scholarly journals Feasibility Investigation of A Novel Natural Surfactant Extracted from Eucalyptus Leaves for Enhanced Oil Recovery of Carbonates: Experimental Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  

After primary and secondary oil production from carbonate reservoirs, approximately 60% oil-in-place remains in the pore space of reservoir rocks. Chemical flooding is one of the promising ways to produce the remained oil. Nowadays, surfactant flooding is a low-cost and a common method generally used to improve oil recovery due to the oil-water Interfacial Tension (IFT) reduction and alteration of the rock wettability to water-wet state, leading to decrease the capillary number. In this study, a novel leaf-derived non-ionic natural surfactant, named Eucalyptus is introduced and the capability of this natural surfactant for IFT reduction and wettability alteration is analyzed. Accordingly, the natural surfactant was derived from Eucalyptus leaves and the effect of natural surfactant solution on the Oil-water IFT and carbonate rock wettability alteration was investigated. The results demonstrated that the addressed natural surfactant significantly reduced IFT value from 35.2 mN/m to 10.5 mN/m (at CMC of 3.5 wt. %) and the contact angle value from 140.6° to 60.2°. As a result, Compared to conventional chemical surfactants, the Eucalyptus natural surfactant had an excellent surface chemical activity and confirmed its performance by laboratory experiments which could be used for EOR applications.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xu-Guang Song ◽  
Ming-Wei Zhao ◽  
Cai-Li Dai ◽  
Xin-Ke Wang ◽  
Wen-Jiao Lv

AbstractThe ultra-low permeability reservoir is regarded as an important energy source for oil and gas resource development and is attracting more and more attention. In this work, the active silica nanofluids were prepared by modified active silica nanoparticles and surfactant BSSB-12. The dispersion stability tests showed that the hydraulic radius of nanofluids was 58.59 nm and the zeta potential was − 48.39 mV. The active nanofluids can simultaneously regulate liquid–liquid interface and solid–liquid interface. The nanofluids can reduce the oil/water interfacial tension (IFT) from 23.5 to 6.7 mN/m, and the oil/water/solid contact angle was altered from 42° to 145°. The spontaneous imbibition tests showed that the oil recovery of 0.1 wt% active nanofluids was 20.5% and 8.5% higher than that of 3 wt% NaCl solution and 0.1 wt% BSSB-12 solution. Finally, the effects of nanofluids on dynamic contact angle, dynamic interfacial tension and moduli were studied from the adsorption behavior of nanofluids at solid–liquid and liquid–liquid interface. The oil detaching and transporting are completed by synergistic effect of wettability alteration and interfacial tension reduction. The findings of this study can help in better understanding of active nanofluids for EOR in ultra-low permeability reservoirs.


SPE Journal ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (05) ◽  
pp. 818-828 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Hosein Kalaei ◽  
Don W. Green ◽  
G. Paul Willhite

Summary Wettability modification of solid rocks with surfactants is an important process and has the potential to recover oil from reservoirs. When wettability is altered by use of surfactant solutions, capillary pressure, relative permeabilities, and residual oil saturations change wherever the porous rock is contacted by the surfactant. In this study, a mechanistic model is described in which wettability alteration is simulated by a new empirical correlation of the contact angle with surfactant concentration developed from experimental data. This model was tested against results from experimental tests in which oil was displaced from oil-wet cores by imbibition of surfactant solutions. Quantitative agreement between the simulation results of oil displacement and experimental data from the literature was obtained. Simulation of the imbibition of surfactant solution in laboratory-scale cores with the new model demonstrated that wettability alteration is a dynamic process, which plays a significant role in history matching and prediction of oil recovery from oil-wet porous media. In these simulations, the gravity force was the primary cause of the surfactant-solution invasion of the core that changed the rock wettability toward a less oil-wet state.


2021 ◽  
pp. 86-98
Author(s):  
V. Yu. Ogoreltsev ◽  
S. A. Leontiev ◽  
A. S. Drozdov

When developing hard-to-recover reserves of oil fields, methods of enhanced oil recovery, used from chemical ones, are massively used. To establish the actual oil-washing characteristics of surfactant grades accepted for testing in the pore space of oil-containing reservoir rocks, a set of laboratory studies was carried out, including the study of molecular-surface properties upon contact of oil from the BS10 formation of the West Surgutskoye field and model water types with the addition of surfactants of various concentrations, as well as filtration tests of surfactant technology compositions on core models of the VK1 reservoir of the Rogozhnikovskoye oil field. On the basis of the performed laboratory studies of rocks, it has been established that conducting pilot operations with the use of Neonol RHP-20 will lead to higher technological efficiency than from the currently used at the company's fields in the compositions of the technologies of physical and chemical EOR Neonol BS-1 and proposed for application of Neftenol VKS, Aldinol-50 and Betanol.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 6652-6668

