SPE-181392-MS

Enhanced Oil Recovery by Combined Nanofluid and Low Salinity Water

Flooding in Multi-Layer Heterogeneous Reservoirs

Bin Yuan, Rouzbeh Ghanbarnezhad Moghanloo, and Da Zheng, University of Oklahoma

Copyright 2016, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition held in Dubai, UAE, 26-28 September 2016.

This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents
of the paper have not been reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect
any position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its officers, or members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper without the written
consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may
not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of SPE copyright.

Abstract
The aim of this paper is to investigate an application of nanofluid-slug preflush to enhance well
injectivity while improving the sweep efficiency by fines migration-assisted mobility control in multi-
layer heterogeneous reservoirs during low salinity water flooding. An axisymmetric radial flow model and
fraction flow analysis are applied to interpret the performance of nanofluid-slug and the following low
salinity water injection in a layered heterogeneous flow system. The interplay among nanoparticles, fines
and rocks is described by a physical-chemical reaction model. The improvement of mobility control is
characterized as the ratio of displacement fronts' advancing velocity along each layer. The improved well
injectivity by nanofluid preflush is presented as an explicit formulation of injectivity index. This paper also
introduces a graphic workflow to optimize nanofluid treatment and injected water salinity for nanofluid-
fines-assisted low salinity water flooding under arbitrary initial and injection conditions.
The results indicate: 1) Compared with conventional water flooding, the alteration of water salinity can
help to achieve uniform water flooding profile within each heterogeneous layer and then improve sweep
efficiency before water breakthrough; 2) The nanofluid preflush prior to water injection can effectively
control fines migration in the vicinity of injection wells to improve well injectivity, but it cannot control
fines migration in reservoirs that realizes mobility control by decreasing water-phase permeability in the
higher permeable layers; and 3) there does exist an optimal nanofluid concentration and slug size to offset
decline of permeability near wells and then improve water injectivity.
The outcomes of analytical model are validated by both numerical simulations. This paper has the
following novel points: 1) the model provides physical insights to examine nanofluid utilization to improve
well injectivity and enhance oil recovery; 2) The induced mobility-control by fines migration during low
salinity water flooding is confirmed as an effective method to improve sweep efficiency in heterogeneous
reservoirs.

Introduction
Low salinity water flooding (LSWF) has been justified as a very promising EOR method (i.e., improving
oil recovery by 5-38%, compared to conventional, high-salinity water flooding) in numerous experimental
studies and field trials for both tertiary (residual oil) and secondary (initial water condition) modes of water
2 SPE-181392-MS

flooding (Tripathi et al. 2007; Hourshad et al 2012 and Behruz et al., 2013). The physical EOR mechanisms
behind lower salinity water flooding have been extensively investigated, as follows: 1) wettability alteration
toward more water-wet by releasing original mixed oil-water wet particles (Tang, G. Q., et al 1999; Alagic,
E., et al., 2010; and Skauge, A, 2008); 2) reduction of interfacial tension caused by the mineral dissolution
and ion-exchange reactions (McGuire, P. L., et al., 2005 and Lager, A., et al., 2006); 3) reduction of residual
oil by multi-component ionic exchange among crude oil, connate brine and clay particles (Sorbie, K.S., et
al., 2010); and 4) local pH increase at water-clay interface to desorb oil from pore surfaces (Austad, T., et
al., 2008; Aksulu, H., et al., 2012). Despite the extensive investigations of low salinity water flooding, all
of which focus the positive effects on enhaned oil recovery, the injection of displacing fluids may lead to
the detachment of reservoir particles owing to the incompatibility between the injected and resident fluids.
The changes of chemical environment (pH, fluid salinity and temperature, etc.) induced by injected LSW
also simultaneously leads to troublesome formation damage related to fines migration (Yuan et al. 2016).
The formation particles are usually defined as loose/unconsolidated clay or non-clay, charged or non-
charged particles in the pore spaces with the typical size of few tens of microns, and thus they are usually
small enough to pass through 400 U.S mesh screens or pore-throats (Muecke, 1979; Penberthy, 1992).
The formation damage mechanisms related to fines migration include surface deposition or attachment,
pore-throat bridging or straining, internal cake formation, and infiltration sedimentation, etc., (Nguyen,
2007; Ezeukwu, 1998; Sarkar, 1990b). Therefore, fines migration in reservoirs has been regarded as one
of the most significant causes to decrease reservoir permeability and thereby impairs well productivity and
injectivity (Sarkar, 1990a; Bedrikovetsky, 2011, 2012; Civan, 2010; Tiab, 2011; Yuan, 2015)
According to the interpreted EOR mechanisms associated with LSWF (Aksulu, H., et al., 2012), fines
migration may carry small amount of residual oil by the detachment of oil-coated particles from rock grains,
which improve the displacement efficiency (Bernard, 1967). In addition, the reduction of local water-phase
effective permeability in water-swept areas caused by the blockage of high permeability layers provides a
simple mobility-control method to enhance the sweep efficiency (Lemon, 2011; Zeinijahromi, 2011, 2012b,
2013). However, fines migration and their size exclusion effects can also result in severe damage to reservoir
permeability near wells causing the decline of well injectivity (productivity in case of production well),
which leads to the understanding of avoiding fines migration in reservoirs. In particular, during low salinity
water flooding, the majority of pressure loss is attributed to the tremendously large flow within the vicinity of
wells. Therefore, evoking the debates between the pros and cons of fines migration, it is desirable to control
fines migration to take advantages of its positive effects far from the wellbore and minimize its weaknesses
near wellbore. The best strategy to avoid fines migration is to keep them stagnant at their original location/
sources through either limiting flow rate (less than the critical rates) or somehow settling them.
Nanofluids containing nanoparticles can exhibit unique electrical, magnetic, and chemical properties. The
inherent higher adsorption tendency and finely tuned structures make them good candidates with small sizes
to be used for specific purposes (Patra, 2008). Because of their very small sizes (in order of nm) compared
to pore-throat sizes (in order of μm), nanofluid injection has negligible effects on the pore-throat structures
and reservoir permeability. Meanwhile, it has been also justified that nanoparticles can effectively reduce
the double layer repulsive forces between fine particles and rock grains through changing the associated zeta
potentials of adsorbents (fines or rock grains), and then help maintain the integrity of rock texture without
fines detachments from rock cements (Huang, 2008c; Ju, 2006). Whether suspensions/colloidal fluids are
co-injected with small amounts of nanoparticles, or flow through the nanoparticles pre-treated permeable
mediums, it has been justified that the modified physical-chemical forces (such as, London-van-der-Waals,
Double electric layer and Born repulsive force) can help prevent fines migration effectively (Yuan et al.,
2015). Moreover, the laboratory experiments have also demonstrated that the very small concentration
of nanoparticles coated with fracture proppants can greatly help prevent fines migration and subsequent
formation damage (Huang, 2008b). The successful applications of silica nanoparticles to mitigate fines
migration in sand packs saturated with nC60 have also been reported under the high salinity condition
SPE-181392-MS 3

