Lab visit briefing

Prior the visit, find out about the targeted audience background and organization, number of
people
What to explain: (depends on targeted audience)
a. Organization: Under EOR MOR
1. EOR center
2. South East Asia Carbonate Research Laboratory (SEACARL)
3. Centre of Subsurface Seismic Imaging & Hydrocarbon Prediction (CSI)
The centre of research in EOR was established in 2009 to promote excellence in EOR research
that mostly addresses the needs of industry and to manage laboratory services for the MOR.
b. Overview about EOR and ongoing projects for COREOR:
1. Miscible method: increasing miscibilities, MMP reduction, reduce IFT using chemicals like
alcohol
2. chemical method: alkaline, surfactant, polymer injection, ASP, screening of chemicals for
various functions (for reducing IFT, increasing miscibilities, improving mobility ratio,
production stable emulsions, stable foams etc.), optimization of chemical synthesis (surfactant)
3. Thermal method: steam coreflood
4. Unconventional method: ionic liquid, nanoparticle
5. Others: Simulation and modeling (EoS, micromodel etc.), wellbore technology, improved oil
recovery method, separation optimization, wastewater treatment, drilling and production aspects,
improving sweep efficiencies (relative permeability modification, injection strategies, change in
viscosity and viscoelasticity etc)
c. Laboratories around petroleum engineering department
1. EOR lab (block 15 2nd floor)
2. EOR lab (block J): for chemical EOR

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3. CT scan equipment (block 15 ground floor)

4. PVT lab (block 15 ground floor): PVT (CCE, CVD, DL, bubble point and dew point
determination, swelling test), density, viscosity
5. Corelab (block 15 2nd floor): Reservoir rock and fluid properties characterization, rock-fluid
interactions (wettability, capillarity etc.), fluid-fluid interactions (emulsions, precipitation),
porosity, permeability,
6. Drilling lab (block 15 2nd floor): mud cake maker, drilling simulator
d. Equipment in EOR center (operating conditions, description of equipment and working
mechanism, function and application, result keywords and pictures)
EOR lab
1. SurPASS Electrokinetic Analyzer
What is zeta potential: Surface charge is formed through contact with an electrolyte. Flow over
the solid surface leads to charge separation. The charge separation results in Zeta potential.
Operating conditions: Streaming potential 2000 mV (0.2% + 250 V), streaming current
200 A (0.2% + 250 pA), pressure measurement 1000 mbar (0.2% + 0.5 mbar), pH value
pH 2 pH 12, conductivity 0.1 ... 1000 mS/m, temperature 20 30 C, flow rate 0 ... 300
ml/min (1% + 1 ml/min)
Description and mechanism: To investigate the zeta potential of macroscopic solids based on a
streaming potential and streaming current measurement. A dilute electrolyte is circulated through
the measuring cell containing the solid sample, thus creating a pressure difference. A relative
movement of the charges in the electrochemical double layer occurs and gives rise to the
streaming potential. This streaming potential or alternatively the streaming current is detected
by electrodes placed at both sides of the sample.
Function and application: The zeta potential is related to the surface charge at a solid/liquid
interface and is a powerful indicator for the surface chemistry (pH titration) and liquid phase
adsorption processes. Understand and improve surface properties and to develop new specialized
materials.
Keyword and picture: The electrolyte conductivity, temperature and pH value are determined
simultaneously.
2. Mettler Toledo DM40 Density Meter
Operating conditions: Accuracy 0.0001 [g/cm3], Measurement range 0.0000 ... 3.0000 [g/cm3],
Temperature range 0.0 ... 91.0 C, Temperature control and compensation yes, sample volume
Approx. 1.0 mL (minimal), typical measuring time 30 s (5 s after reaching temperature
equilibrium)

