CO2 is injected into mature reservoirs for both sequestration and EOR. The effect of CO2 flooding on asphaltene stability has been extensively addressed in literature. In contrast, asphaltene / water interaction has not received much attention in literature.

The objective of the paper is to address the asphaltenic oil recovery by water alternating CO2 injection (WACO2) and asphaltene/ions interaction. Different water compositions, such as synthetic seawater (SSW) and low salinity water (LSW), Na2SO4, MgCl2 ions, and ion free water (DW), are used. SO4-2 and Mg+2 ions were selected based on previous work on their interaction with chalk minerals and modifying the surfaces to more water wet. CO2 is injected in miscible mode within the WACO2 recovery process. For simplicity outcrop cores and model oil were used. Model oil consists of n-C10, 0.35wt% asphaltene (extracted from a Middle East crude oil) and natural surfactant (stearic acid, SA). The effects of water injection rates were also investigatd to address the oil recovery efficiency in the cores and assess the water/oil/rock interaction as a function of injection rates. Imbibition process with various water compositions was tested for cores unflooded and flooded with CO2. This is to address the effect of CO2 on the fluids interaction.

It was shown that higher oil recovery was obtained when Mg+2 solution was used as imbibing fluid after CO2 flooding compared to SO4-2 solution. The opposite was observed without the CO2 flooding where higher recovery was obtained when Na2SO4 solution was used as an imbibing solution compared to that with MgCl2 as imbibing fluid.

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