Influence of Miscible CO2 Flooding on Wettability and Asphaltene Precipitation in Indiana Lime Stone

Abstract Carbon dioxide (CO2) flooding is an EOR technique in which carbon dioxide is injected into the reservoir to improve the oil recovery. The reservoir oil and rock properties are altered when carbon dioxide interacts with the oil and rock present in the reservoir. Carbon dioxide injection alters the oil and rock properties by causing reduction in oil viscosity, oil swelling and wettability alteration of the rock. This paper will present a proposal to study the wettability alteration in carbonate formations during miscible carbon dioxide flooding. In miscible carbon dioxide flooding, the injection pressure of carbon dioxide would be kept above the minimum miscibility pressure. Thus carbon dioxide is miscible with the oil present in the reservoir. This paper primarily focuses on understanding the effect of crude oil composition on the change in wettability and asphaltene precipitation in carbonate rocks during miscible carbon dioxide flooding. Experiments will be carried out with different crude oils (Heavy, Medium and Light) on the same carbonate rock, at reservoir conditions, in order to observe the change in rock wettability. Interaction between formation and asphaltene would be investigated by measuring precipitation quantitiy into production recovery and rock at constant CO2 reservoir pressure. Carbonate rocks are very special due to the fact that usually carbonate rocks are oil wet and carbon dioxide tends to change the wettability of the carbonate rocks from oil wet to water wet. This change in wettability of the reservoir rock increases the oil recovery. Literature review revealed that considerable amount of research has not been done on the wettability alteration of carbonate rocks during miscible CO2 flooding process. Thus this topic needs to be further investigated and studied.