(Cheng, 2005; Ju, 2009; Yu, 2010). However, our understandings on the effectiveness of nanoparticles
have been limited to laboratory experiments and mathematical evaluation. The mechanisms and theoretical
models by which nanoparticles control fines migration have yet to be addressed.
Diverse mathematical modeling of particulates flow in porous media and associated permeability
decrease has been extensively presented (Amlt K. S., et al., 1990; K.P. Saripalli et al., 1999; Wenberg
and Sharma, 1997; Tufenkji et al., 2007; Civan, 2010; Pavel B., et al., 2011, 2014). Those models
mainly include, classical advective-diffusive model combined with kinetics of particles detachment (Logan,
2001; Tufenkji, 2007), maximum particles retention concentration model (Bedrikovetsky, 2011; Yuan et
al. 2015), population balance models (Bedrikovetsky, 2006), and average population balance equations
(Bedrikovetsky, 2008), random walk models (Yuan and Shapiro 2010), trajectory analysis (Chatterjee et
al., 2011), and stochastic mean-field model (Lin et al. 2009) etc. When it comes to the interaction model
between nanoparticles and fine particles, Yuan et al. (2015) presented analytical nanoparticle/fines particles
flow modeling in residual oil condition to confirm the positive effects of nanoparticles treatment (pre-flush
or co-injection) to control fines migration. In addition, Yuan et al. (2016) evaluated the mobility-control
performance by LSW considering fines migration by modifying the fractional flow function, and optimize
the nanofluid-slug size to improve well injectivity.
As described above, the aim of this paper is to extend the mathematical foundation toward low salinity
water flooding model that can eventually help us design nanofluid-slug preflush to enhance well injectivity
while improving the sweep efficiency by fines migration-assisted mobility control effective to improve
low salinity water flooding performance (both EOR and well injectivty) in multi-layered heterogeneous
reservoirs.

Mathematical Model
During the low salinity water flooding (LSWF), the detachment of fines can be attributed to the loss
of balance among hydraulic drag force, lift force, gravity force and electrostatic forces. The detachment
of fines can not only enhance displacement efficiency by reducing the residual oil saturation, but also
impair effective permeability by blockages of released fines in already-swept zones; hence, this effect can
also improve the volumetric sweep efficiency of water flooding to some extent. However, well injectivity
is yet impaired significantly due to the loss of water effective permeability near wells caused by fines
migration. Nanoparticles with lower surface potential are adsorbed on the pore surfaces or mobile fines,
thereby, enhancing the attachment capacity of fine particles on rocks. The aim of this paper is to deliver an
analytical model to evaluate the mutual interactions among nanofluid, fines and low salinity water flooding
performance. We itemize several usual assumptions of fractional flow theory and colloid-suspension flow
theory (Lake 1989; Moghanloo & Lake, 2010; Moghanloo & Yuan, 2015; Yuan et al., 2015).

• Two-layered, uniform and areal homogeneous medium and local thermodynamic equilibrium
assumption applies; each layer has its own petrophysical and fluid properties, i.e., porosity,
permeability, relative permeability, residual oil saturation and initial conditions. It is further
assumed that the layers have no cross-flow communications in the vertical direction.
• Four-components exist (water, oil, nanoparticles and fine particles) and three-phase (two flowing
(oil/water) and one stagnant solid phase) isothermal flow takes place; No volume change occurs
in the aqueous phase upon mixing, detachment and straining effects.
• All fluids and solids are incompressible. Gravity of fluids (oil/water) are neglected; the effects of
viscous force are dominating, and capillary forces is implicit in relative permeability equations.
• Langmuir isotherm adsorption of nanoparticles provides an asymptotical maximum adsorption
capacity when time tends to infinite. The changes of porosity and permeability caused by small-
sized nanoparticles adsorption are neglected.
4 SPE-181392-MS

• Flow velocity is sufficiently large to neglect the dispersion flow effects; Darcy's flow law is applied;
therefore, hyperbolic conservation equations are obtained;
• Nanoparticles concentration already adsorbed on rock grains can only enhance the maximum
attachment concentration of fine particles on the rock, but cannot modify the attachment rate of
particles on rock grains.
• The instant straining of those detached fine particles are assumed, i.e., the concentration of strained
fines is equal to the reduced amount of maximum retention concentrations of fine particles caused
by water composition and flow velocity.

