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HYBRID CHEMICAL ENHANCED OIL RECOVERY IN CARBONATE RESERVOIRS (COMPLETED 2020) (DR. EMAD W. AL SHALABI)

This project aims to enhance oil recovery from carbonate reservoirs using combinations of low salinity water and different chemicals. The chemicals improve oil recovery from carbonate reservoirs through enhancing both displacement efficiency as well as volumetric sweep efficiency. Surfactants reduce trapped residual oil saturation and polymers target unswept (bypassed) oil saturation. On the other hand, low salinity water was proven to enhance both. In this project, hybrid injections of low salinity water/polymer and low salinity water/surfactant will be numerically modeled. Geochemical mechanistic models will be utilized to capture low salinity water mechanism added to other chemicals, namely polymer and surfactant. This project will guide in designing hybrid chemical EOR projects in UAE.

RESERVOIR CHARACTERIZATION: CRITICAL ASSESSMENT OF REGIONAL STRATIGRAPHY, AND THE ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF MICROPOROSITY (ONGOING) (DR. EMAD W. AL SHALABI)

The project aims to utilize the expertise and research capacities available at KU to better characterize carbonate reservoirs both in terms of macro- and micro-porosity for more adequate static and dynamic modeling. This will increase the understanding and predictive capabilities for both exploration and production operations in UAE carbonate reservoirs, and improve production rates and recovery factors from conventional and unconventional (microporous) carbonate reservoirs. Detailed sedimentologic, stratigraphic, diagenetic, and structural studies will aim to explain local and regional patterns of macro- and micro- porosity, permeability, and saturation in productive reservoirs. Innovative and integrated stratigraphic and petroleum basin studies to fully understand large-scale fluid circulation, constrain pressure/temperature conditions, and their impact on key diagenetic processes that control reservoir properties and heterogeneities.

CHARACTERIZATION AND MODELING OF CAPILLARY TRANSITION ZONES IN CARBONATE RESERVOIRS (COMPLETED 2018) (DR. HADI BELHAJ)

The objective of this research project is to offer such detailed study, investigating the various aspects of the characterization and modelling of the capillary transition zones of carbonate oil reservoirs in Abu Dhabi. The investigation included development of algorithm to determine the exact start-point of the TZ with proper definition of transition zone, define RRT (Reservoir Rock Typing) encountered in the selected thick transition zones from Abu Dhabi reservoirs, develop saturation functions relating CCA, SCAL, and log data for the defined RRTs with imbibition and drainage scenarios, and develop completion schemes (mainly perforation distribution and density) based on the newly developed saturation functions for all the defined TZs.