Foam Systems for Enhancing Heavy Oil Recovery by Double Improving Mobility Ratio

Abstract

The recovery of heavy oil is challenging due to its high viscosity. Especially in water flooding, the high viscosity of heavy oil induces a high water/oil mobility ratio, resulting in frequent channeling and fingering. In the present work, the viscosity reduction in heavy oil caused by foaming agents is studied. Among the studied foam systems, the KX-048 foaming agent had the best oil viscosity reduction performance. It also shows excellent foaming performance, including large foam volume, long foam half-life, and high foam comprehensive index. With the reduction in oil viscosity, the KX-048 foaming agent decreases the foam/oil mobility to 0.28, which is beneficial for controlling gas channeling and fingering in foam flooding. Moreover, Foam flooding experiments in heterogeneous sand-pack models indicate that KX-048 has excellent efficiency in improving oil recovery, especially in the low-permeable tube. The chosen KX-048 foaming agent could provide a promising pathway for improving heavy oil recovery.