A Laboratory Study of ASP Flooding on Mixed Wettability for Heavy oil Recovery Using Gum Arabic as a Polymer

Abstract

Abstract A Laboratory Study of ASP Flooding on Mixed Wettability for Heavy Oil Recovery Using Gum Arabic Polymer Alkaline-Surfactant-Polymer (ASP) flooding process offers a promising approach to recover the residual oil which often times is more than 50% of original oil in place. This paper presents the summary of the laboratory studies on the effect of wettability on oil recovery of Alkaline/Surfactant/Polymer flooding using a Local Polymer – Gum Arabic which is vastly available in Nigeria. Engineering grade class IV glass beads were treated with chemicals to water-wet (WW) and oil-wet (OW) conditions. Different degrees of wettability were obtained by mixing the WW and OW glass beads in different ratio before each flooding experiment. The mixing ratio used were 100%WW and 0%OW; 75%WW and 25%OW; 50%WW and 50%OW; 25%WW and 75%OW; 0%WW and 100%OW. The displacement efficiency of Alkaline/Surfactant/Polymer flooding and Polymer flooding at the different wetting conditions was evaluated by laboratory coreflood experiments. From the experimental result, it was also observed that oil recovery increases as formation becomes more strongly water wet. The experiment results indicate that the displacement efficiency of water floods and ASP flooding is markedly affected by the wettability of the core. The wettability is one of the important factors to determine the oil recovery of water and ASP flooding. Water-wet and oil-wet conditions are favourable to obtain high enhanced oil recovery for ASP flooding using locally available Gum Arabic.