Effect of Viscosity of Heavy Oil Class-A on Oil Recovery in SP Flooding Using Lauryl Sulphate and Gum Arabic

Abstract

Chemical flooding methods are used to recover residual oil left after water flooding. Several chemical flooding processes have been used to improve recovery. Alkaline-free surfactant polymer combination flooding (SP flooding) can avoid side-effects encountered in alkali-surfactant-polymer (ASP flooding) combination flooding. As part of the ongoing research on the use of Gum Arabic as a polymer in chemical flooding in Nigeria, this paper investigates the effect of heavy oil viscosity on oil recovery during SP flooding.Improved oil recovery through SP flooding was studied by conducting linear displacement experiments using engineering grade class IV glass beads. The glass beads were treated to be strongly water wet. The viscosity of oil samples used for the different experiments ranged from 3 to 140 cp. Lauryl Sulphate and Gum Arabic were used as the surfactant and polymer respectively.Result shows that oil recovery by water flooding ranges from 15% -25% and for SP 15% -35% keeping the polymer concentration constant. Thus, increasing oil recovery can be achieved as the viscosities of oil increases. The result from this study will help develop effective methods for implementing SP flooding using Gum Arabic that is vastly available in Nigeria in heavy oil fields. It will give the oil industry a new option for improving oil recovery from heavy oil reservoirs. SP flooding will be handy to improve oil recoveries from many marginal oil fields in Nigeria or those that face shut-down due to uneconomic operating cost, but still contain significant amount of oil.

Chemical Flooding in Heavy-Oil Reservoirs: From Technical Investigation to Optimization Using Response Surface Methodology

“…Many previous works have demonstrated the proper applications of alkaline (A)-surfactant (S)-polymer (P) injections in the Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) stage for both conventional and heavy-oil reservoirs. Atsenuwa, et al classified heavy oil with viscosities that ranged from 50 to 50,000 cp, they pointed out that the capillary forces between water and heavy oil are higher than those between water and light oil [4]. Asghari and Nakutnyy carried out experimental work on the application of polyacrylamide for extracting heavy oil; they concluded that a polymer concentration in the injected fluid higher than 5000 ppm is required to effectively recover oil for injection rates of less than 29.6 m 3 /day [5].…”

Polymer Injection Performance in Multi Porous Medium

“…Bentheimer core has been used over the years for petroleum engineering research works. [3] Tahir et al in 2017 generated and compile data on the apparent and shear viscosity of Polymer during a flooding process. Their results helped to describe the parameter that defines polymer viscoelastic properties.…”

Improving Recovery Through Surfactant Desorption on An Oil Wet Limestone Reservoir

“…The concern area for surfactant application onto carbonate reservoirs has been limited to laboratories [1]. The unique structure and ability to alter surface properties makes surfactant more reliable for enhancing recovery [2].…”