Maximum Retention Concentration in Two-phase Flow

As the injection of low salinity water continues, the changes of flowing fluid properties (i.e., fluid salinity,
fluid density, and flow velocity etc.) will affect the torque balance among the types of mechanical forces on
fines deposited at the pore-surfaces. The forces acting on a single particle located on the rock grain surfaces
(pore walls) are: the drag force Fd from viscous water flow, the electrostatic force Fe, the lifting force Fl,
and the buoyancy Fg, (Fig. 1). The mechanical equilibrium posed on fines define a critical value for fines
deposition, which is named as the maximum retention concentration. The maximum retention concentration
of particles in single-phase water flow has been developed by Bedrikovetsky (2011) and Yuan (2015) in
different types of porous medium. However, during low salinity water flooding, the saturation of water is
dynamic changing but not constant any more, which makes the maximum renteion concentration model not
applicable for two-phase flow scenarios. In view of water-wet fine particles can only be dissolved in water
phase, and the effective flow drag force on fines is only controlled by the water-phase flow. Considering the
difference between water phase and oil phase velocity, we introduce the water-phase fraction flow function
into the drag and lifting force exerted on fines particles (Yuan et al. 2016). As results, the maximum retention
concentration of fine particles in two-phase flow is extended.

Figure 1—Forces and momentum vectors exerted on fine particles in water-oil two-phase flow

The modified formulation of drag and lifting forces by introducing the fraction flow of water phase can
be expressed as,
Drag force:

(1)

Lifting force:

(2)
SPE-181392-MS 5

where ω is dimensionless drag force coefficient varying in the range of 10~60; μ w is fluid viscosity, Pa.s;
rFP is radius of fine particle or nanoparticles, m; rc is the thickness of deposit cake, m; rp is pore radius, m;
U is fluid flow velocity, m/s; χ is lifting force coefficient; ρ is fluid density, kg/m3; Δρ is density difference
between particles and fluid, kg/m3.
In addition, referring to our previous works (Yuan 2015), for individual cylindrical shaped pores, in
water-oil two phase flow, the maximum retention concentration of particulates on rock grains in two-phase
flow is expressed as:

(3)

where σcr is the maximum retention concentration of fine particles; Φc is the initial internal cake porosity,
0.9; y is the ratio between drag and electrostatic force and can be obtained numerically by solving the
following equation:

(4)

The injection of low salinity water would alter the chemical environment of fluid in porous media. During
low salinity water flooding, the injected low salinity fluid would gradually displace the reservoir fluid with
higher salinity. In the environment of low salinity, there are smaller amounts of ions, thereby, the Debye-
Huckel theory, the Deby length (Double layer thickness in Gouy-Chapman theory) would increase; as a
result, the bonding force among particles would attenuate. During this motion, the particles surface-surface
distance, h, would also increase from minimum value to some distance where the electrostatic integration
does work, which corresponds to the detachment of fine particles. The detachment condition means the
drag/lifting force torque exceeds the maximum torque of the normal force, which means the maximum
separation distance where the electrostatic force reaches maximum. Therefore, the effects of fluid salinity
are reflected by the inverse Debye length, κ, m-1 (Elimelech, Gregory, Jia, & Williams, 1995)

(5)

where, C mi is the molar ith ion concentration in water phase (injected and initial conditions), moles/m3; Z i
is a valence of ith ion. As the water saturation increases, the inverse Debye length would decrease; thereby,
the electric repulsive force would increase, as shown in Eq.6.

(6)

Therefore, it is through the increase of electric repulsive force that the changes of water salinity control
the force balance and change the maximum retention concentration (Fig.2).
6 SPE-181392-MS

Figure 2—The effects of different low salinity water saturation on the

maximum retention concentration of fine particles on rock grains

Fractional Flow Function Considering Fines Migration

Abbas Z. (2011) and Lemon et al. (2011) extended Dietz's two-dimensional layer cake reservoirs model to
evaluate the water-cut performance with and without fines migration. The formation damage coefficient for
straining fines is confirmed much greater than that of attached/detached fines, i.e., the detachment of fines
causing a negligible small permeability increase while the straining/plugging of pore-throats can lead to a
more significant decline of permeability. Hence, we would just couple the effects of straining fines effects
into the retardation term, as shown,

(7)

The multiphase flow is represented by the following relative permeability functions. Different from the
conventional water flooding, the low salinity water flooding can help decrease the value of residual oil
saturation to enhance oil recovery as a ternary solution.

(8)

Hereby, according to the assumption of an instant straining of those detached fines, the concentration
of strained particles is equal to the detached fine particles concentration (initial retention concentration of
fines minus the maximum retention concentration of fine particles in the different saturation condition of
low salinity water).
In a radial flow layered flow system, the total flow mobility (water- and oil-phase) at different locations
in the different layers can be expressed as,

(9)

In addition, for the radial and layered flow system, substituting Eq.3 into Eq.7, we can obtain the new
formula of fractional flow equation of two different layers, fwi (i=1, 2), considering fines migration during
low salinity water flooding.
SPE-181392-MS 7

(10)

Here, we introduce the dimensionless length and time:

where, xD is the dimensionless distance; tD is the dimensionless time or so-called injected pore volume;
Eq.10 is an implicit equation about water cut, fwi. We use an iteration algorithm to calculate the fraction
flow curve versus water saturation at different radial locations, as shown in Fig.3. Different from the classical
fractional flow curve in water flooding, the fraction flow curve changes with the variance of locations.
When the locations become close to the injection well, the fractional flow curves downward, which means
the water-cut at the same water saturations decreases with the effects of fines migration in water-phase.
In addition, the water flooding front and front-water saturation obtained by the Welge method (Welge,
H.J. 1952) also keep changing because of the weakened fines migration with the increase of distance from
injection well.

