Visual Study of Water Injection
in Low Permeable Sandstone*
W. SUN
Northwest University, Xian, China
G.-Q. TANG
Stanford University
*This paper was originally presented as SPE 86964 at the 2004 SPE International Thermal Operations and Heavy Oil Symposium and
Western Regional Meeting, held March 16 – 18 in Bakersfield, CA.
Abstract
Visual micro-model technology has been applied to investi-
gate multiphase flow in porous media because it allows watching
the fluid flow clearly with a microscope. However, most micro-
models employed are made up of glass media. A sandstone
micro-model (SMM) manufactured directly from thin sandstone
chips is introduced and applied in this study of water injection in
low permeable rock. The main advantage for this kind of micro-
model is that it retains the original pore structure, clays, cements,
and pore surface properties. A total of 18 sandstone micro-models
with permeability from 1 – 10 md are used for displacement tests
at room temperature.
Results show that the water injection in the weakly oil-wet to
neutral-wet low permeable sandstone micro-model is dominated
by the injection pressure. At low injection pressure, the water
can only enter large pores that have good conductivity. A large
number of pores are not flooded by water. When the injection
pressure is increased, water is forced into some small pores to
drive oil out. In addition, heterogeneous properties of the porous
media always cause a bypass flow resulting in early water break-
through and poor water displacement efficiency. We also found
that oil recovery is directly proportional to the permeability of the
model, suggesting that pore conductivity is the key to waterflood
efficiency in low permeable rock.
Introduction
Glass micro-models (GMM) have been implemented to inves-
tigate multiphase flow in porous media at a pore-sized level. The
most important advantage employing glass micro-models is its
transparent feature that allows the study of multiphase flow in the
pore structures with the help of a microscope. Two types of glass
micro-models, hypothetical and duplicated, have been used so far.
A hypothetical micro-model is produced based on the rock param-
eters such as throat size, pore body size, and coordinate number.
Therefore, such models have a fixed ratio of throat to pore body
and the pore structure is very simple. For most cases, the pore
structures are repeated. The most popular hypothetical glass micro-
model is the network model. The duplicated micro-model is based
on a real pore structure that is obtained from a thin section image
and reproduced. The pore structure is copied onto a glass plate that
is then subjected to an image-etching process using a chemical
solution. Compared to the formal model, the latter one has more
complicated pore structures.
Research applications with visual micro-models include: 1)
heavy oil solution gas drive(1-3); 2) gas and water injection and
immiscible two-phase flow(4-9); and, 3) enhanced oil recovery(10,
11). Visual micro-model technology has so far provided useful
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November 2006, Volume 45, No. 11
experimental evidence at pore-level and assumes certain hypoth-
eses on aspects of reservoir engineering. However, the application
of visual micro-models still has limitations. The most important
one is that the glass porous medium is totally different from real
rock. Therefore, to restore the initial properties of the selected rock
is very difficult.
In this work, we present an innovative sandstone micro-model
(SMM) which is manufactured from a sandstone chip directly.
This kind of micro-model preserves rock properties such as pore
structures, fillers, grain surface feature, and so on. Characteriza-
tion of water injection in a sandstone micro-model (SMM) is then
presented.
Reservoir Description
The Chang oil reservoir is located in western China. Facies
analysis indicates that this reservoir is lake-delta front formed with
extra-fine to fine sands. It is composed of 10 sub-formations to a
depth of 1,300 – 2,100 m. Among them, Chang-6 is the most pro-
ductive formation. The formation thickness is about 100 – 160 m,
initial reservoir pressure is about 13.1 MPa, and initial water satu-
ration is 44%. This reservoir was discovered in 1980 and put into
production in 1984. Well-logging and lab core analysis show that
the Chang-6 formation is a low permeable reservoir. The average
porosity and permeability is about 13.2% and 5.3 md, respectively.
