Investigation of Nanoclay-Surfactant-Stabilized Foam for Improving Oil Recovery of Steam Flooding in Offshore Heavy Oil Reservoirs

Abstract

This study presents a study of nanoclay-surfactant-stabilized foam to improve the oil recovery of steam flooding in offshore heavy oil reservoirs. The foam stability and thermal resistance studies were first performed to investigate the influence of nanoclay on the stability and thermal resistance properties of the foam system. Then, the sandpack flooding tests were conducted for investigating the resistance factor and displacement abilities by nanoclay-surfactant-stabilized foam. The results showed that the nanoclay-surfactant-stabilized foam has excellent foaming ability and foam stability at 300 °C, which can be used in steam flooding for offshore heavy oil reservoirs. The resistance factor is greater than 30 at 300 °C when the gas–liquid ratio ranges from 1 to 3, which indicated that the nanoclay-surfactant-stabilized foam has good performance of thermal resistance and plugging effect. The heterogeneous sandpack flooding test showed that the nanoclay-surfactant-stabilized foam can effectively divert the steam into the low-permeability area and improve the sweep efficiency, thus improving heavy oil recovery of steam flooding. Therefore, the nanoclay-surfactant-stabilized foam flooding has a great potential for improving oil recovery of steam flooding in offshore heavy oil reservoirs.

Perspectives of Foam Generation Techniques and Future Directions of Nanoparticle-Stabilized CO2 Foam for Enhanced Oil Recovery

“…Thus, the resistance factor of nanoclay–surfactant-stabilized foam with different gas-to-liquid ratios shows the highest value at high temperatures. This indicates that the foam has good ability to change the profile and blocking . Additionally, stable N 2 foams has been successfully created utilizing various surfactants and silica NPs, with the durability of the foam being tested by bulk foam stability tests .…”

“…This indicates that the foam has good ability to change the profile and blocking. 180 Additionally, stable N 2 foams has been successfully created utilizing various surfactants and silica NPs, with the durability of the foam being tested by bulk foam stability tests. 181 Therefore, the results demonstrated that utilizing surfactant, nitrogen, and nanoclay, in conjunction with SiO 2 , for CO 2 foam flooding can increase the oil recovery.…”

Review of oil recovery techniques using foam systems

“…Для повышения нефтеотдачи при закачке пара в морские резервуары с тяжелой нефтью проведены исследования пены, стабилизированной наноглиной и ПАВ [34]. Испытания на модели песчаника показали, что пена, стабилизированная наноглиной и ПАВ, может эффективно отводить пар в область с низкой проницаемостью и повышать эффективность охвата, тем самым улучшая добычу тяжелой нефти при заводнении паром.…”

Numerical Simulation Analysis of Carbon Dioxide Storage During Cyclic Steam Stimulation in Heavy Oil Reservoir

“…The development difficulties of offshore heavy oil reservoirs are mainly deep buried reservoir, high porosity, fine lithology, thin single layer and complex oilwater relationship, resulting in high steam injection pressure, large heat loss, small steam spread range and poor development benefit, which makes CO2 occupy a certain position in EOR of such reservoirs, which also provides good storage conditions for CO2 storage [4] .…”