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Description and mechanism: automatically detect measuring errors and feature a wide measuring
temperature range, fast heating-up and cooling down-rates and very short measuring cycles.
Function and application: Measurement for density, specific gravity, API (petroleum), BRIX
(sugar), alcohol concentrations and other density related values.
Keyword and picture: density
3. Mettler Toledo RM40 Refractometer
Refractive index, also called index of refraction, measure of the bending of a ray of light when
passing from one medium into another.
Operating conditions: Accuracy 0.0001, Measurement range 1.3200 ... 1.7000 [nD], temperature
range 5.0 ... 100.0C, measurement range BRIX (sugar) 0.00 100.00%, Typical measuring time
20s (5s after reaching temperature equilibrium)
Description and mechanism: measuring liquids to assess their composition or purity, strongly
influenced by temperature and wavelength of light used to measure it
Function and application: input values for other equipment eg. Spinning drop, refractive index
can be used to for correlations between SARA fractions, density to investigate the stability of
asphaltene
Keyword and picture: RI
4. Thermo Scientific Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy
Operating conditions: Spectral range 10-25000cm1
Description and mechanism: a technique which is used to obtain an infrared spectrum of
absorption, emission, photoconductivity or Raman scattering of a solid, liquid or gas, forensic
analysis, pharmaceutical analysis

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Function and application: widely used in organic synthesis, polymer science, petrochemical
engineering, pharmaceutical industry and food analysis. In addition, since FTIR spectrometers
can be hyphenated to chromatography, the mechanism of chemical reactions and the detection of
unstable substances can be investigated with such instruments.
Keyword and picture: Detect functional group of sample from library, sample, background

5. Dataphysics Spinning Drop Tensiometer

Operating conditions: Automatic control of the electronic tilting base, for positioning of the
rotating droplet along the rotary axis of the capillary, Measurement and analysis of the static,
time, and temperature dependent interfacial tension (110-6 to 2103 mN/m) according to the
spinning drop method and oscillating spinning drop method, Temperature range: -10 130 C,
High-performance 6-fold power zoom lens
Description and mechanism: special purpose optical instrument for measuring of conventional to
extremely low interfacial tensions. A droplet of a liquid of lower density and a surrounding
medium of higher density are placed in a rotating glass tube. The droplet shape is determined by
the interfacial tension and the centrifugal force. At low angular velocities the interfacial
tension is the dominating force and thus the droplet is spherical. For higher angular velocities
the droplet becomes cylindrical.
Function and application: Various methods can be used for measuring interfacial tensions. Unlike
most other methods, the spinning drop method can be used to measure ultra-low surface tensions
of 10-5 mN/m or even 10-6 mN/m. EOR, IFT reduction by chemical
Keyword and picture: IFT

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6. Micromodel Reactor System:

Operating conditions: Pressure: up to 6000 psia (40 MPa) Temp: -20 C to 80 C (check with
Zakaria)
Description and mechanism: An etched glass pore model consisting either of specifically
designed geometrical networks or reproductions of actual thin sections of real sediments. The
model has an inlet and outlet which allows fluids to be pumped through the enclosed pore
network. Pressure is monitored and controlled on both the inlet and outlet lines, allowing fluid
flow to be closely controlled. A digital magnifying camera is used to capture video footage and
still images of phase behaviour, which are stored by a PC. Typical core flooding process
mechanism
Function and application: Studying a variety of oil recovery processes, and to obtain a better
understanding of transport mechanisms during miscible/ immiscible displacements in various
fluid systems at pore scale (pores are around 40 micrometers in width (check with Zakaria)),
simulating various gas production scenarios
Keyword and picture: flow in porous media, emulsion, wettability, capillary pressure, asphaltene
deposition, mass transfer, interfacial tension, heterogeneity, scaling, multiple contact miscibility,
gravity drainage, imbibition and drainage, breakthrough time in immiscible displacement process

(Photo taken from Mingzhe Dong et al. paper)