Owing to the low conductivity of the reservoir, the primary oil re-
covery was not good. The main features of the production from
this reservoir were that: 1) the primary oil recovery was less than
3% OOIP; 2) the average well oil production rate was less than 10
bbl/day; and, 3) most production wells show a sharp increase in
water cut. Waterflood was initiated in 2001 using a five-spot pat-
tern. The initial well spacing was 250 – 350 m. The average in-
jection pressure was 6.7 MPa and the average water injection rate
was about 30 m3/day. By the end of 2005, oil recovery increased to
8.2% OOIP, indicating waterflood is an effective process for this
reservoir.
Experimental
Sandstone Micro-Model
A total of 18 core samples are taken from formation Chang-6
to make the sandstone micro-models. Five of them are extra-fine
sandstone. The formation rock is very tight and mainly composed
of fine to extra-fine sands. The grain size gradually increases from
top to bottom (5 – 15 μm). Lithology shows the rock is light-gray,
very fine-grained, argillaceous sandstone with rich clay and shale.
Oil is removed by a solvent (a mixture of 60% toluene + 40%
21
 Video
camera

Vacuum
pump
TV monitor

Model

PC
Microscopy
Pressure Mini syringe pump
transducer

FIGURE 2: Experimental set-up.

FIGURE 1: Sandstone micro-models. solved in the water phase. Therefore, the oil phase is red and water
phase is blue in the micro-model.
TABLE 1: Relevant properties for selected micro-
models. Experimental Procedure
The dry model is first placed in a vacuum for four more hours
Model No. Lithofaces Clay (%) ka (mD) φ (%)
to remove air from the pore spaces. It is then saturated with water.
SMM-1 Fine sand 19.2 9.4 15.5 The weight difference before and after water saturation is used to
SMM-2 Fine sand 17.9 8.1 14.3
SMM-4 Extra fine sand 20.3 5.6 12.7
determine the pore volume and porosity. The model is then aged
SMM-6 Extra fine sand 21.0 4.9 11.9 with water for approximately 1 – 3 days before it is subjected to
SMM-7 Fine sand 22.4 8.7 13.5 the oil injection. The injection pressure simulates the reservoir
SMM-10 Fine sand 22.1 9.7 12.9 condition. The oil injection continues until no water production
SMM-13 Fine sand 19.8 8.5 14.2 is observed from the outlet. The model is then aged with oil for 1
SMM-14 Extra fine sand 21.7 2.5 15.1 – 3 days. The irreducible water saturation and its distribution are
SMM-18 Extra fine sand 20.8 2.9 15.0 then measured. Thereafter, water injection is initiated at a desig-
nated injection pressure. Water breakthrough is carefully investi-
methanol) wash. The clean core is carefully machined into chips gated. After water breakthrough, the water and oil production rate
with a thickness of about 200 – 300 micro-metres. The dimension is measured through the production tubing. For some models, the
of the chips is 2 cm × 1 cm × 0.03 cm. The chip is then sandwiched injection pressure is gradually increased to study its effect on oil
between two glass plates with a special cementing technology. The recovery. For each step, the injection pressure is increased by 0.01
key issue for cementing the rock chip onto the glass plates is to pre- MPa. The maximum injection pressure is 0.1 MPa which is 40%
vent the cement from filling pores. The yield rate is less than 50% less than the fracture pressure for the micro-model. The water sat-
due to a difficulty in cementing. There is an injector and producer uration is computed with an image-analysis program. Finally, the
at each side of the micro-model. Between the injector (or producer) change in the weight of the model is also used to determine the
and the sandstone chip, there is an introduction fracture to ensure water or oil saturation. For all displacement processes, the fluid
the entire sandstone end face is instantly contacted by an injected flow is recorded which is used to determine dynamic water or oil
liquid. Figure 1 shows two sandstone micro-models used for this saturation.
study. A total of 18 sandstone micro-models are prepared. Table 1
lists the relevant properties for selected sandstone micro-models.
