Improving Oil Recovery during Water Injection and WAG Processes in Asphaltenic Oil Reservoirs by using Nonionic Surfactants

Abstract

Asphaltene deposition is one of the most popular problems, which occur during oil production; it can reduce oil recovery through wettability alteration and pore throat blockage. The Aim of this paper is to represent an experimental investigation of reducing oil recovery in water injection and WAG process during asphaltene deposition and improving the oil recovery by using a nonionic surfactant. The results of unsteady state experiments showed that asphaltene deposition reduced the oil recovery in water injection and WAG process significantly, and also lead to rock wettability alteration from water-wet to oil-wet. Also the results of flooding experiments demonstrated that employing the nonionic surfactant improved the recovery through rebounding wettability to water wet.