Recovery of Waterflood Residual Oil Using Alkali, Surfactant and Polymer Slugs in Radial Cores

Abstract

An experimental study has been conducted to examine mobilization and recovery of waterflood residual oil in radial cores. Alkali, surfactant, and polymer slugs of various compositions, sizes and sequences were tested. Core flood experiments were conducted with unfired radial Berea sandstone disks at a flow rate of 8 cm3/h. David Lloydminster crude oil (total acid number of 0. 45 mg KOH/g oil) was used. The results of the present work showed that the composition and sequence of the injected chemical slug play an important role in mobilization and recovery of residual oil. For slugs lacking either mobility control, or low interfacial tension, no oil bank was formed and tertiary oil recovery was less than 20% Sor. A significant oil bank and tertiary oil recovery up to 70 % Sor were obtained with slugs having mobility control and low interfacial tension. However, maximum oil cut, incre-mental oil recovery and surfactant propagation were found to be functions of the alkali content in the slug. The incremental oil recovery, oil cut and slug injectivity greatly improved as the alkali concentration (sodium carbonate) in the combined slug was increased. A slight delay in surfactant breakthrough and a significantly slower rate of surfactant propagation were observed at higher sodium carbonate concentrations.