You are on page 1of 1

SURFACTANT FLOODING EOR METHOD

Chemical flooding methods are classified into a special HOW DOES IT WORKS ?
branch of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes to produce
residual oil after water flooding. These methods are utilized in Small amount of surfactant is added to
order to reduce the interfacial tension, to increase brine an aqueous fluid injected to sweep the
viscosity for mobility control and to increase sweep efficiency reservoir to
in tertiary recovery.

Surfactant flooding is an EOR technique in which the phase IMPROVE THE MOBILITY RATIO
behaviour inside the reservoir can be manipulated by the
injection of surfactants and co-surfactants, creating INCREASE THE CAPILARY NUMBER
advantageous conditions in order to mobilize trapped oil.
.
ADVANTAGES LIMITATIONS

Recent developments in Surfactant EOR An areal sweep of more than 50% for
have greatly reduced the surfactant waterflood is desired.
concentration required for effective oil
recovery. Relatively homogeneous formation.
High amounts of anhydrite, gypsum, or
Recent advances in both research and clays are undesirable.
surfactant product technology have lowered
chemical concentrations within the range of
0.1-0.5% dramatically lowering the amount Available systems provide optimum
or chemical required. behaviour within a narrow set of conditions.

Some of the EOR surfactants are derived With commercially available surfactants,
from plant resources such as sunflower oil, formation water chlorides should be
soy and corn oil. <20,000 ppm and divalent ions (Ca++ and
Mg++) <500 ppm.
Surfactant manufacturing is now also
delivering more advanced and safer EOR
products at a lower cost than ever before. .

You might also like