Technical Session - 1

Title:            The effect of montmorillonite on water-in-oil emulsion of Omani heavy oil in a steam injection EOR process
Authors:       Ibrahim Al Hadabi, Kyuro Sasaki, Yuichi Sugai, Amin Yousefi Sahzabi
Abstract:     Understanding the behaviors of clays containing in the oil in the reservoir is important to design a process of enhance the oil recovery, especially steam flooding (Steam-EOR). The objective of this paper is to investigate the effects of montmorillonite clay on physical and rheological characteristics of heavy oil and its emulsion during Steam-EOR. The experiments were carried out using Omani heavy oil (21.5 °API at 15 °C) containing montmorillonite particles by changing their mass ratio in the oil. The measured results showed that the montmorillonite has no effect on the rheology of the original oil. The effect of montmorillonite on emulsion (water-in-oil) formed by steam injection was also studied by changing montmorillonite mass ratio in the oil. It has been cleared that the montmorillonite in the oil has a function to reduce the emulsion viscosity by contacting condensed water. The viscosity of the emulsion C, respectively. Those results show that the highly polar components in the heavy oil could be absorbed on montmorillonite particles by changing salinity due to the condensed water.

Keywords:  Steam Injection EOR, Montmorillonite, Heavy Oil, Emulsion, Rheological
Pages:        096-099

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