Poromechanics VI 2016

Contribution of Osmotic Transport on Oil Recovery from Rock Matrix in

Unconventional Reservoirs

Binh T. Bui, Ph.D.1; and Azra N. Tutuncu, Ph.D., P.E., P.G.2

1
Unconventional Natural Gas and Oil Institute, Colorado School of Mines, 1500 Illinois St.,
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Golden, CO 80401. E-mail: bibui@mines.edu

2
Unconventional Natural Gas and Oil Institute, Colorado School of Mines, 1500 Illinois St.,
Golden, CO 80401. E-mail: atutuncu@mines.edu

Abstract

The fluid transport mechanisms in fracture and rock matrix play a critical role in economic
viability of hydrocarbon recovery from unconventional reservoirs. Several transport
mechanisms, including advection, diffusions, and convection, have varying degrees of
contribution to hydrocarbon recovery depending on the transport properties of the formation. The
contribution of the concentration gradient driven diffusion, or osmotic transport on hydrocarbon
recovery has been numerically investigated in this study. The main objective the research is to
determine when the osmotic transport play important roles on the mass exchange between the
fractures and the rock matrix. A model for the mass transport between the rock matrix and the
fractures has been formulated and validated with the experimental data to replace the analytical
mass transfer functions commonly used in fractured reservoir modeling. The numerical results
confirmed that osmosis is an important force imbibing water into low permeability rock matrix
and enhancing the effectiveness of low salinity water flooding on oil recovery. The imbibition of
water into oil-wetted shale matrix is mainly driven by the osmotic transport and wettability
alteration. The contribution of the osmotic transport on oil production continues a long period of
time if the membrane efficiency is high and the matrix block size is small. However, the low
membrane efficiency of shale formations, that is typically less than 10%, considerably reduces
the contribution of osmosis on oil recovery. The effect of fluid type on the oil recovery depends
on the membrane efficiency and the ionic diffusion coefficient. Higher membrane efficiency and
lower diffusion coefficient of dissolved ions increase the contribution of osmosis on the oil
recovery from shale matrix.

INTRODUCTION
Unconventional reservoirs require unconventional techniques to produce economically.
Shale matrix is often characterized by very low permeability, typically in nano-Darcy (nD) scale.
To economically produce from this type of reservoirs, fracture-stimulation is widely used.
During the hydraulic fracturing operation, fracturing fluid is pumped at high pressure into the
formation to generate the hydraulic fractures. A portion of this fluid is imbibed into the shale
matrix a portion of it returning to the surface through the wellbore after the fracturing. The fluid

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recovered during the clean-up phase is called flow-back water. The volume of water flow back is
often less than the injected volume. The reason for this low water flow-back is still not well
understood. Some researchers suggest that this water may be trapped in secondary fractures or is
imbibed into rock matrix. The exchange of solute concentration between the water in the shale
matrix and the water in fractures is considered as the main reason for the increase of salinity of
the flow-back water. The field data and experiments conducted by Ghanbari et al. (2013) show
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increasing flow-back water salinity with time that might be explained as a result of the solute
exchange between the fractures and the shale matrix.
With the presence of natural and hydraulic fractures, dual-porosity model is often used to
idealize the behavior of unconventional reservoirs in the reservoir scale. The flow of the fluid in
the fracture is the dominated flow in the reservoir. While traveling along the fractures, mass
exchange takes place with the adjacent matrix blocks. The mechanism of this mass exchange
depends on the flow properties and geometry of the matrix block. The common approach to
model the mass transport between the fractures and the rock matrix is through the mass transfer
functions. In the early fractured reservoir modeling studies, only pressure gradient was
considered as the driving force for the mass exchange between the rock matrix and fractures
(Warren and Root, 1963). The importance of accurate calculation the mass transfer between the
fractures and the rock matrix is detailed by Ramirez et al. (2009) and Al-Kobaisi et al. (2009).
This mass exchange determines the ultimate recovery from the reservoir. In addition to the
hydrocarbon recovery, the accuracy of calculating this mass exchange is important for clay
swelling model particularly for unconventional reservoirs. Hence, understanding the mechanism
governing this mass exchange has been one of the focus areas of the research studies toward the
improved and enhanced hydrocarbon recovery in unconventional reservoirs.
The transport process between fluid in the fractures and the rock matrix includes
advection, molecular, thermal and electrochemical diffusions, and thermal convection. In
conventional fractured reservoir modeling, transfer functions are quite sufficient to evaluate the
mass transfer between the rock matrix and the fractures. For conventional reservoirs, this
transport is mainly considered as advective transport that is described by Darcy's Law. Low
permeability decreases the effect of convection transport in shales. Molecular and
electrochemical diffusions and mechanical dispersion play key role. As diffusion and thermal
convection are very slow processes, they are strongly time dependent. The longer the time
injected fluid stays in contact with the rock matrix, the more the fluid imbibes into the rock
matrix expelling oil out of the matrix explaining why shutting-in the well or re-fracturing often
increases the production.
The recovery from unconventional reservoir is often very small, typically less than ten
percent, more often in the range of four to five percent. Research on the improved and enhanced
hydrocarbon recovery from these tight formations is currently focusing on the mechanism of the
mass exchange between the fractures and the rock matrix. One area of active research is low
salinity waterflooding. This new technology is recently received significant attention from
research community as a method to improve this mass exchange between the fractures and the

