Investigation of Suitable Surfactants in Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR)

This Final Year Research Project involves the study of the various Enhanced Oil recovery
techniques with special emphasis on the use of surfactants in enhanced oil recovery. Study
involves literature review of various studies done on the enhanced recovery techniques;
chemical flooding, miscible and immiscible displacements techniques and also thermal
recovery.
Objective of the project is then to study in detail the mechanisms used in each of the recovery
techniques and also to investigate the advantages and also the limitations. This paper also
review the use of surfactants in different chemical flooding methods surfactant-polymer,
micellar-polymer flooding and also alkaline surfactant polymerflooding (ASP).
The study, in particular emphasize on the mechanisms of chemical flooding through
reduction of interfacial tension and also alteration of wettability. Optimum oil recovery
occurs at ultra-low interfacial tension which is made possible through the addition of
surfactants into the oil-brine system. Wettability is defined as the adhesion tension between
the rock and the fluids contacting the rock. Water-wet conditions provide optimum
conditions for enhanced oil recovery as compared to an oil-wet system.
In choosing the best enhanced oil recovery method, it is highly dependent on the reservoir
conditions and crude oil characteristics. Chemical flooding and miscible/immiscible
displacement processes are suitable for low to medium viscous crude oil while thermal
recovery methods are highly successful in recovering heavy viscous crude oil.