Historically, smart water flooding is proved as one of the methods used to enhance oil recovery from hydrocarbon reservoirs. This method has been spread due to its low cost and ease of operation, with changing the composition and concentration of salts in the water, the smart water injection leads to more excellent compatibility with rock and fluids. However, due to a large number of sandstone reservoirs in the world and the increase of the recovery factor using this high-efficiency method, a problem occurs with the continued injection of smart water into these reservoirs a phenomenon happened in which called rock leaching. Indeed, sand production is the most common problem in these fields. Rock wettability alteration toward water wetting is considered as the main cause of sand production during the smart water injection mechanism. During this process, due to stresses on the rock surface as well as disturbance of equilibrium, the sand production in the porous media takes place. In this paper, the effect of wettability alteration of oil wetted sandstones (0.005,0.01,0.02 and 0.03 molar stearic acid in normal heptane) on sand production in the presence of smart water is fully investigated. The implementation of an effective chemical method, which is nanoparticles, have been executed to prevent sand production. By stabilizing silica nanoparticles (SiO2) at an optimum concentration of 2000 ppm in smart water (pH=8) according to the results of Zeta potential and DLS test, the effect of wettability alteration of oil wetted sandstones on sand production in the presence of smart water with nanoparticles is thoroughly reviewed. Ultimately, a comparison of the results showed that nanoparticles significantly reduced sand production.


REAKTOR ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 65-73
Author(s):  
Agam Duma Kalista Wibowo ◽  
Pina Tiani ◽  
Lisa Aditya ◽  
Aniek Sri Handayani ◽  
Marcelinus Christwardana

Surfactants for enhanced oil recovery are generally made from non-renewable petroleum sulfonates and their prices are relatively expensive, so it is necessary to synthesis the bio-based surfactants that are renewable and ecofriendly. The surfactant solution can reduce the interfacial tension (IFT) between oil and water while vinyl acetate monomer has an ability to increase the viscosity as a mobility control. Therefore, polymeric surfactant has both combination properties in reducing the oil/water IFT and increasing the viscosity of the aqueous solution simultaneously. Based on the study, the Critical Micelle Concentration (CMC) of Polymeric Surfactant was at 0.5% concentration with an IFT of 7.72x10-2 mN/m. The best mole ratio of methyl ester sulfonate to vinyl acetate for polymeric surfactant synthesis was 1:0.5 with an IFT of 6.7x10-3 mN/m. Characterization of the product using FTIR and HNMR has proven the creation of polymeric surfactant. Based on the wettability alteration study, it confirmed that the product has an ability to alter from the initial oil-wet to water-wet quartz surface. In conclusion, the polymeric surfactant has ultralow IFT and could be an alternative surfactant for chemical flooding because the IFT value met with the required standard for chemical flooding ranges from 10-2 to 10-3 mN/m.Keywords: Enhanced Oil recovery, Interfacial Tension, Methyl Ester Sulfonate, Polymeric surfactant, vinyl acetate


2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-36
Author(s):  
Chengli Zhang ◽  
Guodong Qu ◽  
Guoqiang Cui ◽  
Mingxing Bai

Enhanced foam flooding is a chemical flooding technology, which is applied to improve the recovery efficiency of oil and gas. The oil displacement agent of enhanced foam flooding is a foam that the polymer and surfactant solution as liquid. In this paper, three-dimensional mathematical model of unsteady flow is established about enhanced foam system in the porous media, and the numerical calculation method is given to study the enhanced foam flooding. The results show that: the unsteady flow of enhanced foam system in porous media exists flow front, the flow foam average density of flow front reach the peak; enhanced foam flooding can form the oil bank in the displacement front and the oil saturation of the oil bank reaches about 0.55, the oil bank can produce effective drive to remain oil and then improve oil recovery.