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rock matrix, hence improving the hydrocarbon recovery. The improved recovery due to the low
salinity water injection has been attributed to the decrease of ion binding, the alternation of
wettability from non-water-wet towards more water-wet and the change of the relative
permeability and capillary pressure curves (Masalmeh et al., 2014). The variation of the pH has
also been considered as a mechanism for the increase of recovery (Austad et al., 2010;
Rezaeidoust et al., 2010). One important reason is the imbibition of low salinity water into rock
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due to osmotic pressure. Fakcharoenphol (2013) shows that the osmotic pressure is the additional
force that improves the hydrocarbon recovery. The difference in salinity between fracturing fluid
and formation brine creates the concentration gradient and osmotic pressure. This osmotic
pressure induces the flow of water from fractures into the matrix pores containing high-salinity
concentration. This process continues until the solute concentrations reach the equilibrium.
Osmotic pressure is the pressure applied by a solution to prevent the inward flow of water
across a semipermeable membrane. Osmosis is the process in which a liquid passes through a
membrane, which allows the passage of solvent molecules but is too small for the larger solute
molecules to pass through. Because the molecules are in random motion, there will be more
molecules moving from the high concentration region to the low concentration region. The
motion of a substance from a high concentration region to a low concentration region is called
diffusion. In the absence of a hydraulic pressure gradient, the movement of fluid filtrate into
shale is mainly governed by the chemical potential difference between the pore fluid and the
injected fluid. This results in the osmotic transport of water into rock matrix (Ewy and
Stankovich, 2000). However, the osmotic potential generated between shale matrix and fluid in
the fractures is greatly influenced by the flow of ions into or out of shale caused by the ionic
concentration imbalances. Therefore, the actual osmotic effect is often less than the osmotic
potential. The determination of the impact of ionic flow on the osmotic potential initiates the
concept of shale membrane efficiency.
The membrane efficiency is used to describe the ability of the membrane to prevent
solute transport. Membrane efficiency is the measure of how well a membrane can prevent ion
movement. In the absence of the semipermeable membrane, diffusion would continue until the
concentrations of all substances are uniform throughout the liquid phase. Membrane efficiency
has the value from zero for non-selective membrane to one for perfect membrane. Shales are
often classified as leaky semi - permeable membranes. The membrane efficiency of shale
depends on its petrophysical properties such as permeability and porosity, clay surface area,
cation exchange capacity, the ion size and concentration or water activity (Zhang et al., 2008).
The ratio of the ion size to the pore throat size determines the ability of shale to restrict solutes
from leaving the pore space in shale matrix. The pore throat diameter of the shale is still often
larger than the diameter of most molecular and ion sizes. Hence, the membrane efficiency of
shale matrix is typically very low. Zhang et al. (2008) presented that when exposed to salt
solutions membrane efficiency of shale is low, less than 5 % for most of the tested shale samples.
The membrane efficiency of shales is directly proportional to the ratio of the cation exchange
capacity of shales Mese (1995. When the shale permeability and porosity decrease, the shale

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membrane efficiency also increases. Several researchers including van Oort et al. (1996), Ewy
and Stankovich (2000), Zhang et al. (2008) focus on quantitatively estimating the membrane
efficiency of shale. They all show that the membrane efficiency of shale is often less than 10 %
and particularly very small if permeability greater than 1 nD.

