Condensed presentation on oil recovery involving surfactant and other chemical flooding. It includes rate of return from yield. Quote “interfacial tension reduction alone does not result in good oil recovery”Malcolm_Pitts_SURTEK.pdf
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Arif
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Arif
Processes such as steam flooding involve injecting high-pressure steam at about 340° C into the oil bearing rock formations. The steam heats the crude oil, reducing its viscosity and applying pressure to force the material through the rock matrix toward recovery wells. Unfortunately, the same changes in the physical characteristics of the crude oil that make it more mobile in the formation also render it more susceptible to capillary phenomena that can cause the oil mass to break up within the pores of the rocks and leave inaccessible pockets of oil droplets. In such processes, surfactants are used to alter the wetting characteristics of the oil–rock–steam interfaces to improve the chances of successful recovery. Those surfactants must be stable under the conditions of use such as high temperatures and pressures and extremes of pH.
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Arif
Capillary forces cause a large quantities of oil to be left behind in well-swept zones of water-flooded oil reservoirs: interfacial tension between the oil and the aqueous phase resists externally applied viscous forces. Lowering the interfacial tension helps recover additional oil by reducing the capillary forces.