Figure 3—Schematic profile of nanofluid pretreatment, pressure drop, phase saturation, and retention
concentration of fines particles during low salinity water flooding in two-layered hetergenous reservoirs.

With the increase of low salinity water saturated into the flooding reservoirs, the average fluid salinity in
reservoirs decreases. As results, the maximum retention concentration of fine particles on rock grains would
decrease (Fig.4). Meaning that fine particles become easier to be dislodged with flowing fluid as the water
flooding continues (water saturation increases). This phenomenon indicates that, in the later life of water
flooding, we need to carefully consider the water injection or production rates. Even a very small increase
of flow velocity dramatically increases troublesome fines migration problems.
8 SPE-181392-MS

Figure 4—Comparisons of fractional flow curve at different distance considering induced fines migration (straining)

As described above, despite the enhanced performance of low salinity water flooding by inducing fines
migration in reservoirs, well injectivity/productivity (pressure drop along the porous media) would also
increase due to the plugging of pore-throats by those detached fines. In this paper, we express the pressure
drop at different time by integration the pressure gradient along the reservoir from the injection wells to the
boundary. Because the changes of total mobility is different for each layer, we need to firstly calculate the
flow mobility each layer, and obtain the harmonic mean of flow mobility for the whole system, as shown
below:

(11)

In this paper, the total injection rate is constant, but the pressure drop changes with time. Therefore, we
can obtain the real-time pressure drop along the whole flow system, as shown in Eq.12.

(12)

Effects of Nanoparticles to Control Fines Migration

As described by Yuan et al (2016), the majority of pressure drop occurs in the vicinity of wells in radial
coordinate. In addition, the larger flow velocity near wells leads to more fines migration, which would
exaggerate the pressure loss in the regions near well. To prevent the negative effects of low salinity water
flooding, pre-treatment of the porous medium with nanofluid slugs prior to low salinity water injection
can bring an effective remedy to fixate the injected or induced mobile fines by low salinity fluids at their
original location, preventing them from moving downstream (Huang, 2008a; Yuan, 2015). In Fig.3, prior
to introduction of low salinity water into radial porous medium, a slug containing nanoparticles has been
SPE-181392-MS 9

injected to modify the surface potential of rock grain to enhance the capacity of rock grains to retain more
fine particles. The very small nanoparticles surface potential leads to the decrease of repulsive forces among
particles. The double layer repulsive force between fine particles and rock grains becomes a function of
nanoparticles adsorption concentration on fines.
The enhanced maximum retention concentration of particulates on rock grains determined by the pre-
coated nanoparticles concentration on rock grains (Yuan, 2015) can be written as Eq.13:

(13)

where σcr, initial is the initial maximum retention concentration of fine particles (with zero nanoparticles
injection into system); σcr,i is the maximum retention concentration of fine particles with amounts of
nanoparticles (but the adsorbed concentration of nanoparticles is still less than the ultimate maximum
adsorption on fines); σcr, max is the ultimate maximum retention concentration of fine particles with the aid
of nanoparticle adsorption.
In addition, under this condition of maximum monolayer adsorption, the surface potential of rock grains
can be modified completely as that of coated nanoparticles on their surfaces. Using Eq.7 and the given
parameters in Table.1, the concentration of nanofluid treatment becomes 0.0022 m3/m3.

Governing Equations and Solution Schemes

The mass-balance equation of fine particles and water flowing through the permeable medium, considering
the detachment and straining effects of fine particles can be written as (pseudo-two-phase: water (solids
only exist in water phase)/oil; three-component: water/oil/fines):

(14)

The initial conditions and boundary (inlet) condition are:

This is a problem of first-order quasi-linear partial differential equation. In this paper, we introduce the
Method of Characteristic (MOC) to solve this problem. MOC solution (Courant, 1962) is one kind of robust
analytical approach to address first-order, strictly hyperbolic PDEs. The goal of MOC is to convert the
original PDEs into a set of ODEs along the characteristics. The MOC solution is presented as the form of
waves along which specific values of dependent variables (concentration, in this paper) are carried through
a time/distance domain (Moghanloo, 2012b, 2014; Moghanloo & Lake, 2010; Moghanloo & Yuan, 2015).
Inferred from Eq.14, the characteristic direction and the variation of water saturation along the
characteristic lines are,
10 SPE-181392-MS

(15)

Combined with fraction flow equation (Eq.9), the slopes of characteristic lines, and the changes of water
saturation along the characteristic lines are calculated using the algorithm of the above model and solving
governing equations. Before we address the multi-phase flow problems in two-layered heterogeneous
reservoirs, let us firstly introduced the single-layer low salinity water flooding cases to describe the
workflow to obtain the MOC solution, and verify the accuracy of our analytical solutions.

Results and Discussions

Case 1: Low salinity water flooding in a single-layer system with fines migration
Fig.5 shows the comparison of distance-time diagram (varies of characteristic lines) and saturation-time
diagram (changes of saturation along the characteristic lines) for both low salinity water flooding and
conventional (no reduction of fluid salinity) water flooding cases. It is worth to mention that for the
case of low salinity water flooding, 1) the characteristic lines become curved and not straight as those in
conventional water flooding cases; 2) the water saturation along the specific characteristic lines is also no
more constant. Those differences of low salinity water flooding are attributed to the effects of different
extent of fine migration along the different locations of radial reservoir system.

