News

Eloise Chevallier received The award of the best young author at the EAGE Symposium in Pau, France, past April, 2019, for her job on Advanced EOR foams in naturally fracture carbonate reservoirs.

In naturally-fractured carbonate reservoirs, the oil recovery kinetics is limited by the unfavourable exchange between the matrix and the fracture network due to oil-wettability, the highly connected fracture network and the high permeability contrast (matrix/fracture). To boost this recovery kinetics, an advanced foam EOR injection is suggested in literature, it consists in the injection of foam with reduced interfacial tension.

The awarded paper supports this new process and discusses the best balance between low interfacial tension (IFT) with oil and foam strength performances. The conclusion relies on  simulation results of oil-wet fractured reservoir and the lab feasibility study to design such an advanced foam.  We evidence that the common target of IFT in the order of 10-3 mN/m used in SP flooding is not optimal for this process and adjusted to a higher IFT value of the order of 0.1mN/m determined by the wettability of the reservoir. This maximizes the foam strength in fractures, especially in presence of oil, while decreasing sufficiently the capillary pressure to produce oil from the oil-wet matrix. Complete publication: SPE-194992