Title: Chemical flood enhanced oil recovery: a review

Authors: Ajay Mandal

Addresses: Department of Petroleum Engineering, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, 826 004, India

Abstract: Chemical flooding has been found to be one of the major EOR techniques especially for reservoirs where thermal methods are not feasible. The application of chemical flooding is strongly influenced by the current economics, type of reserve oil and crude oil price. In this paper, an up to date status of chemical flooding at the laboratory scale, pilot projects and field applications have been reported. The basic mechanisms of different chemical methods have been discussed including the interactions of different chemicals with the reservoir rocks and fluids. The average recovery of oil after the conventional water flooding is highly encouraging particularly when the demand and price of crude oil is increasing day by day. [Received: February 22, 2013; Accepted: October 4, 2013]

Keywords: enhanced oil recovery; EOR; chemical flooding; alkalis; surfactants; polymers; interfacial tension; IFT; crude oil.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOGCT.2015.069001

International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology, 2015 Vol.9 No.3, pp.241 - 264

Received: 23 Feb 2013
Accepted: 04 Oct 2013

Published online: 24 Apr 2015 *

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