Experiments Procedure
● Preparing the sample to simulate the reservoir conditions. Brine water (65,000 PPM- 65g
(NaCl)/L) was used to simulate the connate water saturation with the same formation water
salinity, Mineral Oil with density 891 Kg/m3 (27.3 API) and Confining Pressure about 750 Psi was
applied to simulate the overburden pressure.
● Apparatus is shown in Figure 9 & 10 was used for injection of Brine water at rate (0.2 cc/min) to
displace Oil and the results were noted.
SPE-174599-MS 7

Figure 9 —The Flooding Apparatus (AUC Core Lab.)

Figure 10 —The Flooding Apparatus Software Interface (AUC Core Lab.)

● Re-preparing the sample to the reservoir conditions and injection of Nano fluid; (5–2O-40 – 60) nm
Silica particles (0.01– 0.5–3%wt) – (0.2 cc/min) to displace Oil and the results were noted.

Results and Discussion

The recovered oil percentages are tabulated in Figure 11, and plotted in Figure 12, for each nanoparticles
size and its different concentrations. The 20 nm – 3% wt. nanoparticles recovered oil percentages vs. the
volume of the injected fluid; in terms of Pore Volume PV, which gives the highest oil recovery factor, are
plotted in Figure 13.
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Figure 11—Recovery factor of different nanoparticles sizes and their concentrations

Figure 12—Recovery factor of different nanoparticles sizes and their concentrations (Plotted)
SPE-174599-MS 9

Figure 13—Recovery factor vs. injected pore volume (20 nm – 3% wt.)

It is obvious that using waterflooding to displace the oil recovered 36% of IOIP at the breakthrough
point while the nanofluid (20 nm – 3% wt.) flooding recovered 65% of IOIP at the breakthrough point.
This is an evidence for the ability of the nanofluid to displace the oil better than the water.
Torsaeter, 2013 [5], 2012 [6], 2013 [7], 2013 [8], Alomair, 2014 [9] studied the parameter affect the
recovery process of nanofluids. The two main parameters are the nanoparticles size and concentration.
This study results (Figure 12) and the literature show that increasing the nanoparticles size causes particle
retention and pore plugging, which decreases the recovered oil. While decreasing the nanoparticles size
increase the electrostatic repulsion between the particles which causes higher disjoining pressure,
implying more recovered oil. But at the same time, the extra small nanoparticle size may cause pore
bridging and decrease the recovered oil.
Also, the nanoparticles concentration plays an important role in the recovery process, as the higher the
concentration, the more particle retention, but the high concentration will reduce the interfacial tension,
reinforce the electrostatic repulsion, and higher disjoining pressure. While the lower concentration, the
more econonmic and more stable dispersion.
Therefore, it is clear that an experimental sensetivity study should be performed for each formation to
find the optimum concentration and the size for this specific formation. For Bahariya formation, the 20
nm – 3 % wt. is the optimum nanofluid system to be implemented for higher oil recovery.
Considering the economic side of using nanofluids, the chemically-prepred nanofluids are expensive
because of its intentionally applications in medical issues. So, there was an attempt to exploit the natural
resources of Egypt in pure silica sand and produce the silica nanoparticles mechanically with extremely
low expenses, using a simple ball mill (Figure 14).
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Figure 14 —Ball Mill (Suez University Lab.)

● The mill consists of electric motor, rotating rod and different sized stainlessteel balls. With the help
of Dr. Ahmed Ragab; Physics professor at Suez University, a sample of silica sand was taken from
Egyptian desert and investigated by X-Ray diffraction appartus (Figure 15) to characterize its
purity.

Figure 15—X-Ray Diffraction Appartus (Suez University Lab.)

● The X-Ray diffraction results pattern showed that the taken sample of silica sand purity is about
99% which is a vey enough percentage for Oil and Gas industry applications (Figure 16).
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Figure 16 —Characterization of Silica Sand (X-Ray Results)

● Then the sample of silica sand was left in the Ball Mill for 9 hours and the result was extremely
satisfying for that primary trial. We managed to reach about 156.03 nm particles (Figure 17).

Figure 17—TEM pictures of Nano silica particles; X 25000 (left) and X 15000 (right)

● Although the produced nanoparticles were not of proper size or uniformity, they were dispersed
in water and composed Nano Fluid#1 that was used in flooding experiment after repreparing the
rock sample to simulate the same reservoir conditions of overburden pressure, saturations and
water salinity.
● Nano Fluid#1 with 156.04 nm nanoparticles showed negative results comparing with waterflood-
ing and with standard chemically-prepared nanofluid. Results shows that using Nano Fluid#1 to
displace the oil in place recovered 29% of IOIP at the breakthrough point while the waterflooding
recovered 36% of IOIP at the breakthrough point which came later than that of Nano fluid#1
(Figure 18).
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Figure 18 —Recovery factor vs. injected pore volume (Mechanically-Prepared Nanofluid#1)

● Further trials were made to produce better nanoparticles and more effective. A new sample of
silica sand was left in the Ball Mill fo 16 hours. Nano Fluid#2 was composed and used in the
flooding experiment with same rock sample and same reservoir conditions. Results of using
Nanofluid#2 were very good enough to keep us working on preparing nanosilica particles and
improve their properties till we reach best conditions with exact parameters. Nanofluid#2 used to
displace the oil in place recovered 50% of IOIP at the breakthrough point while the Nanofluid#1
recovered 35% of IOIP. A summarizing chart (Figure 19) compares between all fluid used with the
same rock sample to give an overview on experiments results and direct thinking towards more
advanced method for EOR.
SPE-174599-MS 13

Figure 19 —Recovery factor vs. injected pore volume (Summarizing chart for all experiments)

Conclusions
The present study of using Nanotechnology in Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) has led to several
conclusions that are important from the author’s viewpoint.
1. Nano fluids are stable colloidal dispersions that accelerate the recovery of hydrocarbon from oil
reservoirs by the use of the unique enabling mechanism of disjoining pressure.
2. The nanoparticles, in Nano Particles Dispersion (NPD), utilize this mechanism to form a self-
assembled wedge-shaped film on contact with a discontinuous phase, thereby recovering more
fluids than previously possible with conventional additives or fluids, McElfresh, 2012 [10].
3. There is an interesting area of preparing silica nanoparticles by mechanical method using Egyptian
resources of silica sand which has already given good results.
4. Results obtained showed the promising future of Petroleum-Oriented Nanotechnology in Egypt
and how we can meet our oil demand using this advanced technology.

Acknowledgement
● The author would like to extend his gratitude to Dr. Adel Salem; Petroleum Engineering Professor
at AUC, for his valuable assistance during each stage of performing this research and Dr. Ahmed
Ragab; Physics professor at Suez University for his contribution with preparing nanosilica
particles.
● The author would like to thank Prof. Magdi Nasr Allah; AUC Department of Petroleum and
Energy Engineering Chair and the AUC Labs Engineering Staff, Eng. Marawan, Shady, and
Samer.
● Many thanks to all faculty members at the Petroleum Engineering Department at The Faculty of
Petroleum and Mining Engineering, Suez University, Suez, Egypt.
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