Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2016) 131: 125
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2016-16125-4

Regular Article

Experimental investigation the effect of nanoparticles on the oil-water relative permeability

¹ Department of Gas Engineering, Ahwaz Faculty of Petroleum Engineering, Petroleum University of Technology, Ahwaz, Iran
² Department of Petroleum Engineering, Ahwaz Faculty of Petroleum Engineering, Petroleum University of Technology, Ahwaz, Iran

^* e-mail: ahmadi6776@yahoo.com

Received: 14 September 2015
Accepted: 5 February 2016
Published online: 2 May 2016

Abstract

This paper presents the effects of the nanosilica particles on the water and oil relative permeability curves at reservoir conditions. Real reservoir crude oil sample was employed as an oil phase in relative permeability measurements. In addition, real carbonate reservoir rock samples were employed as a porous media in core displacement experiments. To determine relative permeability curves, the unsteady-state approach was employed in which Toth et al. method was applied to the recovery data points. By increasing the nanosilica content of the aqueous phase the oil relative permeability increased while the residual oil saturation decreased; however, by increasing the nanosilica concentration in the aqueous solution the water relative permeability decreased. The outcomes of this paper can provide a better understanding regarding chemically enhanced oil recovery (EOR) by nanoparticles. Moreover, relative permeability curves help us in the history matching section of reservoir simulation for any further EOR scenarios.