Application of Nanofluid Injection for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR)

Authors

Abdelrahman El-Diasty, Hamid Khattab, Mahmoud Tantawy
Faculty of Petroleum and Mining Engineering, Suez University, Egypt.

Abstract

The use of nanofluids has been investigated and established for several applications in the oil and gas industry. Using nanoparticles for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) applications underlines their small size in comparison with the size of the rock pore throats; consequently, they could easily transport into porous rocks with minimum retention effect and permeability reduction. Nanoparticles can significantly increase the oil recovery by enhancing both the fluid properties and fluid-rock interaction properties. In this study, commercial silica nanoparticles dispersions were used in standard core flooding experiments to evaluate the effect of the nanofluid injection on the incremental oil recovery. This will open the door for taking the nanotechnology from the lab to the oil field.