Chemical Stimulation of Oil Wells Producing from Carbonate Reservoirs

65017 Oil well formation damage is detrimental to the oil production rate and ultimate recovery from carbonate reservoirs that contain 3.7 billion barrels of proved domestic reserve. This project will develop an innovative well stimulation technique, based on laboratory measurements of wettability alteration coupled with artificial intelligence, to design well treatments. In Phase I, a series of laboratory experiments will be conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of commercially available cationic surfactants on stimulating production from domestic carbonate reservoirs. The experiments are designed to measure the ultimate recovery, the efficiency, and the rate of recovery. The experimental parameters will be estimated from available well parameters, so that the laboratory correlations will be available to predict field performance. Core and fluid experimental parameters will be varied to determine their effects on recovery. Artificial intelligence will be used to correlate the experimental recovery results with core porosity, permeability, and saturation. Commercial Applications And Other Benefits as described by awardee: Small oil companies are expected to be the primary domestic market for new stimulation treatments. The technology should reduce the risk of initial field trials.