Low Salinity Oil Recovery: An Exciting New EOR Opportunity for Alaska's North Slope

Abstract Laboratory studies conducted over a period of many years have indicated that oil recovery could be improved by injecting lower salinity water (less than about 5,000 ppm). Although the recovery mechanisms are still uncertain, they appear to be similar to those found in alkaline flooding. Recent successful field trials have led to serious evaluation of field-scale implementation of low salinity EOR. Four sets of single well chemical tracer tests (SWCTT) performed in Alaska confirmed that the favorable laboratory results could be replicated in the field. The SWCTT results (two in the Ivishak sandstone, one each in the Kuparuk and Kekiktuk sandstones) showed that waterflood residual oil saturation (Sorw)…