Effect of Clay Mineral Composition on Low-Salinity Water Flooding

Low-salinity water (LSW) flooding technology has obvious operational and economic advantages, so it is applied to practice in many oilfields. However, there are differences in the oil recovery efficiencies in different oilfields, the reasons for which need to be further studied and discussed. This paper studies the effect of different clay mineral compositions on low-salinity water flooding. For this purpose, three groups of core displacement experiments were designed with cores containing different clay mineral compositions for comparison. In the process of formation water and low-salinity water driving, the oil recovery and produced-water properties were measured. By comparing the two types of water flooding, it was found that the cores with the highest montmorillonite content had the best effect (5.7%) on low-salinity water flooding and the cores with the highest kaolinite content had the least effect (1.9%). This phenomenon is closely related to the difference in ion exchange capacity of the clay minerals. Moreover, after switching to low-salinity water flooding, the interfacial tension and wetting angle of the produced-water increased and the value of pH decreased, which are important mechanisms for enhancing oil recovery by low-salinity water flooding. This study reveals the influence of clay mineral composition on low-salinity water flooding and can provide more guidance for conventional and unconventional oilfield application of low-salinity water flooding technology.