scholarly journals Research progress of viscoelastic surfactants for enhanced oil recovery

2021 ◽  
pp. 014459872098020
Author(s):  
Ruizhi Hu ◽  
Shanfa Tang ◽  
Musa Mpelwa ◽  
Zhaowen Jiang ◽  
Shuyun Feng

Although new energy has been widely used in our lives, oil is still one of the main energy sources in the world. After the application of traditional oil recovery methods, there are still a large number of oil layers that have not been exploited, and there is still a need to further increase oil recovery to meet the urgent need for oil in the world economic development. Chemically enhanced oil recovery (CEOR) is considered to be a kind of effective enhanced oil recovery technology, which has achieved good results in the field, but these technologies cannot simultaneously effectively improve oil sweep efficiency, oil washing efficiency, good injectability, and reservoir environment adaptability. Viscoelastic surfactants (VES) have unique micelle structure and aggregation behavior, high efficiency in reducing the interfacial tension of oil and water, and the most important and unique viscoelasticity, etc., which has attracted the attention of academics and field experts and introduced into the technical research of enhanced oil recovery. In this paper, the mechanism and research status of viscoelastic surfactant flooding are discussed in detail and focused, and the results of viscoelastic surfactant flooding experiments under different conditions are summarized. Finally, the problems to be solved by viscoelastic surfactant flooding are introduced, and the countermeasures to solve the problems are put forward. This overview presents extensive information about viscoelastic surfactant flooding used for EOR, and is intended to help researchers and professionals in this field understand the current situation.

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 1829-1837 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yingrui Bai ◽  
Chunming Xiong ◽  
Xiaosen Shang ◽  
Yanyong Xin

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hung Vo Thanh ◽  
Kang-Kun Lee

Abstract Basement formation is known as the unique reservoir in the world. The fractured basement reservoir was contributed a large amount of oil and gas for Vietnam petroleum industry. However, the geological modelling and optimization of oil production is still a challenge for fractured basement reservoirs. Thus, this study aims to introduce the efficient workflow construction reservoir models for proposing the field development plan in a fractured crystalline reservoir. First, the Halo method was adapted for building the petrophysical model. Then, Drill stem history matching is conducted for adjusting the simulation results and pressure measurement. Next, the history-matched models are used to conduct the simulation scenarios to predict future reservoir performance. The possible potential design has four producers and three injectors in the fracture reservoir system. The field prediction results indicate that this scenario increases approximately 8 % oil recovery factor compared to the natural depletion production. This finding suggests that a suitable field development plan is necessary to improve sweep efficiency in the fractured oil formation. The critical contribution of this research is the proposed modelling and simulation with less data for the field development plan in fractured crystalline reservoir. This research's modelling and simulation findings provide a new solution for optimizing oil production that can be applied in Vietnam and other reservoirs in the world.


Author(s):  
Ahmed Ragab ◽  
Eman M. Mansour

The enhanced oil recovery phase of oil reservoirs production usually comes after the water/gas injection (secondary recovery) phase. The main objective of EOR application is to mobilize the remaining oil through enhancing the oil displacement and volumetric sweep efficiency. The oil displacement efficiency enhances by reducing the oil viscosity and/or by reducing the interfacial tension, while the volumetric sweep efficiency improves by developing a favorable mobility ratio between the displacing fluid and the remaining oil. It is important to identify remaining oil and the production mechanisms that are necessary to improve oil recovery prior to implementing an EOR phase. Chemical enhanced oil recovery is one of the major EOR methods that reduces the residual oil saturation by lowering water-oil interfacial tension (surfactant/alkaline) and increases the volumetric sweep efficiency by reducing the water-oil mobility ratio (polymer). In this chapter, the basic mechanisms of different chemical methods have been discussed including the interactions of different chemicals with the reservoir rocks and fluids. In addition, an up-to-date status of chemical flooding at the laboratory scale, pilot projects and field applications have been reported.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad Ali Manzoor

Chemical-based enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques utilize the injection of chemicals, such as solutions of polymers, alkali, and surfactants, into oil reservoirs for incremental recovery. The injection of a polymer increases the viscosity of the injected fluid and alters the water-to-oil mobility ratio which in turn improves the volumetric sweep efficiency. This research study aims to investigate strategies that would help intensify oil recovery with the polymer solution injection. For that purpose, we utilize a lab-scale, cylindrical heavy oil reservoir model. Furthermore, a dynamic mathematical black oil model is developed based on cylindrical physical model of homogeneous porous medium. The experiments are carried out by injecting classic and novel partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide solutions (concentration: 0.1-0.5 wt %) with 1 wt % brine into the reservoir at pressures in the range, 1.03-3.44 MPa for enhanced oil recovery. The concentration of the polymer solution remains constant throughout the core flooding experiment and is varied for other subsequent experimental setup. Periodic pressure variations between 2.41 and 3.44 MPa during injection are found to increase the heavy oil recovery by 80% original-oil-in-place (OOIP). This improvement is approximately 100% more than that with constant pressure injection at the maximum pressure of 3.44 MPa. The experimental oil recoveries are in fair agreement with the model calculated oil production with a RMS% error in the range of 5-10% at a maximum constant pressure of 3.44 MPa.


2020 ◽  
Vol 984 ◽  
pp. 183-188
Author(s):  
Rong Jun Zhang ◽  
Xiao Ke Wang ◽  
Jin Lin Zhao ◽  
Zheng Peng Zhou ◽  
Gang Chen

The composite flooding formula utilizes the characteristics of polymer flooding and surfactant flooding to compensate for the shortage of single component chemical flooding, reduce the oil-water interfacial tension to a certain extent, and broaden the maintenance range of low interfacial tension. The combined effects and synergies in the oil displacement process enhance oil recovery and allow it to adapt to a wider range of reservoir conditions. In this paper, the high surface active polymer-surfactant flooding formula suitable for the Chang 6 reservoir in Ansai Oilfield was evaluated. The general technical index of the viscoelastic surfactant fracturing fluid and the composite flooding surfactant were evaluated. The technical requirements are evaluation criteria, and comprehensive evaluation is made from several aspects such as salt tolerance, interfacial tension and emulsifying properties.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (24) ◽  
pp. 6619
Author(s):  
Mohamed Mehana ◽  
Qinjun Kang ◽  
Hari Viswanathan

With only less than 10% recovery, the primary production of hydrocarbon from shale reservoirs has redefined the energy equation in the world. Similar to conventional reservoirs, Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) techniques could be devised to enhance the current recovery factors. However, shale reservoirs possess unique characteristics that significantly affect the fluid properties. Therefore, we are adopting a molecular simulation approach that is well-suited to account for these effects to evaluate the performance of three different gases, methane, carbon dioxide and nitrogen, to recover the hydrocarbons from rough pore surfaces. Our hydrocarbon systems consists of either a single component (decane) or more than one component (decane and pentane). We simulated cases where concurrent and countercurrent displacement is studied. For concurrent displacement (injected fluids displace hydrocarbons towards the production region), we found that nitrogen and methane yielded similar recovery; however nitrogen exhibited a faster breakthrough. On the other hand, carbon dioxide was more effective in extracting the hydrocarbons when sufficient pressure was maintained. For countercurrent displacement (gases are injected and hydrocarbons are produced from the same direction), methane was found to be more effective, followed by carbon dioxide and nitrogen. In all cases, confinement reduced the recovery factor of all gases. This work provides insights to devise strategies to improve the current recovery factors observed in shale reservoirs.


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