الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Due to the expanding of each world’s population and worlds’ industries, the demand for energy either renewable or non-renewable is increasing. Nowadays, although there are many available energy resources, the global energy supplies are not enough and arise by over 40-60% every decade. Hence, the need for new technologies and approaches to overcome those challenges especially in the oil and gas field.
Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) was introduced to minimize the amount of oil locked in the reservoir. The most common method for secondary oil recovery is water flooding implemented early during the primary production phase. This is done by forcing water down the injection wells in order to maintain reservoir pressure above bubble point, and to sweep the oil towards the production wells.
Nanotechnology is one of the most promising technologies in the field of oil and gas, in particular for enhanced oil recovery. The most important application of Nanotechnology is the creation of a new generation of fluids. Nanofluids are a class of fluids engineered by dispersing nanoparticles in base fluids, these nanoparticles used in nanofluids are typically made of metals, oxides, carbides, or carbon. They introduce some mechanisms that are more efficient, and more environmental friendly.
In this master’s thesis we investigated the possibilities of using nanotechnology in oil and gas field. The most common type of nanofluid applied in EOR is Silica nanoparticles (SiNPs). By using SiNPs, we studied the effect of concentration and particle size on oil recovery. In addition, wettability alteration is also investigated. The maximum recovery is achieved at optimum concentration of 0.1 wt. % where the recovery factor increased by 19.35% in case of using synthesized SiNPs while recovery factor increased by 13.28 % in case of using commercial SiNPs of the same concentration. In addition, permeability impairment was studied by flooding, and clear identification of retention was observed. It showed that concentration, injection volume and rate are important parameters when injecting particles
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through a porous media. SiNPs were studied and characterized in terms of particle size, homogeneity, and well dispersion in solution using Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM). Using Nanoparticles in EOR is currently showing promising results. Based on our experimental studies, we are able to understand the potential of SiNPs and how SiNPs are behaving during transport through tiny pores. Thought further investigation is needed on large-scale reservoirs.