When low-salinity water containing sulfate ions is injected into carbonate reservoirs, rock dissolution and in situ precipitation occur, altering rock permeability and wettability. Particularly, when barium ions are present in formation water, they react chemically with \({\text{SO}}_{4}^{2 - }\), and BaSO₄ is precipitated. These reactions can cause a serious impact on the efficiency of enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Therefore, the main purpose of this study was to identify EOR efficiency induced by low-salinity waterflooding (LSWF) when Ba²⁺ is present in carbonate reservoirs. From the experimental results, it was confirmed that the permeability calculated by the measured pressure difference was improved because of rock dissolution predominating over in situ precipitation for the case of low Ba²⁺ concentrations. In the analysis of wettability alteration through the measurements of relative permeabilities before and after LSWF, the higher Ba²⁺ concentration case consumed more \({\text{SO}}_{4}^{2 - }\) in precipitating the BaSO₄, resulting in weaker wettability alteration due to the reduction of sulfate activity. These phenomena ultimately influenced EOR efficiency, i.e., the oil recovery was greater for the lower Ba²⁺ concentration.

The low-salinity waterflooding is an attractive eco-friendly producing method, recently, for carbonate reservoirs. When ferrous ion is present in the formation water, that is, acidic water, the injection of low-salinity water generally with neutral pH can yield precipitation or dissolution of Fe-minerals by pH mixing effect. FeSO₄ and pyrite can be precipitated and re-dissolved, or vice versa, while siderite and Fe(OH)₂ are insoluble which are precipitated, causing permeability reduction. Particularly, pyrite chemically reacts with low-salinity water and release sulfate ion, altering the wettability, favorably, to water-wet. In this aspect, we analyzed oil production focusing on dissolution of Fe-minerals and Fe-precipitation using a commercial compositional reservoir simulator. From the simulation results, the quantities of precipitation and dissolution were enormously large regardless of the type of Fe-minerals and there was almost no difference in terms of total volume in this system. However, among Fe-minerals, Fe(OH)₂ precipitation and pyrite dissolution were noticeably large compared to troilite, FeSO₄, and siderite. Therefore, it is essential to analyze precipitation or dissolution for each Fe-mineral, individually. Meanwhile, in dissolving process of pyrite, sulfate ions were released differently depending on the content of pyrite. Here, the magnitude of the generated sulfate ion was limited at certain level of pyrite content. Thus, it is necessary to pay attention for determining the concentration of sulfate ion in designing the composition of injection water. Ultimately, in the investigation of the efficiency of oil production, it was found that the oil production was enhanced due to an additional sulfate ion generated from FeS₂ dissolution.