Recently, in the field of enhanced oil recovery (EOR), the addition of water-based nanoparticles (NPs) based on nano-fluids in the presence or absence of other chemical compounds has received much attention. In this work, the effects of NPs on oil-wet carbonate reservoirs were investigated as a crucial study. This paper gives an overview of the future studies about the use of NPs to improve oil recovery and paves the way for researchers who are interested in the integration of these progresses. In this regard, the first part of this review paper addresses studies about the major enhanced oil recovery mechanisms of NPs used in the forms of NPs, wettability alteration, IFT and core flooding. The findings revealed that NPs played an important role in enhancing oil recovery. This part is followed by a review of the most important research regarding various novel nano-assisted enhanced oil recovery techniques where nanoparticles are used to target various existing chemical and thermal techniques. These findings could provide insights into enhancing oil recovery by NFs injection in EOR processes into carbonate reservoirs.
