| Members with reservations: | $20.00 |
| At the door: | $25.00 |
The next technical lunch meeting for the OK City Chapter of the SPWLA will be Tuesday, May 13, 2008. The meeting will be on the 35th Floor, Petroleum Club – Downtown OKC at 11:30 am.
Topic:
"Wettability Restoration in Cores Contaminated by Fatty Acid Emulsifiers."
Speaker:
Hollie Kelleher
ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company, Houston TX
Summary:
Special core analysis measurements such as capillary pressure and relative permeability depend on the distribution of water and oil in the pore space. In order for laboratory measurements to represent conditions in the reservoir, it is necessary for the pore-level distribution of fluids and the wettability of the rock to be the same in the laboratory as in the reservoir. One method to ensure reservoir wettability is to use preserved cores cut with a bland water-base coring fluid using core handling methods that do not alter the wettability. However, oil-based fluids containing surfactants, emulsifiers, and other wettability altering chemicals are often used for drilling requirements. The wettability of these cores must be restored in the laboratory by cleaning them to a water-wet state then aging them in the presence of reservoir fluids. This presentation discusses a special core cleaning method developed for wettability restoration of core plugs cut with oil-based mud from the Terra Nova field, offshore Newfoundland. The oil-based mud used to cut the core included oleic and linoleic acids. These compounds can polymerize, and also adsorb strongly on carbonate minerals, which are present as cement in the sandstone core material. The effectiveness of various flow-through cleaning sequences was judged by measuring the rate of spontaneous imbibition using brine and a pure hydrocarbon. This is a rapid method that can be used easily on a large number of samples. The resultant cleaning method consisted of an 11-step treatment with both solvents and an aqueous alkaline solution. Of the various alkaline solutions tested, potassium hydroxide caused the least change in rock permeability. The specially-cleaned core could then be aged to restore the in situ reservoir wettability. Ultimately this allowed representative special core analysis data to be acquired.
Biography:
Hollie Kelleher is currently an engineering specialist working for ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company, Houston, TX, in the Improved Hydrocarbon Recovery Division. She has been involved in assessing core data for various company assets, special core analysis research for unconventional gas resources, and most recently teaching and developing in-house training courses. She joined ExxonMobil in 2004 after acquiring a Bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Youngstown State University, Youngstown, OH, and a Doctorate in chemical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA.
| Oklahoma City Chapter Officers 2007-2008 | |
| President
Doug Bentley Schlumberger Oilfield Services 6601 Broadway Ext. (N) #200 Oklahoma City, OK 73116 405-840-1621 email: dbentley atslb.com |
VP Technology
Richard F. Sigal Unocal 100 East Boyd, Sarkeys Energy Center Norman, Oklahoma 73019 405-325-6799 email: rsigal at ou.edu |
| VP Membership/Editor
Dick Schneider 3000 United Fndrs Blvd. #128 Oklahoma City, OK 73112 405-842-1082 email: Thmp925 at aol.com |
Treasurer
John Arney Devon Energy Corp. 20 N. Broadway, Ste. 1500 Oklahoma City, OK 73102-8260 405-552-8189 email: John.arney at dvn.com |
| Secretary
Anna Hermesmeyer Fronterra Geosciences 5100 North Brookline Ave., Suite 750 Oklahoma City, OK 73112 |
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