SPE Journal ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 15 (01) ◽  
pp. 184-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam K. Flaaten ◽  
Quoc P Nguyen ◽  
Jieyuan Zhang ◽  
Hourshad Mohammadi ◽  
Gary A. Pope

Summary Alkaline/surfactant/polymer (ASP) flooding using conventional alkali requires soft water. However, soft water is not always available, and softening hard brines may be very costly or infeasible in many cases depending on the location, the brine composition, and other factors. For instance, conventional ASP uses sodium carbonate to reduce the adsorption of the surfactant and generate soap in-situ by reacting with acidic crude oils; however, calcium carbonate precipitates unless the brine is soft. A form of borax known as metaborate has been found to sequester divalent cations such as Ca++ and prevent precipitation. This approach has been combined with the screening and selection of surfactant formulations that will perform well with brines having high salinity and hardness. We demonstrate this approach by combining high-performance, low-cost surfactants with cosurfactants that tolerate high salinity and hardness and with metaborate that can tolerate hardness as well. Chemical formulations containing surfactants and alkali in hard brine were screened for performance and tolerance using microemulsion phase-behavior experiments and crude at reservoir temperature. A formulation was found that, with an optimum salinity of 120,000 ppm total dissolved solids (TDS), 6,600 ppm divalent cations, performed well in corefloods with high oil recovery and almost zero final chemical flood residual oil saturation. Additionally, chemical formulations containing sodium metaborate and hard brine gave nearly 100% oil recovery with no indication of precipitate formation. Metaborate chemistry was incorporated into a mechanistic, compositional chemical flooding simulator, and the simulator was then used to model the corefloods. Overall, novel ASP with metaborate performed comparably to conventional ASP using sodium carbonate in soft water, demonstrating advancements in ASP adaptation to hard, saline reservoirs without the need for soft brine, which increases the number of oil reservoirs that are candidates for enhanced oil recovery using ASP flooding.


Author(s):  
Amin Abolhasanzadeh ◽  
Ali Reza Khaz’ali ◽  
Rohallah Hashemi ◽  
Mohammadhadi Jazini

Without Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) operations, the final recovery factor of most hydrocarbon reservoirs would be limited. However, EOR can be an expensive task, especially for methods involving gas injection. On the other hand, aqueous injection in fractured reservoirs with small oil-wet or mixed-wet matrices will not be beneficial if the rock wettability is not changed effectively. In the current research, an unpracticed fabrication method was implemented to build natively oil-wet, fractured micromodels. Then, the efficiency of microbial flooding in the micromodels, as a low-cost EOR method, is investigated using a new-found bacteria, Bacillus persicus. Bacillus persicus improves the sweep efficiency via reduction of water/oil IFT and oil viscosity, in-situ gas production, and wettability alteration mechanisms. In our experiments, the microbial flooding technique extracted 65% of matrix oil, while no oil was produced from the matrix system by water or surfactant flooding.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mostafa Mahmoud Kortam ◽  
Samir Siso ◽  
Nelly Mohamed Abbas ◽  
Ahmed Salah ◽  
Atef Hesam ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The development of low quality reservoirs such as; low permeability, marginal assets, and unconventional resources has a several cost challenges pushing the industry toward maximizing the potentiality and optimizing the strategies of such high risk plays. Petrobel has a discovered one of such challenged asset and successfully conducted a comprehensive study to set the best development strategy to unleash this potential. SIDRI Area is a relatively new settlement with a reasonable hydrocarbon potential according to petrophysical analysis. The target formation of SIDRI wells is a sedimentary rock with granitic facies that consist of a series of tight conglomerates over an oil/water column of more than 900m. The pore system of this rigid and stiff formation consists of a micro natural fractures network with secondary cemented porosity. The production is mainly governed these tiny natural fractures that have a permeability as low as 0.1-0.5 md. Despite this tightness these series are separated by nonporous sections that occasionally exhibit as barrier and may introduce layering or subdivision of pay, however in sometimes permit a vertical communication between productive sections. Performed Cuttings analysis such as XRD, thin-sections showed a variety of minerals composition representing different lithology which in turn complicates the characterization of such reservoir. On top of the unique mineralogy, the executions of fracturing treatment of SIDRI wells include multiple other challenges. The higher reservoir temperature and the formation depth cause a great constraint in terms of pumping rate and pressure. Besides, the non-availability of pumping equipment of high Horsepower restricts the pump rates and also limits the utilization of slick water frac. Even the nature and the quality of crude oil is quite challenged since it is a heavy black oil type and its composition contains high number of asphaltenic compounds accordingly the opportunity of creating sludge with treatment fluids is highly likely. The oil water viscosity ratio at reservoir condition represents a weighted obstacle for oil recovery that should be overcome. The basic concept of applying hydraulic fracturing for these kinds of reservoirs is very simple, however the execution to get much more production improvement is quite difficult. Particularly the main idea here is to conduct a cost effective fracturing treatment with economical wisdom principle that can lead to achieve a greater oil recovery with best profitable model. This paper presents the details of formation characterization and reservoir quality assessment, as well as a detailed discussion about wettability alteration and how adversely complicates the process of determining initial saturation. The implemented application including designing, experimental works, and execution of the channel fracture treatment job will be reviewed. The work sequence of this project that led to commercialize such asset will be addressed too.


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