An Experimental Investigation of Magnetized Water Effect on Formation Damage

Abstract

In oil industries, water injection into oil reservoirs for pressure maintenance, oil displacement, and oil recovery is a common technique. Formation damage during water injection is a major problem in this process. Formation damage from the incompatibility of formation water (FW) and injection water (IW) causes a reduction in the permeability around the injection wells. Therefore, it is necessary that the formation damage be minimized using specific techniques such as the injection of scale inhibitors and water compatible with formation water. It has been proven that moving water through relatively weak magnetic field changes water properties. These changes involve density, electrical conductivity, salts dissolving ability, sedimentation rate of solid particles etc. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of magnetized water injection on the decline in rock permeability. Therefore, a magnetic field device was designed and combined with a formation damage setup. The results indicate that, in the presence of magnetic field, water injection causes less damage to rock, and the permeability reduction in this case is lower than when non-magnetized water is injected. In addition, the results show that a higher magnetic field flux reduces the permeability damage.