Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR)

Chemical EOR
Sudapet H.Q
to 16th May 2013

Khalid Abdulbasit_ RE_

Sudapet

12 th

Contents

Introduction.

Polymer Flooding.

Surfactant Flooding.

Alkaline Flooding.

Alkaline-Surfactant-Polymer (ASP) Flooding.

M=

Introduction

 There are FOUR common types of

chemical EOR methods namely:
1.Polymer Flooding.
2.Surfactant Flooding.
3.Alkaline Flooding.
4.Alkaline-Surfactant-Polymer
(ASP)
Flooding.

 To understand each method of chemical

EOR, Advantages, disadvantages, Injection
process of chemicals into the formations
and suitable conditions to be applied have
to be considered.
To do chemical flooding in EOR, new wells
have to be drilled for injection.

Polymer
Flooding

Mechanism
Injecting of chemical materials into the
reservoir (polymer) in order to stop or reduce
water production by increasing its viscosity
and there for reduce the mobility ratio and
enhance oil production.

 The description of the process is to inject

polymer into the formation, followed by
water injection for the purpose of sweep
efficiency where it acts like a piston,
polymer has the ability to create oil bank
to increase oil recovery.
Polymer injection to control mobility ratio,
water injection to improve the sweep
efficiency.

 If water is only injected and due to

reservoir heterogeneity, the swept area will
be less and but by adding polymer the
mobility is controlled.

Advantages
Reducing water production by increasing its
viscosity.
Mobility control and flow pattern control.
Sweep efficiency improvement.
Lower cost compared with other chemical
EOR methods.
Recovery factor RF increases.

Disadvantages
Water or polymer
(mechanically).

infectivity

problems

High water salinity (if it is more than

100,000 ppm) it changes and reacts with
the
polymer
composition
leads
to
adsorption.
Fracture presence leads to loosing
polymers into the adjacent formations.

of

Presence of clays and strong aquifer results

Conditions to be
Applied

Water-Oil Ratio (WOR) <10, this reason is

important due to polymer is used where
water production is high but before WOR
becomes excessively high.
Clays are undesirable due to adsorption of
the polymer.
Aquifer strength has to be either week or
moderate, polymer flooding is affected by
strong aquifer.

 Water salinity and hardness has to be low

due to the effect on the polymer
composition.
If there is a reservoir (sandstone) with high
heterogeneity, polymer can control the flow
patterns.
Relatively low reservoir temperature,
avoid chemical degradation.

to

Surfactant
Flooding

Mechanism
It stands for Surface active agents.
It is the injection of surfactant into the
formation targeting the surface between oilwater to break the attractive forces
between them (IFT) by producing soaps at
the contact reducing residual oil saturation
in addition to wettability change from oil
wet to water wet, followed by polymer
injection to enhance the sweep efficiency
and control the mobility as well as to
stabilize the flow pattern.

Usually Co-solvents such as alcohol (low

molecular weight) are injected with surfactant:
In many surfactant systems high viscosity
liquid crystals, emulsions and gels are
observed alcohol is used to break it.
The optimum salinity can be adjusted by
alcohol.
Alcohol can eliminate the polymer-surfactant
incompatibility.

Advantages
Reduce IFT and work as emulsifier between
oil and water.
Sor reduction to a very minimum value,
which immediately leads to increase in the
recovery factor.
Wettability change from oil to water wet.
Trapped (bypassed) oil is produced.
Injection of polymer leads to pattern flow
stabilization and mobility control.

Disadvantages
Complex process.
Expensive
polymer.

compared

to

alkaline

and

Incompatibility between surfactant-polymer

in case of no co-solvent is used.
Degradation of surfactant and polymer in
case of high reservoir temperature.
Strong aquifer leads to both surfactant and
polymer adsorption.

Conditions to be
Applied
High remaining oil
(Sor).

Relatively homogeneous formation with no

fractures is preferred.
High WOR but not excessive < 10.
Low
reservoir
temperature
surfactant degradation.

to

avoid

Weak to moderate aquifer strength to avoid

surfactant adsorption in the formation during
the flooding process.

Alkaline
Flooding

Mechanism
Alkaline or caustic flooding is another method
by which oil displacement efficiency can be
improved.
The basic alkaline flooding process starts with
injection of alkaline solution of about 10 to 30
percent PV pore volume.
Then followed by injection of a polymer slug
behind the alkaline solution to control
mobility.
lastly followed by water injection to improve

 The reaction between alkaline and formation

oil results in soaps production at the contact
between oil-water phases, there for IFT is
reduced as well as Sor by producing more
trapped oil all of that happens due to in-situ
production of surfactant.
Alkaline flooding is used in case of high
acidity oil.

Advantages
IFT reduction by producing soaps at the
contact between oil and water where oil
contains high amount of acids.
Sor reduction due to more oil production and
RF increases.
Mobility
reduction,
sweep
efficiency
enhancement and pattern flow control due
to using of polymer injection behind alkaline
flooding.
Simple and cheap EOR method.
Wettability change from oil to water wet due
to the in-situ production of surfactant.

Disadvantages
Low recovery factor compared
chemical EOR methods.

to

other

Degradation of alkaline in case of high

reservoir temperature.
Alkaline adsorption in case of strong water
aquifer.

Conditions to be
Applied
High acid content in oil reservoir.
High remaining oil Sor.
Low clay content.
Low reservoir temperature to avoid alkaline
degradation.
Weak to moderate aquifer strength to avoid
alkaline adsorption.

ASP Flooding

Mechanism
ASP stands for Alkaline-Surfactant-Polymer
flooding.
it is the injection of a mixture contains the
three chemical EOR methods.
The mixing process is usually prepared at
the surface in addition to adding water to
the mixture, then it is injected into the
reservoir in order to enhance the oil
production and increase the recovery factor.

 Alkaline is used to reduce IFT by producing

soaps at the contact between oil-water
phases, then followed by surfactant
flooding which is used to reduce Sor as well
as change the wettability from oil to water
wet, polymer is used to control the flow
patterns in case of reservoir heterogeneity
is existed and water is used to improve the
sweep efficiency.

Advantages
High recovery factor since all of alkaline,
surfactant and polymer are used.
Wettability change from oil to water wet.
Reduce Sor to the minimum values.
Improve the sweep efficiency by injecting
polymer.
Less adsorption in ASP process.

Disadvantages

Incompatibility between polymer, alkaline

and surfactant in case of the unstable
mixture.
Very high cost compared to other EOR
methods due to use ASP then polymer an
lastly water injection.
Complex
process,
surface
problem and mixture stability.

preparation

Conditions to be
Appliedoil volume Sor.
High values of remaining

Weak to moderate aquifer strength.

Low reservoir temperature.
Light to intermediate oil is favorable.
Low clay content
adsorption.

to

avoid

chemical