Figure 5—Comparison of MOC solutions (Distance-time diagram and Composition variation along characteristic lines)
from conventional water-flooding cases and low salinity water-flooding cases considering fines migration effects
SPE-181392-MS 11

To obtain the MOC solutions (water saturation profile along the radial porous medium, and water
cut history at the outlet, etc., first we draw a vertical line from different injected pore volume (for
example, tD=0.2) at the distance-time diagram (left of Fig.5a) and then read out the values of vertical axis
(dimensionless distance, xD) of the intersected points. Then, read out the water saturation from different lines
at the diagram of water saturation variation along the characteristic lines (right of Fig.5a). The comparison
of water saturation profile at the same injected pore volume (0.2) is shown in Fig.8. It indicates that the
effects of fines migration to decrease the effective water-phase permeability can significantly slow down
the propagation of water flooding front. In other words, the time of water breakthrough is postponed, and
the duration of no-water production is extended.
The comparison results between the semi-analytic solution and finite-difference solution is presented in
Fig.6. Due to the inevitable numerical dispersion effects of finite-difference methods, the shape of shock
from finite-difference solution spreads. The rarefaction-wave region (downstream behind shock front) of
water saturation profile shows an excellent match between the MOC semi-analytical solution and finite-
difference simulations.

Figure 6—Comparison of water saturation profile at the same injected pore volume (0.2) of
conventional water-flooding cases and water-flooding cases considering fines migration effects

Case 2: Low salinity water flooding in a two-layer heterogeneous system with fines migration
For the two-layered heterogeneous system (Fig.3) during low salinity water flooding, we define the ratio of
permeability between two layers as 2.0, i.e., 0.4 Darcy to represent high-permeability layers and 0.2 Darcy
for low-permeability reservoirs, respectively, keeping other properties of two layers the same. During the
water injection, the inlet for each layer is identical but changing with time, the outlet pressure is keeping
constant. The total injection rate is fixed, but the fraction of water flow into each layer changes with time
depending on the changes of total mobility along each layer. Here, to demonstrate the features of low salinity
water flooding, we also analyze the displacement performance of conventional water flooding as reference.
The improvement of mobility control is characterized as the ratio of displacement fronts' advancing velocity
along each layer. The fractional flow of the injected water into each layer is also analyzed with changes
of time.
The location of water-flooding front can be expressed as follows, Eq.16,

(16)
12 SPE-181392-MS

In addition, as indicated by the maximum retention concentration of fines in Eq.3, the flow velocity
would affect the straining concentration of fines (equal to the detachment amount of fines). In this paper,
we assuming the inlet/outlet pressure constant, which means that the pressure drop would be constant. As
results, the flow rate along each layer would change with time. It makes the derivation of MOC solution for
two-layer heterogeneous system more complicated that the case of single-layer low salinity water flooding
(which assume the flow rate keeps constant). As for this case, we need to evaluate the changes of total
mobility and update the flow rates of each layer at every time-step, and using the updated flow rates into
Eq.14 to calculate the time-distance diagram and saturation-time diagram, which provide the basic graphic
tool to obtain the saturation profile along each layer at different time. The detailed flowchart to obtain MOC
analytical solution for the two-layered system is shown as Fig.7.

Figure 7—The derivation flowchart of MOC solution for two-layered reservoir with changing flow rate along each layer

As shown in the case 1, the characteristic lines will not keep straight, and the saturation also keeps
changing along the saturation wave direction. According to the flowchart of Fig.7. The propagation
of saturation profile at different injected pore-volume is obtained as shown in Fig.8. Compared with
the conventional water flooding BL results with no fines migration effects, where the straining fines
concentration in Eq.7 is zero, the propagation of low-salinity water flood-front slows down, which will delay
the breakthrough of the injected water. In addition, when we compare the location of flood-fronts (Eq.15 in
Fig.9) along two different layers and the flowing fraction (Fig. 13) into each layer, it is worth to mention
that the fines migration induced by low salinity water flooding can help improve the mobility-control,
and therefore, it makes the water-flood front become uniform after certain amounts of water injection
(after tD=0.3). At the starting time of water flooding, the injection rate allocation ratio is determined by
SPE-181392-MS 13

the flow mobility of each layer at that time. As results, the larger amount of injected water flows into the
high-permeability layer, and the water-flood front along the high-permeability layer also propagate faster.
However, in view of Eq.3 and Eq.10, the larger the flow rate, the more the fines detachment, the more
serious the formation damage caused by fines migration. Hence, with the effects of larger flow rates into
high-permeability layer, the larger amount of fines detachment helps us to slow down the propagation of
water-flood front and decrease the flow fraction into the high-permeability layer. As the low salinity water
flooding continues, the flow fraction of the injected water into each later becomes equal. It means that the
injected water can be distributed equally into each layer and that the water-flooding performance along each
layer become uniform.

Figure 8—The changes of saturation profiles along the two different layers of 1-D reservoirs at the different time

Figure 9—The change of the injected fluid flowing fraction into each layer at the different time

As discussed above, the fines migration induced by low salinity water flooding can help to improve
mobility control and the vertical sweep efficiency. However, the straining effects of fines can bring the
decrease of reservoir permeability, as results, makes the injection pressure drop increase. The increase of
pressure drop would bring troubles to the injection facilities with economic profit loss. In addition, the
majority of fines or formation damage occurs near wells, and the majority of pressure decrease near wells.
Therefore, it is desirable to introduce a pre-flush of nanofluid slug to treat the near-wellbore regions to
prevent fines migration, and thereby decrease the injection pressure drop of low salinity water flooding.
14 SPE-181392-MS

