Buckley-Leverett theory applied in Low-Salinity Water Flooding displacement

Resumo

In offshore operations, due the amount of sea water, it is common to inject water in the wellbore as
an EOR (Enhanced Oil Recovery) method to help maintain reservoir pressure and improve the oil production.
However, it is necessary to evaluate the best method where it can improve the recovery factor and avoid spending
a lot of money purchasing chemicals and equipments. The recovery factor is impacted by the interaction between

the oil and the reservoir rock. The effect of the wettability is an example where the rock needs to be more water-
wet than oil-wet to increase the recovery factor. Present studies indicate the injection of water with ion additions,

also known as Low Salinity Water Flooding (LSWF), is efficient in wettability change and is cheaper than usual
methods in the industry. This work aims to estimate the advance of water and LSWF displacement implementing
Buckley-Leverett theory in numerical simulation with Python. Fractional flow, saturation profile, oil recovery
factor and pressure drop are the outcomes that indicate higher oil production and lower decay when comparing
LSWF to waterflooding.