An Advanced Methodology for Surfactant Based Pilot Design

Abstract

AbstractAfter primary and secondary production of oil from a petroleum reservoir, more than half of the oil is often left in place. In order to improve the process displacement efficiency – so that one can recover some of this remaining capillary-trapped or water-by-passed oil –, it is necessary to screen enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques and to apply processes such as surfactant flooding, either Surfactant (S), Surfactant Polymer (SP) or Alkaline Surfactant Polymer (ASP), when recommended.This paper describes an advanced methodology to select EOR surfactant based processes with special emphasis on the design of a formulation by considering real brine compositions. Salinity is the major parameter for the design of an efficient surfactant process. Salinity is defined by running reservoir numerical simulations with SARIPCH, a black oil simulator for chemical tertiary recovery. Inputs are formation water salinity and composition of waterflood brine. Strong heterogeneity of flow properties and resisual oil zones as well as reservoir geometry, for example crossflow, are considered. Results help to define the effective salinity and the salinity window for the surfactant formulation design.Formulation design is performed through a validated High Throughput Screening (HTS) methodology using a robotic platform combined with microfluidic tools. Data on brine compatibility, oil solubilization ratio and water-oil interfacial tension (IFT) are systematically provided. Adsorption measurements are conducted in order to take into account the potential efficiency and the economics of the process. Core flood experiments are performed to validate performances of selected chemical formulation(s). Conclusions are drawn on the key effect of salinity and on the necessity of adopting a methodology giving a first appraisal of the salinity that will be seen by the surfactant slug during its transport.