Case 3: Combined nanofluid slug with low salinity water flooding in a two-layer heterogeneous
system with fines migration
As shown in Fig.3, prior to introduction of low salinity water into radial porous medium, a slug containing
nanoparticles has been injected to modify the surface potential of rock grain to enhance the capacity of rock
grains to retain more fine particles. Due to the larger flow velocity near wells, inferred from Eq.3, there are
more fine particles to be detached from the pore surfaces. Fig.10 presents the variation of maximum retention
concentration of fine particles with the increase of distance from the injection well. At the beginning,
the flow velocities along each layer is different, which make the variations of the maximum retention
concentration for each layer not same. Within the region near wellbore (less than about xD=0.1 for low-
permeability layer and xD=0.2 for high-permeability layer), there are very rapid decreases of maximum
retention concentration of fines. Outside of this region, fines detachment/migration would not be very
significant. Despite the enhance displacement efficiency (elongated duration of no-water production) by
low salinity water flooding, the induced fines migration by low salinity water would bring troublesome
formation damage (fines straining), and thereby the decline of well injectivity/productivity. Therefore, it is
profitable to introduce nanofluid-slug prior to low salinity water injection to offset the formation damage
near wells; meanwhile, taking advantage of fines migration to enhance oil recovery in reservoirs. In this
paper, we examine the performance of nanofluid treatment ranges cases (0.10 and 0.25 for each layer,
respectively).

Figure 10—The change of the injected fluid flowing fraction into each layer at the different time
SPE-181392-MS 15

Compared to Case 2 without nanofluid treatment, the time of injected water for Case 3 breakthrough
comes earlier, however, the pressure drop for Case 3 also decrease due to the mitigation of formation damage
near wells using nanofluid. In addition, despite the changes of the propagation velocity of water-flood front,
the ratio of front-location along each layer, R, has no significant difference. It that means that the nanofluid
pre-treatment into the near-well region cannot affect the mobility-control performance of low salinity water
flooding in reservoirs, and mitigate the injection pressure drop to keep the injection rate constant, but can
facilitate the breakthrough of water flooding as negative effects.

Figure 11—The change of the injected fluid flowing fraction into each layer at the different time

Figure 12—The change of the injected fluid flowing fraction into each layer at the different time
16 SPE-181392-MS

Figure 13—The change of the injected fluid flowing fraction into each layer at the different time

Conclusions and Summary

This paper provides semi-analytic solutions to evaluate the nanofluids treatment prior to low salinity
water injection to improve the performance of low salinity water in both single-layer and two-layer
heterogeneous reservoirs. The semi-analytic solutions have been also validated with numerical finite-
difference simulations. The main outcomes or conclusions are concluded as below:

• The maximum retention concentration of fine particles depends on both water composition and
flow velocity. As the low salinity water saturation increases, the capacity of fines attached on rock
grains weakens. Within the well vicinity, fine particles are more prone to detach due to the effects
of the larger flow velocity near wells.
• The induced fines migration by low salinity water can delay the time of water breakthrough, and
extend the duration of no-water production. However, fines migration can also bring troublesome
formation damage leading to decline of well injectivity.
• The fines migration induced by fines migration can help improving the mobility-control along
each layer, which means the propagation velocity of water-flood front and the flowing fraction of
injected fluid can be identical.
• Nanofluid pre-treatment prior to the injection of low salinity water can reduce side effects of
fines migration by decreasing the injection pressure drop to improve well injectivity. In addition,
nanofluid treatment can bring difference for the breakthrough time of injected water, but has
minimal effects on the ratio of flood-front locations along each layer.

References
Ahmadi, M., Habibi, A., and Pourafshari, P., et al. 2011. Zeta Potential Investigation and Mathematical Modeling of
Nanoparticles Deposited on the Rock Surface to Reduce Fine Migration, Paper SPE 142633 presented at SPE Middle
East Oil and Gas Show and Conference Manama, Bahrain, 25-28 September. http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/142633-MS.
Al-Abduwani, F. A. H., Bedrikovetsy, P., and Farajzadeh, R., et al. 2005. External Filter Cake Erosion: Mathematical
Model and Experimental Study, Paper SPE 94635 presented at SPE European Formation Damage Conference.
Sheveningen, The Netherlands, 25-27 May.
Arab, D. & P. Pourafshary 2013. Nanoparticles-assisted surface charge modification of the porous medium to treat
colloidal particles migration induced by low salinity water flooding. Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and
Engineering Aspects, 436, 803–814.
Alagic, E.; Skauge, A. Combined Low Salinity Brine Injection and Surfactant Flooding in Mixed-wet Sandstone Cores.
Energy Fuels 2010, 24 (06): 3551–3559
SPE-181392-MS 17