7. Core Displacement Test Rig (simpler core flooding equipment, specification ask Zul)
Operating conditions: Pressure, temperature
8. Core Lab Minimum Miscibility Pressure Apparatus
Operating conditions: Gas can be injected at high pressure (up to 10,000 psi) and high
temperature (up to 350 C)
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Description and mechanism: slim tube

Function and application: It can determine the minimum pressure of reservoir fluid with a
selected injection gas
Keyword and picture:MMP

9. Core flood steam injection system

Operating conditions: Designed to withstand high pressure (10,000 psi) and high temperature
(200 C) conditions to real reservoir condition simulation.
Description and mechanism: typical core flooding experiments (specialty: steam flooding)
Function and application: Displacement type: Steam Flooding, CO2 flooding, Water-AlternateGas (WAG)
Keyword and picture: coreflooding

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10. Anton Paar DMA 4500 M density meter

Operating conditions: room condition, syringe needed
Description and mechanism: The oscillating U-tube sensor is filled with 1 ml of sample. The
instrument electronically excited the U-tube sensor to simultaneously oscillate at the
fundamental resonant frequency and its harmonics. The oscillation characteristics are measured,
with the integrated refrence oscillator providing the pace. The reference oscillator is positioned
in close thermal contact with the oscillating U-tube. This unique positioning enables the
reference oscillator to compensate for all drifts arising from temperature stress applied to the Utube sensor. From these measurements the density is determined with most accuracy and the
viscosity influence is corrected.
Function and application: combine the groundbreaking oscillating U-tube principle, the
integrated refErence oscillator, highly accurate platinum thermometers and a full-range viscosity
correction to provide exceptional measurement performance. The new features of DMA
Generation M add an outstanding level of user confidence and comfort.
Keyword and picture: density

11. SOLTEQ Falling Film Reactor (Model: BP 156)

Operating conditions: The unit consists of mainly a wetted glass wall column completed with
cooling jacket, glass feed bottles, peristalic pumps, evaporator, heating and cooling bath
circulators, water scrubber system and mass flow controllers for nitrogen gas.
Description and mechanism: For the purpose of safety, the whole assembly is kept inside a fume
chamber that is capable of extracting any unreacted toxic gasses. A control panel is mounted on
the front of the unit for operation. The unit can aslo be controlled and monitored outside the
fume chamber via PC completed with data acquisition system.
Function and application: Designed to produce alpha sulfonic acid by sulphonation of alpha
olefin using SO3 gas, synthesize surfactant
Keyword and picture: surfactant

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12. InspeXioMicrofocus X-ray CT Scan

Operating conditions: This system is not only able to generate a set of three simultaneous cross
sectional images, which includes images from slightly above and below the source. An ultrafast
CT image-processing engine provides astonishingly fast processing, while a 3D cone-beam CT
quickly creates 3D views of internal structures in a matter of moments.
Description and mechanism: In enhanced oil recovery, study of reservoir structure in terms of
rock properties and structure can be determine by this X-ray CT Scanner by doing reservoir
modeling inside CT Scanner. Fundamental to the computerized tomography (CT) imaging
technology is the ability of X-rays to pass through almost all matter and the process
mathematically reconstructing the X-ray projection data into an image.
Function and application: The effects of microscale movement of fluid in porous media are also
studied in Computer Tomography (CT) Scan. It provides understanding of the fluid-fluid and
fluid-rock interaction as the setup allows to captures the flooding process.
Keyword and picture: CT Scan

13. Anton Paar MCR 302 Rotational Rheometer

Operating conditions: Temperature accessories in the temperature range from -150 C to +1000
C. Any type or combination of rheological tests, both in rotational and oscillatory mode, are
possible. The operating condition can reached up to 1000 bar pressure and 180oC temperature.