The average measured porosity (φ) and absolute permeability (ka)
of micro-models is 14% and 7.6 md, respectively, which is about Results and Discussions
10 – 20% less than those measured from core tests. A possible Pore Distribution
cause is partial cement intrusion. Note the maximum holding pres-
sure of the models is around 0.14 MPa. Therefore, the test pressure The dry model is placed in a vacuum and then saturated with
is designated to be less than 0.1 MPa to avoid forming factures be- water. The water is blue, so we are able to study the pore size and
tween the covering glass and sandstone chips. distribution more easily. Figure 3 shows one of the water-saturated
models (SMM-4) which has a permeability of 5.6 md. Note that
black and white pictures are used in this paper. Therefore, black
Experimental Set-Up and Fluids (it is blue in the model) represents water, gray (it is red in the
The set-up (see Figure 2) is composed of a micro-model holder model) represents oil, and gray-white represents grain in all fig-
which is placed on the microscope platform, a microscope which ures throughout the paper. From the 2D dimensional (X,Y) view,
is equipped with a video recording camera, a micro-syringe pump,
a precise pressure transducer, and a scaled transparent tubing. The
micro-model is fixed on the holder which can be moved horizon-
tally with a hand adjuster. The micro-syringe pump is used to inject
water or oil, depending on the request. The microscope provides
an amplified view which can be recorded. The pressure trans-
ducer is used to measure the pressure drop across the model. The
scaled transparent tubing is used to measure the water or oil pro-
duction from the model. All experiments are conducted at room
temperature.
A synthetic reservoir brine is used as the water phase. A mineral (Black is water occupied pore)
oil with a viscosity of 7 mPa.s at room temperature is used as the
oil phase. In order to elevate the visibility, an oil soluble dye (red)
FIGURE 3: Large view of the model saturated with water.
is dissolved in the mineral oil and a water soluble dye (blue) is dis-
22 Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology
 (a) (b) (c)
(d) (e) (f)
(a) Large pores
(b) – (d) Intermediate pores
(e) – (f) Small pores
(Black is water occupied pore)
FIGURE 4: Pore size distribution.
(a) Complete displacement
(b) Bypass water holding pores
(Black is water, gray is oil, and white is grain)
FIGURE 5: Water displaced by oil.
it seems that many pores are disconnected. However, they are, in
fact, connected through Z-direction pores. The sandstone micro-
model is pseudo 3-dimensional because the Z-dimension is very
small. Figure 4 shows the pore size and its distribution for a water
saturated model (SMM-10). The largest pore, shown in Figure 4a,
has a pore size of 20 – 30 micrometres and has six coordinated
small pores. This type of pore is rare in the sandstone models we
used. Figures 4b – 4d show the intermediate pores which have pore
sizes of 5 – 10 micrometres. This type of pore has 2 – 3 coordi-
nated small pores. Figures 4e and 4f show the small pores with
pore sizes of about 1.5 – 3.5 micrometres. Note this type of pore
is the main pore body for the rock we studied. The average coor-
dinated pores are less than 2.2. Obviously, the conductivity for the
sandstone micro-model is really poor.
Oil Injection Characterization
After a model is aged with water for 2 – 3 days, it is subjected
to oil injection to establish initial oil saturation. The oil injection
is conducted at a constant pressure. The pressure is gradually in-
creased from 0.005 – 0.02 MPa to reach an initial oil saturation for
each model. After oil breakthrough, oil injection is continued until
no water production is observed. In general, 5 – 8 pore volume
of oil is injected. The oil saturation is obtained by processing the
images.
Two features of oil injection in the sandstone micro-models are
identified. First, a piston-like oil advance in the model from in-
jector to producer is observed. The displacement of water by oil is
not influenced by the pore size; the oil enters both large and small
pores without any priority. Water displaced by oil from both large
and small pores is nearly instant. The water saturation in the oil
swept pores is nearly irreducible (see Figure 5a). This phenomenon
November 2006, Volume 45, No. 11
(Black is water and gray is oil)
FIGURE 6: Mixed wet pores.
b
a) Oil flooded pore
b) Pore not flooded by oil
(Black is water and gray is oil)
FIGURE 7: Irreducible water saturation distribution.
suggests that the porous media are neutral to weakly oil-wet. This
result is in line with core analysis data.
