Title: Experimental investigation of surfactant loss using adsorption tests and evaluation of ultimate oil recovery during surfactant-alternating gas injection

Authors: Mohammad Amin Safarzadeh; Mehdi Mohammad Salehi; Seyyed Alireza Tabatabaei Nezhad; Eghbal Sahraei

Addresses: Reservoir Studies and Field Development Division, Research Institute of Petroleum Industry, Tehran, Iran ' Sahand Oil and Gas Research Institute, Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz, Iran ' Sahand Oil and Gas Research Institute, Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz, Iran ' Sahand Oil and Gas Research Institute, Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz, Iran

Abstract: Because of a large amount of remained oil in reservoirs after the secondary or tertiary recovery, sometimes using profitable methods such as surfactant-alternating gas (SAG) is reasonable. For preparing stable foams, it is very crucial to inject at optimum rate. Foam strength can be suppressed during inappropriate conditions and drying out the foam within the porous media. In this study, the effects of adsorbent, gas phase, surfactant concentration, and sacrificial agent on sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) adsorption density were examined by using static and dynamic adsorption experiments. Hence, a series of SAG tests were designed to evaluate the effects of injection rates, first injected phase type, injection mode and presence of calcium lignosulphonate (CLS) on the oil recovery. During SAG injection, the results showed that the oil mobility was reduced 65%. SAG injection as secondary mode was more efficient and the same ultimate recovery was achieved with lower cost. [Received: April 1, 2014; Accepted: November 3, 2014]

Keywords: surfactant alternating gas; SAG; oil recovery; adsorption tests; ion pairs; sodium dodecyl sulphate; SDS; calcium lignosulphonate; surfactant loss; gas injection; oil reservoirs; adsorbent effects; surfactant concentration; oil mobility.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOGCT.2016.076536

International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology, 2016 Vol.12 No.2, pp.121 - 141

Received: 04 Apr 2014
Accepted: 03 Nov 2014
Published online: 12 May 2016 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article