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Description and mechanism: MCR 302 can handle fluids from newtonian (water and brine) to
non-newtonian (crude oil, polymers, dilute surfactants, emulsions-micro and macro, miscelles)
fluids. It is functioning as for viscosity studies, viscoelastic behavior and interfacial rheology
studies.
Function and application: rheological test, Application-specific accessories for DMA and DMTA
measurements, rheo-optics, magneto- and electrorheology, interfacial rheology, UV curing and
many other applications. The unit is equipped with vary types of accessories for different
application such as plate-plate system, cone-plate system, double gap system and de nouy ring to
cover wide range of study.
Keyword and picture: rheology

PVT lab (update required for the equipment details)

1. VINCI fluid Eval PVT system, come along with gas head, oil head, visual head, chiller,
Hydreval, HPHT viscometer, density meter, GOR analysis, recombination cell, solid detection,
GC compositional analysis Pelkin Elmer
Operating conditions: Volume capacity: 500cc, Operating pressure: 1000Bar 15000Psi,
Operating temperature: ambient to 200C and option cooling system down to -20C, Chamber
material: Stainless steel, sapphire window
Description and mechanism: PVT instrument for the study of thermodynamic properties and
phase behaviour of black oil, volatile oil and gas condensates. The chamber is enclosed at one
end by the piston of the embedded pump and at the other end by a dedicated cell head. The
piston is equipped with a magnetic driven stirrer for homogenous agitation of the fluid sample.
The PVT cell can be configured either for oil studies with a liquid head or for gas condensates
studies with a gas condensates head. Specialty: mercury free
Function and application: flash vaporization or relative volume test, differential vaporization test,
separator test, viscosity measurement, compositional measurements and special studies such as
interfacial tension. From the PVT test, we are able to know the correlation between pressure and
volume at reservoir temperature, various physical constants in reservoir calculations such as
viscosity, density and compressibility, effect of separator condition on gas-oil ratio and chemical
composition of the volatile components.
2. Capillary tube viscometer
The capillary tube viscometer is based on the Poiseuilles law which defines fluid viscosity as a
function of the pressure drop in a fluid flowing laminarly through a capillary. It includes 5 range
of capillary tube viscometer: 0.1 to 1 cp, 1 to 10 cp, 10 to 100 cp, 100 to 500 cp, 500 to 3000 cp.
3. Interfacial Tension Meter
-to determine interfacial tension and contact angle, but also to observe heat and mass transfer
phenomena.

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-The experiment can be operated at high pressure (up to 10,000 psi) and high temperature (up to
200C)
4. Hydreval
Applications: visual observation of gas hydrate formation and dissociation, effect of various
chemicals (inhibitors) on hydrate crystal growth and morphology

Other new equipment in corelab (update with saiful)

Relative Permeability System (RPS)
The TEMCO RPS-800-10000 HTHP Relative Permeability Test System can be
used for permeability and relative permeability flow testing of core samples, at in-situ conditions
of pressure and temperature. Tests that can be performed with the system include initial oil
saturation, secondary water flooding, tertiary water flooding, permeability and relative
permeability. Brine, oil or other fluids can be injected into and through the core sample.

Benchtop Permeability System (BPS)

BPS-805 is a manually operated system designed for performing simple liquid permeability tests
at pore pressures to 5,000 psi with confining pressures to 9,950 psi. The standard system includes
a low pulsation HPLC pump for fluid delivery at flow rates from 0.01 to 10 ml/min with a
resolution of 0.01 ml/min. Plug size core samples are held in a hassler core holder mounted
vertically. The core holder can accommodate 1.5 diameter core samples one to four inches in
length. The system is equipped with one or two (2 readouts, which have ranges of 0-50 and 0250 psid. A manual bypass valve is used to equilibrate pressure on the transducer preventing
damage at high differential pressures. A dome-loaded backpressure regulator is utilized to

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maintain downstream elevated test pressures. A manually operated hydraulic pump is used to
generate confining pressures to 9,950 psi.

