Impact of the injected water salinity on oil recovery from sandstone formations: Application in an Egyptian oil reservoir

In the last decade, there has been an increasing interest in understanding the effects of changing injected water salinity on the performance of oil reservoirs. This paper aims to investigate the effects of injected water salinity on oil recovery of an Egyptian oil reservoir (Bahariya formation). An experimental work program has been performed using 25 core plugs and 5 different water salinities to study the effects of changing water salinity during both secondary and tertiary stages of waterflooding. The objectives of the experimental work were to (1) investigate the effects of the low water salinity on oil recovery and (2) identify the optimum water salinity and the main reservoir parameters for application of low salinity waterflooding project (LSWF) in Bahariya formation.