Effects of pH and Temperature on Oilfield Scale Formation

Abstract

Water flooding is one of the most influential methods for pressure maintenance and enhanced oil recovery. However, water flooding is likely to develop the formation of oilfield scale. Scale formation in reservoirs, due to the mixing of injection water and formation water, could cause formation damage and production limit. Therefore, it is necessary to simulate the compatibility of brine and injection water. Scale prediction is performed using many thermodynamic and/or kinetic based models. In this study, simulations with speciation (ion pairing) are studied, which is a thermodynamic based tool. The utilization of reservoir conditions, formation water analysis, and sea water analysis as the inputs in this method resulted to the accurate prediction of potential scales. In this study, the factors impacting on the scale potential such as pH, temperature, and mixing ratio were also investigated. The obtained results showed that calcite and aragonite were the major scale potential to precipitate. Finally, the results illustrated the important effect of pH and temperature on different scales formation.