SPE-177196-MS

Impact of Connate Water Replacement on Chemical EOR Processes

H. Födisch, J. Wegner, R. Hincapie, and L. Ganzer, Clausthal University of Technology

Copyright 2015, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Latin American and Caribbean Petroleum Engineering Conference held in Quito, Ecuador, 18 –20 November
2015.

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
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Abstract
This paper investigates and discusses connate water replacement during EOR chemical processes in
micromodels that resemble porous media. Compared to experiments performed in plugs or cores,
micromodels facilitate visual access to the displacement process, hence, enable more detailed process
description.
The replacement of connate water during aqueous fluid phase injection is a miscible process. During
connate water replacement different regions are observed. (1) A mixing zone (mixture of connate water
and injected aqueous phase), (2) a pure connate water zone (3) and a zone composed of injected water,
only. The different zones are visualized during flooding experiments by labeling the phases with different
types of dye and by using a special experimental setup. To calculate concentration and saturations of the
different zones listed above image analysis algorithms have been developed and are presented in this
work. These algorithms enable qualitative and also quantitative analysis of connate water replacement.
In areas directly contacted by the displacing aqueous phase (e.g. polymer solution) connate water is
rapidly replaced. In areas not directly contacted by the displacing aqueous phase the connate water is fully
retained even after one pore volume injected. Only continuing aqueous phase injection leads to a full
replacement of connate water after several PV of polymer solution injected. It is remarkable that in these
areas the connate water replacement takes place without oil mobilization (increase in oil recovery),
indicating that the exchange of connate water and injected water is a diffusive process. Further, the
exchange of polymer product into stagnant zones can be seen as a polymer retention mechanism.
The results of this study provide new insights into the fundamental understanding of the impact of
connate water replacement on oil recovery during chemical EOR. The use of multiple UV-tracers and a
special experimental setup enable clear differentiation between different phases and concentration levels
during flooding experiments. Development of image analysis algorithms enable quantitative process
analysis.

Introduction
Known by definition as the natural brine occupying the pore spaces; connate water is expected to be at
equilibrium with the minerals in the formation. During processes applications which involves aqueous
fluid phase injection (e.g. water, polymer) the replacement takes place and it is assumed to be a miscible
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process. Some typical displacement studies suggest that the connate water is easily displaced by injection
water, without evidence in which cases those phenomena occurs. Micromodels enable not only the
visualization of oil recovery processes, but also with the use of several UV tracers the analysis of connate
water replacement during such experiments. By implementing an image analysis algorithm based on high
quality images taken by a DSLR camera, microscopic phenomena can be observed on the porescale, where
e.g. injected water mixes with the connate water. To avoid misunderstanding the initial water inside the
model is denoted as original water saturation.
Properties of Micromodels
The chips used for this work are so called glass-silicon-glass (GSG) micromodels, where a porous
structure is etched into 50 ␮m thick silicon layer, which is then covered by a layer of glass on top and
on bottom. The bulk volume of the porous structure is 40mm * 40mm * 50␮m. Model type A is a random
structure based on circles with varying sizes. The models are realized for these experiments as quarter of
a five-spot pattern with an inlet and outlet at opposite corners to inject and produce fluids. Detailed
information on the design and construction process of these GSG micromodels can be seen in: Herbas et
al. (2015), Ganzer et al. (2014), Wegner (2015), Wegner et al. (2015).

Figure 1—Porous structure which resemble porous media, random circles model (Herbas et al. (2015))

Fluid Preparation and Characterization

Brine Preparation and Labeling
We use a Fluorescein Sodium salt indicator (C20 H10Na2O5), (Molecular weight of 376.27 g/mol; active
material of 98.5 – 100.5%), provided by Sigma-Aldrich (CAS 518-47-8). Solutions were prepared in
concentrations from 10ppm to 300ppm in order to analyze the light intensity effect due to the dye
concentration. Solutions of the desired contration were prepared by mixing during an hour in a magnetic
mixer at the speed of 500 rpm.
Oil Preparation and Labeling
Instead of crude oil, here we use synthetic (paraffin) oil. UV – active dye is attached to paraffin solution
to distinguish between phases. Dye 9,10-Bis(phenylethynyl)anthracene (BPEA) is an aromatic hydrocar-
bon with the chemical formula is C30H18. It displays strong fluorescence and is used as a chemilumi-
nescent fluorophore with high quantum efficiency. Oil solution was a mixture of paraffin oil 75% and 25%
decane in order to reach 20mPas in viscosity at a shear rate of 10 s⫺1 at a temperature of 22°C.
Polymer Solutions
The polymer used for the flooding experiments is a hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) with 26 ⫻ 106
MD in molecular weight and 30% degree of hydrolysis. The polymer solutions were prepared using the
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procedure proposed by Hincapie and Ganzer (2015). Figure 2 depicts the flow curve for the Polymer A
at 500 ppm concentration used to perform the experiments in this research.