MASS TRANSPORT MODELING

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Since the dissolvability of solute in oil phase is small, we assume that solute is not dissolved in
the oil phase and only the water phase contains the solute. Using the phenomenological
approach, following continuity equations are derived for water, oil, and solute:
 k k RT  ∂
∇ ⋅  ρw w ∇ ( p w − γ w D ) − ρw w ω ∇c c  + ρwq̂ w = ( Sw ρwφ ) (1)
 μw μw Vw  ∂t
 k  ∂
∇ ⋅  ρo o ∇ ( p o − γ o D )  + ρo q̂ o = ( So ρoφ ) (2)
 μo  ∂t
 k ρ c  ω RT   ∂
∇ ⋅ csm ρs w  w s − ω  ∇ ( p w − γ w D) − ∇cs  + φρs Deff ∇cs  + ρsq̂ s = ( Sw ρsφ cs ) (3)
 μw  ρs 1− cs  Vw   ∂t

where subscripts w, o, s are used to represent water, oil, and solute; ρi is the density of phase i (i
= o, s, w); csm is the solute concentration in water phase; the sink/source term q̂ i and Si represent
the specific rate and saturation of phase i; pi and γi are the pressure and the specific gravity of
phase i; D is the elevation; Vw is the partial volume of water; ki and μi are viscosity permeability
of phase i; ω is the osmotic or membrane coefficient; Deff is the effective diffusion coefficient of
the porous medium; T is temperature; R is gas constant; and φ is porosity.

MASS TRANSPORT MODELING

The experimental data from Yu (2002) were used for model validation in this study. A shale
sample is placed between two steel end caps and surrounded by an impermeable jacket, which is
sealed to the end caps. The top end cap has ports to slowly circulated fluid at the top end of the
sample. The pressure and concentration of the fluid circulated at this end are different from these
of the original fluid in the sample and kept constant during the test. A porous metal disk is placed
at the top of the sample to allow the test fluid to travel along the surface of the sample and also
provide a medium to transfer axial stress to the sample. The bottom end cap has a pressure sensor
to measure the pore pressure change at this end of the sample. The sample assembly is set on a
load cell within a pressure vessel to provide confining pressure. Two high-pressure accumulators
are arranged nearby the pressure vessel to provide fluid source and fluid collection, and these are
instrumented to provide measurements of the volume flow rate (Ewy and Stankovich 2000). A
preserved shale sample, fully saturated with the native pore fluid, is first jacketed to the end caps.
Then, the entire assembly is placed within the pressure vessel. The confining pressure, acting in
all directions on the sample, is increased to a designated level. If no pore pressure buildup is
observed, the confining pressure is increased, in order to ensure full saturation of the sample
before the test. When the sample reaches full saturation, pore pressure is drained off through the

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top cap. This proced dure helps tot ensure zeero uniformeed pore preessure beforee the experiiment
(Ewy and d Stankovicch 2000). Th he flow lines for the tesst fluid are rremained em mpty in the early
phase. Th he test fluid is then circu
ulated throug
gh the top ennd of the sam mple. The teest fluid is flowed
past the top
t end of th he sample at a rate of 0.1
1 to 0.5 ccl/hh, in order too prevent staagnation andd keep
the chem mical conten nt of the fluid constant (Yu 2002). The pressuure and concentration oof the
circulatedd fluid are kept constant. This in nlet boundaary is treateed as constaant pressuree and
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concentraation boundaary. The botttom end is maintained

m aas a no-flow boundary. T The pore preessure
at this en
nd of sample is monitored as a functiion of time aand used to vvalidate the m model. Since it is
a no-flow w boundary y, the pore pressure riises and thhen reaches an equilibrrium value. The
deformab ble jacket arround the sample, sealss around thee outside off the samplee to prevent any
channel for
f flow. The fluid presssure, with slo ow flow, is hheld for a peeriod of seveeral days unttil the
test is com
mpleted.
Table 1:
1 Input parrameters forr numericall simulation
n to validatee the mass trransport moodel

The
T input parrameters useed in the sim mulation aree summarized in Table 11. The initiaal and
boundaryy conditions in term of pressure
p and concentratioon for each ssample are sshown in Tabble 2.
By curvee fitting the experimentaal result, thee four parammeters were ddetermined bby Yu (20022). In
our modeel, only mem mbrane coeffficient is vaaried to fit thhe experimeental data. A
All parameterrs for
the numeerical simulaation are obtained from Yu (2002).. The membbrane efficienncy for the same
sample and
a same flu dered to be constant. Foor example tthe membraane efficienccy for
uid is consid
sample N1
N with NaC Cl is 3.5% regardless of o concentraation. Varyinng the mem mbrane efficiency
with conncentration may
m provide a better fit. However, for simpliciity, we keepp it constant. The
transportt properties of the samme sample arre also connsidered to bbe the samee when diffferent
concentraations are used.
u The experimenta
e al result andd model prrediction forr Shale N1, A2
contactin
ng with diffeerent concentration of CaaCl2, NaCl ssolution are shown in Fiigures 1, 2 aand 3.