The second feature is the bypass flow. This feature indicates that
not all pores are accessible to the oil phase. When the oil encoun-
tered some pores containing water, the oil bypasses them. This pro-
cess causes a large amount of water to be retained in the pores after
oil flooding. In fact, this residual water is not mobile even when the
oil injection pressure is increased to 0.03 – 0.05 MPa (see Figure
5b). The bypassed pores are mainly small pores with a radius of
less than 0.5 μm. The reason for bypass flow in the porous media
may be ascribed to the non uniformity of wettability in the porous
media. Some pores remain water-wet even though the majority of
the models are weakly oil-wet (Figure 6). Mineralogical analysis
verifies that a few pores, mainly filled with silica and quartz, have
an affinity to water, whereas pores filled with kaolinite and mon-
tolite are easily turned into weakly oil-wet pores after contacting
polar oil components. In the water-wet small pores (r<0.5 μm),
strong capillary pressure holds water in place preventing oil from
entering. Recall that capillary pressure is expressed as:
2σ cos θ
Pc =
r .......................................................................................... (1)
where Pc is capillary pressure, σ the interfacial tension, θ the con-
tact angle, and r the pore radius. High values of cosθ and small
values of r give a high capillary pressure. Apparently, due to the
mixed wetting, the oil usually chooses less flow resistant pores
(oil-wet) to flow when it faces multi-paths; thus, bypass is ob-
served. Figure 7 shows the residual water distribution. As we dis-
cussed previously, the residual water is mainly caused by bypass
flow. However, another type of irreducible water is where water is
trapped in the big pore body surrounded by an oil film that coats
the pore walls. This type of irreducible water is possibly caused
by a snap-off effect in oil-wet pores(12). Finally, another type of
irreducible water is where water is stored in a pore that oil never
reached.
The average irreducible water saturation by oil displacement
from the sandstone micro-model tests (average value from all 18
models) is 45.6%. This value is consistent with values from other
measurements such as core analysis and well logging; the differ-
ence is about ± 3% (core test gives 43.5% and well logging test
gives 42.1%).
Water Injection Characterization
After oil injection, the model is aged with oil for 1 – 3 days
to allow for the establishment of a stable oil/water/rock interface.
23
 (Black is water and gray is oil)
FIGURE 8: Oil displaced by water.
FIGURE 9: Two types of water flow in glass micro-model(14).
Water injection is then initiated at a simulated pressure-drop calcu-
lated based on water injection pressure and well spacing data of the
target reservoir (Chang-6). The injection pressure is about 0.005
– 0.02 MPa. For some models, the injection pressure is increased
step-by-step after water breakthrough to study the effect of injec-
tion pressure on oil recovery. For each step, the injection pressure
is increased by 0.01 – 0.02 MPa.
Compared to oil injection, water injection in oil saturated models
is less effective because the porous media is tight and weakly oil-
wet. First, water advance in the model is not piston-like. Water
advance along a channel composed of pores is observed for all
tests. The waterflooded part of the model left behind plenty of oil
(Figure 8). Secondly, the water displacement is complete. Nearly
all waterflooded pores have some oil left, including pores that are
of a weakly water-wet to weakly oil-wet wettability, revealing that
wettability does not dominate water injection. This behaviour is
contradictory to previous studies with glass micro-models(13-15).
These studies found that water injection in porous media could be
divided into two major styles: piston-like and non-piston-like, de-
pending on the wettability of the porous media. When the porous
media is oil-wet, the water advance in the pores is piston-like (see
Figure 9a). The displacement efficiency is high. When the porous
media is water-wet, the water advance in the pores is non-piston-
like (see Figure 9b). The displacement is not complete because the
water advance is faster at the corners. This behaviour is caused
by non-uniform wettability in an angular pore. The corners re-
main strongly water-wet even though the pore body is occupied by
oil(12, 16).
