Recent Advances in Surfactant EOR

Summary In this paper, recent advances in surfactant enhanced oil recovery (EOR) are reviewed. The addition of alkali to surfactant flooding in the 1980s reduced the amount of surfactant required, and the process became known as alkaline/surfactant/polymer flooding (ASP). It was recently found that the adsorption of anionic surfactants on calcite and dolomite can also be significantly reduced with sodium carbonate as the alkali, thus making the process applicable for carbonate formations. The same chemicals are also capable of altering the wettability of carbonate formations from strongly oil-wet to preferentially water-wet. This wettability alteration in combination with ultralow interfacial tension (IFT)…

• UD
  U.S. Department of Energy
• LU
  Lamar University
• RU
  Rice University