Scaling Spontaneous Imbibition of Aqueous Surfactant Solution into Preferential Oil-Wet Carbonates

Carbonate reservoirs are usually strongly fractured, with very high permeability contrasts between matrix blocks and fractures. Normally, a simulation of fluid flow with a dual porosity model is used, which is based on a fluid-exchange term where the dimensionless time is a key factor. Besides traditional reservoir rock and fluid parameters, the scaled dimensionless time must include the influence of capillary and gravitational forces. A very recent publication [Li and Horne, SPE Paper No. 77544, 2002] examined an “analytical” model that involved all these effects. In the present paper, we have tested the model for spontaneous imbibition of aqueous surfactant solution into preferential oil-wet carbonate cores. A chemical reaction occurs between the surfactant and adsorbed polar organic components/carboxylates at the carbonate surface, ahead of the fluid displacement process, as has been discussed previously [Standnes and Austad, J. Pet. Sci. Eng., 28, 123, 2000]. It was of great interest to determine if t...

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