Understanding Enhanced Oil Recovery in UK Reservoirs

Growing global oil demand, diminishing availability of conventional oil resources and increasing sustainability criteria have led to increased use of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques in the oilfield. This is especially true for mature offshore UK oilfields, and BP is presently deploying its low salinity water LoSal ( registered trademark ) EOR on the Claire Ridge oilfield to recover an additional 42M barrels of oil. Although low salinity EOR is increasingly used, its underpinning geochemical processes are still not fully understood. Oil wettability or a reservoir rock is linked to the oil molecules' ability to adhere to mineral surfaces, which is thought to mainly occur by the interaction of polar components with specific mineral surfaces. Therefore, understanding how EOR works requires a direct knowledge of the mechanisms controlling these
interactions. Such processes are studied experimentally, but uncertainties do not allow straightforward interpretation of obtained data,
limiting EOR usage. This project will seek to address gaps in knowledge in linking the various mechanisms proposed for enhanced oil recovery at multiple length/time scales to ultimately enable reservoir simulations to test low salinity water floods.