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Good mo odel agreemment to the experimentaal data is oobtained for all data seets. All the input
parameteers have beeen selected at a reservoir conditions ((Table 3). T
The relative permeabilityy and
capillary pressure currves in shalee matrix is sh
hown in Figuure 4.

Table 2: Experimenta
E al data for ea
ach sample used
u in the vaalidation of th
he mass tran
nsport modell in
matrix (Y
Yu, 2002)
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Figure 1:: Comparison n of the mod

del prediction ns with experrimental dataa for shale N N1 contactingg with:
7 g/l CaCl2, pw = 985 psi, pinitial = 15 pssi; (b) with 4 13 g/l CaCl2, pw = 995 psi, pinitial = 60 psi.
(a) 267

Figure 2:: Comparison

n of the moddel prediction ns with experrimental dataa for shale N N1 contactingg with:
(a) 272
2 g/l NaCl,, pw = 965 psi, pinitial = 10 psi; (b) 156 gg/l NaCl, pw = 940 psi, pinnitial = 120 psii.

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Figure 3:: Comparison

n of the mod
del predictionns with experrimental dataa for shale AA2 contactingg with:
(a) 267
2 g/l CaCl2, pw = 1020 psi,
p pinitial = 5 psi; (b) 413 g/l CaCl2, pw = 955 psi, pinitial = 50 psii.

Figuree 4. Relative permeabiliity and capiillary pressu

ure used forr matrix bloock simulatiion.
Table
T 3: Inp
put parametters for mattrix block simulation

Contribuution of Osm motic Transp port on Oil Recovery fr from Shale M Matrix: Thee recovery ffactor
from mattrix block acccounting fo or the effect of
o capillary and osmoticc pressure iss shown in FFigure
5. The reecovery is upp to 25% aftter 1000 day ys. With the contributionn of osmotic transport, thhe oil
recovery is significaantly higherr depending g on the meembrane cooefficient. H Higher membbrane
coefficiennt results in
n higher oil recovery.
r Thhe recovery factors for four membrrane coefficients,
0.05, 0.1, 0.2, and 0.4
0 are comp pared. The recovery facttor in 1000 days increaases from 255% to

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42% wheen membran ne efficiencyy is increasedd from 0.05 to 0.4. Withh high mem mbrane efficiency,
fewer solute molecu ules diffuse out
o of the matrix.
m Hencce, the conccentration immbalance rem mains
longer reesulting in more
m water fluxing
fl into the
t matrix foforcing the ooil to move oout of the mmatrix.
With low w membran ne efficiency y, the solutte moleculess move outt of the maatrix easier. The
concentraation imbalaance quicklyy vanishes reducing the eeffect of osm mosis on the oil recoveryy. For
conventio onal reservo
oirs, the porre size is significantly larger thann the diametter of the ssolute
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moleculees, and the membrane

m cooefficient is very
v small. H
Hence the contribution of osmosis oon oil
recovery from conv ventional reeservoirs is small. Hoowever, for unconventtional reservvoirs,
membran nt is higher resulting in a higher conttribution of oosmosis on ooil recovery from
ne coefficien
rock matrix.

Effect off Fluid Type on Oil Reco overy from Shhale Matrix:: The effect of the fluid type on the mass
exchangee between ro ock matrix annd fractures can be expllained by usiing membranne efficiencyy and
the diffusivity conceepts. Diffusioon coefficien
nt determinees how fast tthe solute diiffuses out oof the
sample determining
d the rate of recovery.
r Hiigher diffusiion coefficieent lower thhe contribution of
osmotic transport
t on the oil recovery and ressult in a highher rate of soolute diffuseed into the m
matrix
block red ducing the co
oncentrationn gradient an
nd reducing tthe effectiveeness of the oosmotic trannsport
(Figure 5b).
5

a.
a Effect of membrane
m coefficient b. Effect oof diffusion cooefficient
Figu
ure 5. Effectt of fluid an
nd rock prop
perties on rrecovery facctor from m
matrix block..

Effect off Salinity on Oil Recoverry from Shalle Matrix: T To determinee the effect oof salinity oon the
oil recov
very, the solu ute concentrration of thee fluid surrouunding rockk matrix is reeduced to innitiate
the osmo otic transporrt. Pressure outside
o the matrix blockk is the sam me as the iniitial pressuree and
kept consstant. Differrent solute co
oncentration ns may resultt in differennt membranee efficienciess. But
for the saake of simpllicity, the membrane
m effficiency is kkept constantt (ω = 0.1). The oil recoovery
factors for
f different salinities are shown in n Figure 6. The resultss indicate thhat lower saalinity
increasess the amountt of oil flux out
o of the maatrix block.