This difference between the glass micro-models and the sand-
stone micro-models might be related to the different solid surface
properties. In the glass micro-models, the solid surfaces are gener-
ally very smooth and the properties are very homogeneous. There-
fore, pore walls have either an affinity to water or not. When the
pore surfaces are water-wet, spontaneous imbibition of water can
cause water advance in the pores. At pore corners, which are gen-
erally strongly water-wet because no oil can touch them, water is
sucked up more rapidly than in the middle of the pores, causing
non-piston-like displacement. When the pore is oil-wet, water can
not spontaneously imbibe into the pores. Water injection is driven
by viscous force. Therefore, the water advance in the pore is piston-
like. However, in the sandstone micro-model, the pore walls are
generally not smooth. In addition, the solid surface properties are
heterogeneous which can result in a difference in wettability, even
in a single pore. Fine particles such as cements, cleavage fissures,
and clay fill in the pores causing a heterogeneous wettability of the
pores. In addition, they also alter the solid surface properties of the
pore walls through adsorbsion.
Pressure gradient has a significant effect on water injection in
the sandstone micro-models. When the injection pressure is small,
24
(a) at Pinj = 0.011 MPa (b) at Pinj = 0.025 MPa
(c) at Pinj = 0.042 MPa (d) at Pinj = 0.067 MPa
(Black is water and gray is oil)
FIGURE 10: Effect of pressure gradient on water injection.
80
70
Oil Recovery (%OOIP)
60
50
Rfo = 1.9701k + 34.941
40
30
20
Rbo = 0.8274x + 16.105
10
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Permeability of Model (mD)
FIGURE 11: Correlation between oil recovery and model
permeability.
the injected water only enters large pores where resistance is
small. Figure 10 shows the injected water saturation in a sandstone
micro-model (SMM-10) with a permeability of 9.7 md. When the
injection pressure is 0.011 MPa, the injected water only swept some
large pores; the water phase does not seem continuous from the
2D view. A great amount of oil is left behind the advancing water
front. The water saturation only increases by about 12% after water
breakthrough in the model (Figure 10a). As the injection pressure
is increased to 0.02 MPa, the water sweep efficiency increases cor-
respondingly; the water is forced into some smaller pores (Figure
10b). However, the major increase in water saturation is mainly in
large pores. The water saturation continuously increases with an
increase in injection pressure. Figure 10c and 10d show the water
saturation in the model at injection pressures of 0.042 and 0.067
MPa, respectively. Apparently, for the selected sandstone micro-
model, the injection pressure plays the most important role for
improving water displacement efficiency. This phenomenon is ob-
served for all of the sandstone micro-models. The water displace-
ment mechanism is simple and is dominated by injection pressure.
Early water breakthrough is another important feature observed in
these tests. Some areas composed of small pores and large pores
surrounded by small pores are inaccessible to water. The average
breakthrough oil recovery ranges from 15 to 25% OOIP, depending
on the permeability of the models (see Figure 11). In general, it in-
creases with permeability. Overall, early breakthrough is possibly
caused by heterogeneity of porous media as well as mixed-wet
pores. For the test rock, a large pore is about 20 times greater than
a small pore. Relevant analysis indicates that the small pores are
mainly composed of fillers such as cements and clay particles that
are usually strongly oil-wet. Thus, to displace the oil from these
kinds of pores requires a very large pressure gradient. In fact, these
fillers also cause a low permeability, which further reduces oil re-
covery by water injection.
Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology

80
70
Oil Recovery (%OOIP)
60
50
40
30
20 SMM-1 SMM-2 SMM-3
SMM-4 SMM-5 SMM-6
10 SMM-7 SMM-8 SMM-9
0 78968, presented at the SPE International Thermal Operations and
0 0.02 0.04 0.06
Injection Pressure (MPa)
FIGURE 12: Effect of injection pressure on oil recovery.
The final oil recovery is also presented in Figure 11. Note
that final oil recovery is obtained at an injection pressure of
0.02 – 0.04 MPa. The oil recovery shows a very good response
to the increase in model permeability, revealing that conductivity
of porous media is a major factor governing water displacement
efficiency. The average oil recovery is about 35 – 45% OOIP,
which is 10 – 15% less than that obtained for a glass micro-model.
However, this data is similar to that obtained from core flooding
(31 – 51% OOIP)(14).
