Effect of alkalinity on sand production due to optimized smart water based on the scale minimization: Impact of silica nanoparticles

Abstract

Smart water injection in oil and gas reservoirs is one of the most popular and low-cost methods to increase the recovery factor of reservoirs. However, due to the abundance of sandstone reservoirs in the world and the necessity to increase recovery in these types of reservoirs, injection of smart water will disturb the distribution of intergranular stresses in the porous media which results in sand production that causes many problems in many parts of the petroleum industry. For this reason, the necessity to investigate possible parameters affecting sand production was increased. Also, according to the relative researches, the injection of smart water changes the reservoir pH, which could change the sand production rate. In this paper, a comprehensive study on the effect of pH or alkalinity on sand production, as well as the effect and mechanism of silica nanoparticles, has been performed to control the grains separated from the rock. The effect and mechanism of silica nanoparticles with economic concerns have also been analyzed, which can significantly reduce and control the amount of sand production. In this paper, we can determine the effectiveness and the most effective parameters in an acidic or basic environment.