Effect off Matrix Bloock Size on Oil Recoveery from Shaale Matrix: Matrix bloccks are fracctured
reducing their sizes during hydrraulic fracturring. The maatrix block size dependds on the disstance
from the main hydraaulic-fracturee plane. The density of tthe micro-fraactures (natuural and induuced)
is high near
n the hydrraulic-fractu
ure face, but gradually ddecreases aw
way from it as a result oof the
hydraulicc-fracturing treatment. This
T affects th he well perfo
formance in shale reservooirs.

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a. With
h osmosis only
y b. With ossmosis and caapillarity
Fiigure 6. Effeect of salinitty on oil cum
mulative prroduction.
The conttribution of the
t osmotic transport on n oil recoverry also depeends on the m matrix blockk size
as shown n in Figure 7. Six values of matrix bllock dimensiions (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, aand 8 ft.) aree used
for compparison. The contribution n of osmoticc transport onn oil recoverry is more fofor smaller m matrix
block sizzes. Smaller matrix block k results in a higher surfface area andd a higher reecovery facttor by
osmotic transport th hat is important for un nconventionnal reservoirrs since thee surface arrea is
significanntly high affter hydrauliic fracturing
g. As the ossmotic transpport is a veery slow proocess,
matrix bllock size is more
m importaant in very low permeabbility formatiions.

a. contribution of osmosiss only b. contributionn of osmosis aand capillarityy

Fiigure 7. Effeect of salinitty on oil cum
mulative prroduction.

The
T osmotic transport co t oil recoveery is smaller than the results presented
ontribution to
here. Onne of the maain reasons is the saliniity of the fluuid surroundding the maatrix increasses as
solute molecules
m difffuse from rock matrix x with highh concentrattion to fracttures with llower
concentraation. This isi one of thee reasons wh hy the saliniity of the floow-back watter is higherr than
injected water
w and inncreases withh time. In addition to thhe effect of different facctors investigated
above, otther petroph hysical propeerties of rock
k such as poorosity, tortuuosity, and pore size struucture
also havee important impact on oil o recovery y contributioon of osmosiis. Low porrosity, small pore
throat sizze and higheer tortuosity promote osm motic transpport effect. TThe shale traansport properties
y anisotropicc, tortuosity and permeaability are diirection depeendent that affect the reesults
is highly
and is subbject to furth
her research.

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CONCLUDING REMARKS

In this research, a phenomenological model for three-phase transport in rock matrix is formulated
and numerically solved for a single matrix block. The results show that low salinity increases the
hydrocarbon recovery from the matrix due to the contribution of the osmotic transport. Osmotic
transport is a very slow process but significantly important in low permeability and small matrix
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blocks. We emphasize the importance of membrane efficiency on hydrocarbon recovery,

especially for unconventional reservoirs. Low membrane coefficient reduces the amount of oil
recovered from the matrix block. The actual contribution of osmotic transport on hydrocarbon
recovery is often significantly less than the osmotic potential because the membrane coefficient
of shale matrix is very small.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors acknowledge support from the sponsors of Unconventional Natural Gas and Oil
Institute CIMMM consortia and Petroleum Engineering Department in Colorado School of
Mines.

REFERENCES

Al-Kobaisi, M., Kazemi, H., Ramirez, B., Ozkan, E., and Atan, S. 2009. A critical review for
proper use of water/oil/gas transfer functions in dual-porosity naturally fractured reservoirs:
Part 2. Paper SPE-124213-PA, SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering, 12(02): 211–217.
Austad, T., Rezaeidoust, A., and Puntervold, T. 2010. Chemical mechanism of low salinity water
flooding in sandstone reservoirs. Paper SPE-129767. Proc. SPE Improved Oil Recovery
Symposium.
Ewy, R. and Stankovich, R. 2000. Pore pressure change due to shale-fluid interactions:
Measurements under simulated wellbore conditions. Paper ARMA-2000-0147, Proc. 4th
North American Rock Mechanics Symposium, Seattle, Washington, USA.
Fakcharoenphol, P. 2013. A Coupled Flow and Geomechanics Model for Application to Enhance
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Ghanbari, E., Abbasi, A.M., Dehghanpour, H. and Bearinger, D. 2013. Flowback Volumetric and
Chemical Analysis for Evaluation Load Recovery and Its Impact on Early- Time Production.
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Rezaeidoust, A., Puntervold, T., and Austad, T. 2010. A discussion of the low salinity EOR
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Yu, M. 2002. Chemical and Thermal Effects on Wellbore Stability of Shale Formations. Ph.D.
thesis, the University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA.
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