Effect of waterwashing on light ends compositional heterogeneity

A number of experiments have been carried out to study in the laboratory the effects of waterwashing on light ends composition. The experimental data were then compared with the results of a simple numerical model. Both approaches confirm the fast removal of the light aromatics by the flushing water and the very slow alteration of the C10+ compounds. The experimental results also indicate that the normal paraffins are removed faster than the cycloalkanes which is not in agreement with their respective solubility data. the simulations show that, over geological time, compounds such as benzene and toluene should be completely absent in an oil column which is not the case. Therefore, it is likely that in nature oil-water interactions are not as effective as one could imagine, which has implications for oil migration, as well as for the understanding of hydrodynamism phenomena in oil pools.