Nanofluid pre-treatment, an effective strategy to improve the performance of low-salinity waterflooding

Nanofluid pre-treatment can significantly mitigate fines migration near wellbore while it may occur far from the injection well. We discuss cases with different nanofluid treatment schemes prior to low-salinity waterflooding by comparing water-saturation profile, water-cut history plot, injection pressure, and oil recovery. A good agreement is obtained between semi-analytical solution and finite-difference simulation. It was observed that although nanofluid treatment slightly accelerate breakthrough of the injected water, it can help maintain long-term well injectivity and sweep efficiency. In practice, our work provides valuable insight to design of nanofluid utilization and improve efficiency of low-salinity waterflooding.