Figure 2—Flow Curve for Polymer A

Experimental Setup and Method

The GSG micromodel is placed inside the experimental setup as shown in (Figure 3). This kind of oven
can be used to perform the experiments at typical reservoir temperatures (up to 90 °C). The injection is
performed with a syringe pump via PTFE Teflon and stainless steel tubings. The system is operated under
a backpressure of around 140 mbar and the pressure and temperature are recorded during the experiment.
UV tracers are activated by UV emitting diodes and pictures are taken with a top mounted DSLR camera
every 15 seconds. Furthermore, the temperature is kept at ambient conditions.

Figure 3—Experimental Setup (Wegner 2015)

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The experiments follow the sequential steps listed below:

● Initialization: CO2 is injected into the model to replace the air. Brine with fluorescein sodium salt
is injected into the model to dissolve the CO2 and achieve 100 percent water saturation. Paraffinic
oil with C30H18 is injected to reach the desired initial oil saturation.
● Flooding Experiment: Water without tracer is injected at typical reservoir rate of 1 ft/day
(0.44␮l/min). This small rate was chosen to be able to capture the displacement and mixing
process inside the pore space.
● Image Analysis Procedure: During this work an image analysis algorithm was developed using
the highly developed programming language of Matlab®, which enables quantitive analysis of
images gathered in the course of flooding experiments. The code is subsequently described below.

Development of Image Analysis Tools

During the experiment images are taken every 15 seconds, which are then processed with the image
analysis algorithms. The flow chart of the images analysis tool is shown in
Figure 4. The images are read into the software and cropped prior to the actual analysis, an example
is given in Figure 5. The porous medium is given by the black circles, oil is blue, the connate water is
green and the injected water is red. The mixing zone between the connate and the injection water appears
in different shades of orange. Since the images are typical .jpeg files they consist of a red, green and blue
color channel. Due to the UV light tracers it is now possible to apply a threshold to the different fluids
according to their intensity peaks in the respective color channel. This is followed by the output of the
result in form of a binary image. Hence, Figure 6 shows exemplary how the process is carried out.

Figure 4 —Flow chart of the Image Analysis Tool

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Figure 5—Cropped amifiltered image

Figure 6 —Example of binary images after thresholding

Depicted with number 1 a small part of the original is displayed. For quantification purposes first of
all the pore space itself is isolated, which means that all pixels which don’t belong to a grain or circle are
labled with the value 0 and the porous medium with the value 1 (number 2). Number 3 shows the labeling
of the water phase that has been identified as original water. The oil phase is thresholded at number 4 and
finally the entire water phase is shown at number 5. At this stage there the quantification of the flooding
process is carried out by counting the pixels in the binary image to calculate the oil and water saturation
and therefore the oil recovery versus time.
An in depth analysis of the water phase is performed by taking a look at the grayscale values of the
pixels indicated as water with the binary image (5). In the standart analysis the water phase is always
classified as only one fluid. This is not a satisfying representation of the process inside the porespace,
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since it can be clearly seen, that a variety of mixed waters must be present in the real picture (1) while
the displacement front progresses.
In order to toggle this problem in Födisch et al. (2015) thresholds were applied for the maximum
intensity of the connate water and the maximum intensity of the injected water, while the remaining part
of the aqueous phase was marked as mixing zone. In this further developed approach the grayscale values
of the respective pixels inside the aqueos phase are the target of the analysis. Therefore, a pretest is carried
out, where varying concentrations of the dye fluorescene sodium salt are injected into the model as a
single phase, starting with 0 ppm and increasing up to 300 ppm. Due to slight differences in the
illumination of the porespace, an average value for the traced fluid is taken across the entire model.
Resulting is the plot in Figure 7, where the intensity is plotted against the concentration, which is
normalized to the maximum dye concentration of 300 ppm, because this is the property of the connate
water during the experiment.

Figure 7— Plot of the Connate Water Concentration vs. the Grayscale Intensity

Since that for the further analysis not every pixel’s grayscale value is needed, the grains, the oleic phase
and the original water itself are isolated by using a threshold. The red color channel is chosen for
evaluation of the concentration, since this channel is the most prominent for the water phase in general.
For concentration mapping the image is divided in 10 times 10 grid blocks and the average value in each
400 by 400 pixel block is calculated and compared with the reference values from the specific blocks to
estimate the concentration. Figure 8 shows the concentration distribution and the original image for the
situation after 1 PV of injection. Note that again the injector is in the bottom left corner and the producer
in the top right.
SPE-177196-MS 7

Figure 8 —Image from a waterflood at 1 PV injected (already after breakthrough) and Average Tracer Concentration in 4 by 4 mm Blocks
at 1 PV injected

The final step in the image analysis is the quantification of the front movement versus time. Since the
front can be clearly traced according to the tracer, the geodesic distance is calculated from a seed pixel
close to the injector through the continuous injected fluid towards the tip of the front. The maximum
distance value is then calculated for every image where the algorithm can clearly detect a front. Especially
at the beginning of the flooding experiment when the front moves through the first pores an oil ganglion
could intercept the front for a brieve moment. Therefore, the analysis of this property is started after the
first finger has clearly formed during the flood.