Poroperm

The POROPERM instrument is a permeameter and porosimeter used to determine properties of

plug sized core samples at ambient confining pressure. In addition to the direct properties
measurement, the instrument offers reporting and calculation facilities thanks to its user-friendly
Windows operated software.
Direct measurements: Gas permeability (mD), Pore volume, Core length and diameter
Calculated parameters: Klinkenberg slip factor "b", Klinkenberg corrected permeability, Inertial
coefficients, Sample bulk volume, Sample porosity, Grain volume, Grain density (assuming
sample is weighed)

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Formation Damage System (FDS)

The TEMCO FDS-800-10000 HTHP Formation Damage Test System is designed for formation
damage testing of core samples, at in-situ conditions of pressure and temperature. Tests that can
be performed with the system include initial oil saturation, secondary water flooding, formation
damage testing with leak-off through the core, and before-and-after permeability measurement,
in both forward and reverse (backflow for damage clean up) directions. Brine, oil, drilling mud,
gels, or other fluids can be injected into and through the core sample.

CO2 Solvent Core Cleaner

The CO2-Toluene Core Cleaner is a device for cleaning crude oil, drilling mud liquids and water
from a single piece of whole core or from a batch of core samples. The system is faster than
Soxhlet extraction, does not coke crude oil in the sample as does retorting. It uses the proven
core cleaning method utilizing CO2-saturated toluene.The unit is basically composed of 2
modules:
1) the reactive module installed in the fume hood, and
2) the process controls housed in the control box installed outside of the hood.

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In the reactive module, a pressure sample vessel is heated electrically with a volt heater enclosed
in an explosion proof housing.
a. The solvent is pumped from an onboard supply tank to the cleaning vessel with an air driven
high-pressure pump.
b. A cyclone separator with a stainless steel-packed, water-cooled after-cooler is provided to
separate the CO2 and the used hot solvent when the vessel is drained.
c. The used toluene drains into an explosion proof electric still where it is recovered and
delivered back to the clean solvent supply.

Helium Porosimeter
This system allows for pore volume and grain volume determination on rock samples including
unconsolidated or irregular shape samples. The measure is based on Boyle-Mariottes law theory.
The process takes place in two stages: at stage one a known amount of helium gas is contained in
a cell (pressure and volume accurately known). At stage two, this quantity of gas is shared with
the matrix cup containing the sample. The new pressure is measured and the volume not
accessible to gas (grain volume) is automatically calculated.

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Soxhlet Extractor
The Soxhlet apparatus is used to extract and clean the core sample from oil, water and any other
materials. The apparatus is based on a heating mantle to boil the solvent, a sample chamber and a
water-cooled system to condense the solvent vapors. The core sample is first placed into the
sample chamber. Then, the solvent is heated and vaporized. The solvent vapors travel through a
lateral way and rise to the top of the glass tube where the cold trap is. At this place, the vapors
condense and fall into the sample chamber. The solvent fills the chamber and removes soluble
components from the core. Then, the spoiled solvent is evacuated from the chamber through a
siphon and goes back to the flask where it will be redistilled.

Desaturator
Capillary curve is the relationship between pressure applied and stabilised, and water content in
the core samples. The apparatus is dedicated to enable generation of air-brine capillary curves on

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core samples. The equipment is mainly composed of a console and a vessel. The console controls
the air pressure supplied to the vessel. It is possible to humidify on line the air used in the
process through a humidifier located on the console.

Hg Capillary System
Manual operated system for the measurement of capillary pressure and pore morphology. Based
on Purcell method, mercury is injected into plug sized samples at know volume from vacuum to
2,000 psi (140 bar). The instrument uses a hand operated pump for mercury injection and a
coreholder equipped with an opening windowed chamber cap for easy loading / unloading
operations and mercury level visualization. The control panel includes the pore pressure
regulator, the pore pressure transducer with the digital display and a vacuum manometer.

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Other new equipment in corelab: cloud point, etc

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