Aksulu H. Hamso D. and Strand S. et al. 2012. The Evaluation of Low Salinity Enhanced Oil Recovery Effects in
Sandstone: Effects of Temperature and pH Gradient. Energy Fuels, 26, 3497–3503.
Austad T. Rezaeidoust A. and Puntervold T. 2008. Chemical Mechanisms of Low Salinity Water Flooding in Sandstone
Reservoirs. Paper SPE 129767 presented at SPE Improved Oil Recovery Symposium, Tulsa OK, April 24-28.
Bedrikovetsky, P., Siqueira, D. F., and Furtado, A. C., et al. 2011. Modified Particle Detachment Model for Colloidal
Transport in Porous Media. Transport in Porous Media, 86 (2): 353–383.
Bedrikovetsky Pavel, et al. 2014. Analytical Model for Fines Migration during Water Injection. Transport in Porous
Media, 101: 161–189.
Bernard, G. G. 1967. Effect of Floodwater Salinity on Recovery of Oil from Cores Containing Clays, Paper SPE 1725
presented at SPE California Regional Meeting. Los Angeles, California, 26-27 October.
Chatterjee R., Mitra S. Bhattacharjee S.: Particle Deposition onto Janus and Patchy Sphericak Collectors. Langmuir 27,
8787–8797.
Cheng, X. 2005. Study of C60 transport in porous media and the effect of sorbed C60 on naphthalene transport. Journal
of Materials Research, 20 (12): 3244–3254.
Civan, F. 2007. Reservoir Formation Damage. Fundamentals, Modeling, Assessment, and Mitigation, 2nd edn. Burlington,
MA: Gulf Professional Publishing.
Civan, F. 2010. Non-isothermal Permeability Impairment by Fines Migration and Deposition in Porous Media including
Dispersive Transport. Transport in Porous Media, 85 (1): 233–258.
Courant, R. H., D. 1962. Methods of Mathematical Physics: Vol. II. Partial Differential Equations. New York City, New
York: Wiley-Interscience Publishers Inc.
Dábrowski, W. 1988. Consequences of the mass balance simplification in modelling deep filtration. Water Research, 22
(10): 1219–1227.
Dominguez, J. G., & Willhite, G. P. 1977. Retention and Flow Characteristics of Polymer Solutions in Porous Media.
SPE Journal, 02 (17): 111–121.
Dullien, F. A. L. 2012. Porous Media: Fluid Transport and Pore Structure: Elsevier Science.
Elimelech, M., Gregory, J., Jia, X., & Williams, R. A. 1995. Preface. In M. Elimelech, J. Gregory, X. Jia, R. A. Williams,
& J.G. J. A. Williams (Eds.), Particle Deposition & Aggregation: xiii-xv. Woburn: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Ezeudoh, C., Zandvliet, M., and Jenakumo, T., et al. 2014. Enhancing Recovery by Concurrent Water and Gas Injection:
Case Study of a Deepwater Turbidite Reservoir, Paper SPE 172838 presented at SPE Nigeria Annual International
Conference and Exhibition. Lagos, Nigeria, 5-7 August.
Ezeukwu, T., Thomas, R. L., and Gunneroed, T. 1998. Fines Migration Control in High-Water-Cut Nigerian Oil Wells:
Problems and Solutions, Paper SPE 39482 presented at SPE Formation Damage Control Conference. Lafayette,
Louisiana, 18-19 February.
Foppen, J. W.A., Schijven, J.F. 2006. Evaluation of data from the literature on the transport and survival of Escherichia
coli and thermotolerant coliforms in aquifers under saturated conditions. J. Water Res. 40, 401–426
Ghanbarnezhad Moghanloo, R. 2012a. Modeling the fluid flow of carbon dioxide through permeable media. UT Austin
Austin, Texas.
Ghanbarnezhad Moghanloo, R. 2012b. Applying Fractional Flow Theory under Loss of Miscibility. SPE Journal, 17 (3):
661–670.
Ghanbarnezhad Moghanloo, R. 2014. Applying Method of Characteristics to Determine Pressure Distribution in 1D Shale-
Gas Samples. SPE Journal, 19 (03): 361–372.
Gregory, J. 1981. Approximate expressions for retarded van der Waals interaction. Journal of Colloid and Interface
Science, 83 (1): 138–145.
Gruesbeck, C. 1982. Entrainment and deposition of fine particles in porous media. Society of Petroleum Engineers Journal,
22 (6): 847–856.
Habibi, A., Ahmadi, M., and Pourafshary, P., et al. 2011. Reduction of Fine Migration by Nanofluids Injection, An
Experimental Study, SPE Journal, 18 (02): 309–318.
Hankins, N. P. 2004. Application of coherence theory to a reservoir enhanced oil recovery simulator. Journal of Petroleum
Science and Engineering, 42 (1): 29–55.
Huang, T., Crews, B. J., and Willingham J. R. 2008a. Nanoparticles for Formation Fines Fixation and Improving
Performance of Surfactant Structure Fluids, Paper IPTC-12414 presented at International Petroleum Technology
Conference. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 3-5 December.
Huang, T., and Crews, B. J., 2008b. Nanotechnology Applications in Viscoelastic Surfactant Stimulation Fluids. SPE
Production & Operations, 23 (04): 6512–517.
Huang, T., Crews, B. J., and Willingham, R. 2008c. Using Nanoparticle Technology to Control Fine Migration, Paper SPE
115384 presented at SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition. Denver, Colorado, USA, 21-24 September.
Israelachvili, J. N. 2011. Intermolecular and Surface Forces: Revised Third Edition: Elsevier Science.
18 SPE-181392-MS