Results and Discussion

Oil and water saturation

The oil recovery during the flooding experiments is shown in Figure 9, where the polymer flood recovered
more oil compared to the brine flood. Due to the higher viscosity of the polymer solution the additional
7 % can be based on. Both experiments have carried out with the injection rate of 0.44␮l/min at constant
rate conditions.
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Figure 9 —Plot of the Oil saturation vs the PV Injected

Figure 10 now shows the water saturation versus the PV injected for the polymer flood. Generally the
water saturation increases the further the flood progresses, since the injected fluid displaces the oil.
Therefore, until the breakthrough the increase in saturation is linear. Beyond the breakthrough at 19
minutes or 0.28 PV injected basically no oil is recovered after that point anymore. During the first minutes
of the flooding experiment however the initially dyed or original water saturation increases by a few
percent. This is due to the mixing of the original water with the injected water in the inlet channel of the
model. The original water curve then detaches from the water saturation curve. On the pictures derived
from the image analysis an original water front is pushed through the model. However, on the captured
images inside that original water front a certain amount of dilution is occurring. The original water
saturation remains on a plateau until 0.175 PV are injected, which is the point where the original water
is diluted on a broader scale inside the model. Towards the end of the flood the connate water saturation
almost reaches zero percent. Nevertheless, the values to quantify the mixing zone saturation suggest that
there is of course still dyed water inside the model at 1 PV injected, just the majority of the original is
already diluted. As reported in Födisch et al. (2015), finally all original connate water is replaced by the
injected water after a basically infinite injection of around 10 PV.

Figure 10 —Plot of the Water Saturation vs the P}’ Injectedfor the Case of the Polymer Flood
SPE-177196-MS 9

The situation for the water flood is shown in Figure 11 for different timesteps during the flood.

Figure 11—Average Tracer Concentration in 4 by 4 mm Blocks initially (top left), at Breakthrough (top right), after 1 PV (bottom left) and
10 PV injection (bottom right)

In this particular waterflood it took more than 17 PV of water injection to remove all tracer particles
attached to the original water. From the concentration maps certain features can be seen. Errors in the
concentration estimation occur when e.g. oil and water or water and grain are located in one pixel. In such
a case there is a boundary effect, which usually lowers the value taken from the red color channel. This
in combination with few water pixels compared to a large number of oil pixels can lead to an error in the
concentration estimation. Therefore, e.g. after 1 PV of injection, which is already past the breaktrough, the
difference in concentration derived from the red channel information is not measurable compared with the
reference information. This results in a slight overestimation in terms of concentration e.g. in the bottom
right blocks. Due to slight differences in the lighting condition during the experiment the blocks close to
the inlet in the top left corner also experience a slight overestimation. One can clearly see that even after
1 PV of injection the top left corner has not been touched by the injected water at all, and that the
propagation of the front during the viscous fingering mainly goes along two channel in the middle and at
the right.
As described in the previously, the front movement is analysed for the two floods. Figure 12 shows the
situation at breakthrough. The left picture from the polymer flood indicates a quite stable injection front,
where during the water flood viscous fingering can be observed due to the less favourable viscosity ratio
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of 20:1 compared to 1:1 in case of the polymer. The recovery factors at breakthrough are 43.6% and
28.1% respectively.

Figure 12—Images of the Polymer (left) and Water (right) Flood at Breakthrough

Conclusion and Outlook

● The experiments described in this paper demonstrate the visual access gained on the miscible
process of original connate water replacement during EOR and IOR processes.
● With the use of multiple UV tracers it is possible to study the behavior on the pore scale. The tracer
displacement shows differences between viscous fingering and a stable displacement front.
● When viscous fingering occurs, the dye concentration in the fingers decreases rapidly. Hence, with
a more stable front a broader mixing zone is present with slower decrease in dye concentration.
Nevertheless, the front is not a sharp edge but a mixing zone between the initial connate water and
the displacing fluid.
● Since most chemical EOR processes are usually sensitive to e.g. salinity like in the case of polymer
flooding, the visualization of the contact with a potentially high saline initial connate water is a
usefull indication about dilution and degradation on the pore scale.
● With the further improvement of the experimental setup, the image analysis tool and this
visualization technique will give additional insight to the fundamental understanding of EOR
processes.

References
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