Abstract
Water-based enhanced oil recovery from fractured oil-wet or mixed-wet carbonate rock by water flooding is a great challenge. Surfactant-assisted wettability alteration in combination with the impact of gravity drainage appeared to be one possible technique. The big challenge is to select a surfactant system, which is able to cause wettability modification, and, at the same time, to keep the interfacial tension (IFT) between oil and water high enough to take benefit of capillary forces and low enough to activate gravity forces in the oil displacement process. Furthermore, the surfactant should not adsorb onto the rock, which could decrease the water-wetness. Cationic surfactants of the type alkyltrimethylammonium, R–N(CH3)3+, have the properties needed, IFT in the range of 0.1–1.0 mN/m, not affected by salts, and no adsorption onto the rock. Phase trapping because of complex formation between the cationic surfactant and carboxylic material in the crude oil is a possible way for the loss of chemicals, espec...
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