Ju, B., Fan T., and Ma M. 2006. Enhanced oil recovery by flooding with hydrophilic nanoparticles. China Particuology,
4 (1): 41–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1672-2515(07)60232-2.
Ju, B., and Fan T. 2009. Experimental study and mathematical model of nanoparticle transport in porous media. Powder
Technology, 192 (2): 195–202. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2008.12.017.
Khilar, K. C., & Fogler, H. S. 1998. Migrations of Fines in Porous Media: Springer.
Larry W. Lake, S. L. B. A. A. N. A.-M. 2002. Geochemistry and Fluid Flow: Elsevier.
Lemon P. Zeinijahromi A. and Bedrikovetsky P., 2011. Effects of Injected Water Chemistry on Waterflood Sweep
Efficiency via Induced Fines Migration. Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology. 50, 9-10. 82–94.
Logan, D. J. 2001. Transport Modeling in Hydrogeochemical Systems. New York: Springer.
Lager A., Webb K.J. and Black C.J.J. et al. 2006. Low Salinity Oil Recovery- An Experimental Investigation. 2006.
International Symposium of the Society of Core Analysis, Trondheim, Norway, Sep 12-16.
McGuire P.L., Chatham J.R. and Paskvan F.K. et al. 2005. Low Salinity Oil Recovery: An Exciting New EOR Opportunity
for Alaska's North Slope. SPE Western Regional Meeting, Irvine CA, Mar 30 - Apr 1. SPE 93903.
Muecke, T. W. 1979. Formation Fines and Factors Controlling Their Movement in Porous Media. Journal of Petroleum
Technology, 31 (02): 7144–150.
Nguyen, P. D., Deaver, J. D., and Rickman R. D., et al. 2007. Controlling Formation Fines at Their Sources To Maintain
Well Productivity. SPE Production & Operations, 22 (02): 14202–215.
O'Brien, M. N. 2014. Langmuir Analysis of Nanoparticle Polyvalency in DNA-Mediated Adsorption. Angewandte Chemie
International Edition, 53 (36): 9532–9538.
Ochi, J. 1998. Permeability decrease in sandstone reservoirs by fluid injection: Hydrodynamic and chemical effects.
Journal of Hydrology, 208 (3–4): 237–248.
Ofurhie, M. A., Lufadeju, A. O., and Agha, G. U., et al. 2002. Turbidite Depositional Environment in Deepwater of
Nigeria, Paper OTC-14068 presented at Offshore Technology Conference. Houston, Texas, 6-9 May.
Ostermeier, R. M., 2001. Compaction Effects on Porosity and Permeability: Deepwater Gulf of Mexico Turbidite. Journal
of Petroleum Technology, 53 (02): 68–74.
Patra, M. K. 2008. Nanotechnology Applications for Chemical and Biological Sensors. Defence Science Journal, 58 (05):
636–649.
Penberthy, W. L. 1992. Sand control: Henry L. Doherty Memorial Fund of AIME, Society of Petroleum Engineers.
Sarkar, A. K., & Sharma, M. M. 1990a. Fines Migration in Two-Phase Flow. Journal of Petroleum Technology, 42 (05):
646–652.
Sarkar, A. K., & Sharma, M. M. 1990b. Fines Migration in Two-Phase Flow. Journal of Petroleum Technology, 42 (05):
646–652.
Senger B., Schaaf P., and Vogel J.C. et al. 1992. Influence of Bulk Diffusion on Adsorption of Hard Spheres on a Flat
Surface. Journal of Chemistry Physics. 97 (05): 3813–3820.
Skauge A. Microscopic Diversion: A New EOR Technique. 2008. 29th IEA Workshop &Symposium. Beijing China.
Sorbie K.S., Collins I. R., A Proposed Pore-scale Mechanism for How Low Salinity Water Flooding Works.2010. Paper
SPE 129833 presented at SPE Improved Oil Recovery Symosium, Tulsa OK. Apr 24-28.
Tang G.Q., Morrow N.R. Influence of Brine Composition and Fines Migration on Crude Oil/Brine/Rock Interactions and
Oil Recovery. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering. 1999, 24, 99–111.
Tiab, D. 2011. Petrophysics: Theory and Practice of Measuring Reservoir Rock and Fluid Transport Properties: Elsevier
Science.
Tripathi I. Mohanty K.K. Flow Instability Associated with Wettability Alteration. 2007. Paper SPE 110202 presented at
SPE Annula Techinical Conference and Exhibition, Anaheim CA. Nov 11-14.
Tufenkji, N. 2007. Colloid and Microbe Migration in Granular Environments: A Discussion of Modelling Methods. In F.
Frimmel, F. Von Der Kammer, & H.-C. Flemming (Eds.), Colloidal Transport in Porous Media: 119–142: Springer
Berlin Heidelberg.
Vafai, K. 2005. Handbook of Porous Media (Second Edition). New York: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group.
Welge H. J. A Simplified Method for Computing Oil Recovery by Gas or Water Drive. 1952. Trans. AIME, 195, 91–98.
Yu, J., Berlin, J. M., and Lu, W., et al. 2010. Transport Study of Nanoparticles for Oilfield Application, Paper SPE 131158
presented at SPE International Conference on Oilfield Scale, Aberdeen, UK, May 26-27.
Yuan H. Shapiro A A. A Mathematical Model for Non-monotonic Deposition Profile for Deep Bed Filtration Systems.
Chem. Eng. J. 1661 (1): 105–115.
Yuan, B., Moghanloo, R. G., and Pattamasingh, P., 2015. Applying Method of Characteristics to Study Utilization of
Nanoparticles to Reduce Fines Migration in Deepwater Reservoirs, Paper SPE 174192 presented at SPE European
Formation Damage Conference and Exhibition. Budapest, Hungary, 03-05 June.
SPE-181392-MS 19

Yuan, B., Moghamloo, R. G., and Zheng, Da., 2016. Analytical Modeling of Nanofluid Injection to Improve the
Performance of Low Salinity Water Flooding, Paper OTC-26363 presented at Offshore Technology Conference Asia,
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 22-25 March.
Zeinijahromi, A. 2012. Effects of Fines Migration on Well Productivity during Steady State Production. Journal of Porous
Media, 15 (7): 665–679.
Zeinijahromi, A. 2013. Mathematical Model for Fines-Migration-Assisted Waterflooding with Induced Formation
Damage. SPE Journal, 18 (03): 518–533.
Zeinijahromi A. Lemon P. and Bedrikovetsky P. 2011. Effects of induced fines migration on water cut during water
flooding. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 78: 609–617
Zhang T.P., Michael J. M. and Hu H.Y. et al. 2014. Investigation of Nanoparticle Adsorption during Transport in Porous
Media. SPE Journal, 20 (04): 667–677