Date 19/11/2019

wetability

Supervisor:

Dr Nasser al mouafa
Done by:

En:Hamza muzahem

1
Abstract
The oil-versus-water welting preference influences many aspects of reservoir performance,
particularly in water flooding and enhanced oil recovery techniques. Wettability describes the
preference of a solid to be in contact with one fluid rather than another. wettability is treated
as a binary switch in many oilfield applications, which masks the complexity of wetting
physics in reservoir rock. Favorable oil price has improved the economics of water flooding
and some enhanced oil recovery methods. Some enhanced oil recovery processes are
designed to overcome the wetting forces that trap oil, which aim to alter the wetting
preference of the formation to be more oil-wetting or to decrease the interfacial tension
between the fluids. All systems will need to be optimized to achieve mature oil fields, and that
requires continued improvement in applying a fundamental parameter underlying recovery,
rock wettability.

INTRODUCTION
In general
term, wettability is the
tendency of one fluid to
spread on or adhere to a
solid surface in the
presence of other
immiscible fluid[2]. In the
petroleum
context, wettability is the
tendency of a reservoir
rock surface to
preferentially contact a
particular fluid in a
multiphase or two-phase fluid system[3].
Wettability can change the reservoir petrophysicalcharacteristics (relative permeability, capillary pressure,
etc.).Information about wettability is fundamental to understanding multiphase flow problems ranging from
oil migration from source rocks through primary production mechanisms to secondary/tertiary
recovery processes.

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Contents

 1 Wettability measurements
o 1.1 Contact angle
o 1.2 Displacement study
o 1.3 Cautions on sample handling
 2 Wettability heterogeneity
 3 Effects of wettability on relative permeability
 4 Effects of wettability on oil recovery

o 4.1 Water flood

o 4.2 Gas flood

5 References

Wettability measurements

Contact angle
The conventional means of measuring the reservoir rock wetting state is by contact angle measurement of
an oil droplet on the rock. Water-wet if the contact angle is less than 90; oil-wet if the contact angle is larger
than 90; intermediate wet if the contact angle is ~90. The reservoir wetting state may further be divided into
strongly-water-wet, weakly-water-wet, strongly-oil-wet and weakly-oil-wet.
One of the most obvious limitations of wettability characterization using contact angle measurement is the
absence of a standard reference. Consequently, except at the end point wetting states, the classification of
wetting state from contact angle measurement is arbitrary and subjective.
Another important limitation of the contact angle method is that the required length of equilibration time
cannot be reproduced in the lab. This may lead to problems such as erroneous classification of wetting state
and sometimes to reproducibility issues.

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Displacement study
This includes the Amott[4] wettability test and the United States Bureau of Mines (USBM)[5] wettability test
which are both derived, directly or indirectly, from capillary pressure phenomena. These tests reflect the
ease of the wetting fluid displacing the non-wetting fluid (spontaneous imbibition).

Cautions on sample handling

As it is very difficult to measure the in-situ reservoir wetting state, reservoir wettability is typically measured
in the lab through the use of core plugs or whole length cores. However, the wetting state of the core
samples may be altered from their in-situ values during cutting, surfacing and handling of the core samples.
Variation of the reservoir wettability from the in-situ reservoir wettability is due to a number of reasons
including:

1. Flashing of the connate water present due to reduction in pressure

2. Drying
3. Invasion of drilling mud
4. Asphaltene deposition or wax precipitation from the crude oil due to temperature and
pressure effects
5. Oxidation, which sometimes enhances deposition

Care must be taken in the handling of the core samples to ensure that the actual wettability is not altered [6].

Wettability
heterogeneity
A pore level view of wetting states

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Reservoir rocks are
complex structures, often
comprising a variety of
mineral types. Each
mineral may have a
different wettability,
making the wetting
character of the composite
rock difficult to describe.
Most early analyses on the
effect of wettability on oil
recovery were based on the
simplistic assumption of
uniform/homogeneous
wettability throughout the
reservoir. However, research into the wetting-state of reservoir rocks suggest that wettability in a reservoir
rock is indeed typically heterogeneous[7][8].
The discovery of possible non-uniform wetting condition in the reservoir opened up new vistas of
understanding and research in reservoir rock wettability and led to the definition of other wetting states,
besides the gamut covering strongly water-wet to strongly oil-wet reservoirs. These wettingstates include:

1. mixed-wettability;
2. fractional wettability;
3. “dalmatian” wetting;
4. speckled wetting.

A common feature of heterogeneous wettability is the presence of distinguishable zones that are respectively
preferentially oil and water wet. The extent, type and distribution of the wetting heterogeneity is greatly
influenced by the chemical variation of the reservoir rock mineralogy.

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 Effects of wettability on relative permeability
Wettability affects relative permeability because it is a major factor in the control of the location, flow, and
distribution of fluids in a porous medium[9]. Typically, as the system becomes more oil-wet, the water
relative permeability increases and the oil relative permeability decreases. The more oil-wet the rock, the
higher the water saturation positioned in the center of the pores competing with the oil in the most
permeable pathways, reducing the relative permeability to oil, and increasing the relative permeability to
water. Therefore, wettability alteration to more oil-wet due to near well-bore asphaltene deposition can
hinder oil production.

Effects of wettability on oil recovery

Water flood
It has long been known that wettability is a primary determinant of waterflood recovery efficiency[10].
Strongly oil-wet reservoirs give the least waterflood oil recovery and the best recovery appears to be the
mixed-wet reservoir, particularly where surface film drainage mechanism is also observed. While most
researchers are in agreement on the least waterflood oil recovery for oil-wet reservoirs, there is a lack of
consensus as to the wetting condition for maximum oil recovery. The only consensus seems to be that the
best oil recovery is achieved when the reservoir is at some intermediate-wetting state – not strongly oil-wet
and not strongly water-wet.

Gas flood
Gas flood recovery efficiency also depends on reservoir wettability as well as the spreading coefficient. The
best gas flood oil recovery was observed for oil-wet reservoirs particularly for tertiary recovery process i.e. at
waterflood oil saturation. For gasfloods in secondary recovery processes, the mixed-wet and water-wet
systems resulted in higher recoveries.

References
1. ↑ Abdallah, et al. "Fundamentals of Wettability".
2. ↑ Craig, F.F. Jr. "The reservoir engineering aspects of waterflooding", Monograph series,
SPE, Richardson, TX 1971.
3. ↑ Agbalaka, C. et al. "The effect of wettability on oil recovery: A Review", SPE 114496, 2008.
4. ↑ Amott, E.: “Observations Relating to the Wettability of Porous Rock,” Trans AIME (1959)
Vol. 216, 156-92