Figure 12 investigates the effect of injection pressure on oil re-
covery obtained from nine of the models (note the other models
are not used to study the effect of injection pressure). The injec-
tion pressure ranges from 0.01 to 0.08 MPa. The results shown in
Figure 12 imply that an increase in injection pressure has a pro-
nounced effect at Pinj<0.06 MPa. Thereafter, the oil recovery in-
creases with injection pressure. However, about 70% of the models
do not show a response when injection pressure is increased from
0.06 to 0.08 MPa. This phenomenon suggests that at a critical in-
jection pressure (say at 0.06 MPa), the maximum accessible area is
reached. Further increases in injection pressure only speed up the
water flow from already formed water paths. Again, heterogeneity
of the porous media is responsible for this behaviour.
Conclusions
A sandstone micro-model is developed and applied to charac-
terize water injection in a low permeable rock. The main advan-
tage in using the sandstone micro-model is that it retains filler and
mineralogical properties of the porous media, which are usually
missing in a glass micro-model. The study shows that the presence
of mineralogical filler and roughness on solid surfaces can result in
a heterogeneous wettability. From 18 sandstone micro-model tests,
we found that the Chang-6 reservoir is weakly oil-wet to weakly
water-wet. Spontaneous water imbibition in the reservoir could not
be expected. Water flow along the path composed of large pores is
the key parameter which has resulted in an early breakthrough ob-
served in the field. The oil production is mainly dominated by the
pressure gradient. Therefore, reducing well space is strongly rec-
ommended. In the last couples of years, a pilot program aimed at
reducing well space from 300 to 150 m has been implemented. As
a result, the oil production rate has increased by 25 – 30%. Fur-
ther pilot tests are ongoing. A corresponding numerical simulation
study shows that oil recovery could increase by 12 – 15% OOIP at
the end of the pilot test.
Compared to a glass micro-model, the sandstone micro-model
provides pore structures, pore properties, and mineralogical fillers
that are similar to real rock. However, the visibility for the sand-
stone micro-model is not as good as a glass micro-model and needs
to be improved. Before a high quality sandstone micro-model be-
comes available, we recommend using both sandstone and glass
micro-models at the same time.
November 2006, Volume 45, No. 11
Acknowledgements
This work was conducted at the petrophysics laboratory in the
Geology Department, Northwest University, Xian, China. Many
students from this department joined in the experimental work. We
appreciate their great efforts and support.
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Provenance—Original unsolicited manuscript, Visual Study of Water In-
jection in Low Permeable Sandstone (2004-10-08). Abstract submitted
Authors’ Biographies
for review May 13, 2004; editorial comments sent to the author(s) June 1, Wei Sun is a professor of geology at the
2006; revised manuscript received June 27, 2006; paper approved for pre- Northwest University, Xian, China. Mr. Sun
press June 27, 2006; final approval October 16, 2006.
is a director of the petroleum geology divi-
sion and a committee member of the Shanxi
Petroleum Geology Society. His research
interests include reservoir engineering,
geophysics, and reservoir description. Mr.
Sun has published more than 60 technical
papers and received two technical awards
from the China National Petroleum Cor-
poration (CNPC). He holds a bachelor de-
gree from the Department of Geology, Northwest University, Xian,
China. E-mail: sunwei5393901@sohu.com.

Guo-Qing Tang is a senior research asso-

ciate in the Department of Petroleum Engi-
neering at Stanford University, California.
His current research interests include mul-
tiphase flow in porous media, solution gas
drive in heavy-oil reservoirs, wettability al-
teration induced by high temperature and
brine composition, and CO2 injection in
coalbeds. He has published more than 30
technical papers. Previously, Tang was head
of the EOR Research Centre of Dagang Oil
Company, CNPC, and a research engineer at the Reservoir En-
gineering Research Institute (RERI) in Palo Alto, California. He
holds a B.S. degree in physical chemistry from the East China Uni-
versity of Scientific Technology, Shanghai, China, a M.S. degree
in petroleum geology from Northwest University, Xian, China, and
M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in petroleum engineering from the Univer-
sity of Wyoming. E-mail: gtang@pangea.stanford.edu.

26 Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology