Permeability reduction by asphaltenes and resins deposition in porous media

The deposition of crude oil polar fractions such as asphaltenes and resins in oil reservoir rocks reduce considerably the rock permeability and the oil production. In the present work, a crude oil and various core samples were extracted from Rhourd-Nouss (RN) reservoir rock. Afterwards, core flow experiments were carried out in the laboratory to investigate permeability reduction that causes formation damage. The core permeability damage was evaluated by flooding Soltrol, through the sample and measuring the solvent permeabilities, K-i and K-f, respectively, before and after injection of a given pore volume number of the crude oil. The data indicate that upon flooding the crude oil through the porous medium, considerable permeability reduction, expressed as the ratio (K-i - K-f)/K-i, and ranging from 72.4% to 98.3% were observed. The permeability reduction is found to result from irreversible retention of asphaltenes and resins in the porous core sample. However, no correlations could be established between the depth of the well, the core porosity, the core mineral compositions determined by X-ray analysis, and the permeability damage factors. In addition, effluents flowing away from RN wells were collected and analysed at various periods, after carrying out aromatic solvents squeezes. The amount of saturates, aromatics, resins, and asphaltenes (SARA analysis), of the crude oil, the deposited crude oil fraction, and the effluent's residues were measured and compared. The asphaltenes weight percent was found to increase from 1.56% for the crude oil to 11.42% for the deposited oil fraction, and was in the range 1.37-2.36% for the effluent's residues. Such results indicate that the deposited oil fraction and the effluent's residues consist mainly of asphaltenes and resins. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.