Simulation Study of Sodium Dodecyl Benzene Sulfonate as a Surfactant for Enhanced Oil Recovery of Fang Oilfield

Abstract

AbstractSansai area in Fang oilfield is an onshore reservoir in Thailand which has oil production for over 60 years. Water flooding is applied as the method to increase more oil as well as the surfactant injection, one of the enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technology. To increase the production rate, the water flooding and surfactant injection with sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS) have been studied and compared the results for oil production by using the simulation with ECLIPSE. Therefore, the aim of this work is to simulate the surfactant flooding by using SDBS with various conditions such as the injection rate and the period of injection for Sansai area in Fang oilfield and to compare this technique of oil recovery with the conventional water flooding and natural flow. From the results, it shows that the surfactant method with SDBS provides the highest recovery factor at 26.7%. Also, the parameters such as injection rate are studied that the oil recovery can increase with an increase in injection rate. For the injection period of 1, 2 and 3 years of SDBS injection, the results present that 3-year injection can provide the highest oil recovery at 33.1%. However, the maximum difference of oil recovery factor is less than 5%. Therefore, in term of economic consideration, 1-year injection period might be better. This work can be used for the further study in applying this technology in this field in future.KeywordsSurfactantEnhanced oil recoverySimulation