Investigation of crude oil properties impact on wettability alteration during low salinity water flooding using an improved geochemical model

In low-salinity water flooding (LSWF), modifying the injected brine composition leads to greater oil recovery from carbonate reservoirs. The processes that control improved recovery during LSWF are not totally clear, which could lead to ambiguities in finding optimum brine composition regarding wettability alteration (WA) toward water wetness. One of the methods to determine WA is bound product sum (BPS) calculation using geochemical tools. In the case of wettability improvement, the BPS value of a crude oil-brine-rock (COBR) system should be at its minimum value. In this study, an improved geochemical model is developed, which includes the effects of oil composition (i.e., acid number, base number, and weight percent of nonhydrocarbon components) and physical properties of oil (i.e., density, viscosity, and solution gas-oil ratio) on COBR interactions. The proposed method generates BPS as a function of temperature, pressure, oil and brine composition, and pH for carbonate rocks. The model applicability was validated using several experimental data sets available in the literature. The results of the improved BPS model were in line with the results of contact angle and zeta potential measurements as the major indices of rock wettability. BPS calculations using the available geochemical tools sometimes failed to predict the correct WA trend since they overlooked the impact of oil properties on COBR interactions. The model predictability was also compared with the results of an available geochemical tool, PHREEQC, and the results demonstrate just how important the effect of oil properties and composition inclusion on wettability determination is. The improved BPS approach could be successfully utilized as an optimization tool to optimize the water composition during LSWF for a given COBR system.