Surfactant flooding is an important technique used in enhanced oil recovery to reduce the amount of oil in pore space of matrix rock. Surfactants are injected to mobilize residual oil by lowering the interfacial tension between oil and water and/or by the wettability alteration from oil-wet to water-wet. A large number of cationic, anionic, non-ionic, and amphoteric surfactants have been investigated on a laboratory scale under different conditions of temperature and salinity. Selection of the appropriate surfactant is a challenging task, and surfactants have to be evaluated by a series of screening techniques. Different types of surfactants along with their limitations are reviewed with particular emphasis on the phase behavior, adsorption, interfacial tension, and structure–property relationship. Factors affecting the phase behavior, interfacial tension, and wettability alteration are also discussed. Field applications of surfactants for chemical enhanced oil recovery in carbonate and sandstone reservoi...

Review on Surfactant Flooding: Phase Behavior, Retention, IFT, and Field Applications

The injected fluids in secondary processes supplement the natural energy present in the reservoir to displace oil. The recovery efficiency mainly depends on the mechanism of pressure maintenance. However, the injected fluids in tertiary or enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes interact with the reservoir rock/oil system. Thus, EOR techniques are receiving substantial attention worldwide as the available oil resources are declining. However, some challenges, such as low sweep efficiency, high costs and potential formation damage, still hinder the further application of these EOR technologies. Current studies on nanoparticles are seen as potential solutions to most of the challenges associated with these traditional EOR techniques. This paper provides an overview of the latest studies about the use of nanoparticles to enhance oil recovery and paves the way for researchers who are interested in the integration of these progresses. The first part of this paper addresses studies about the major EOR mechanisms of nanoparticles used in the forms of nanofluids, nanoemulsions and nanocatalysts, including disjoining pressure, viscosity increase of injection fluids, preventing asphaltene precipitation, wettability alteration and interfacial tension reduction. This part is followed by a review of the most important research regarding various novel nano-assisted EOR methods where nanoparticles are used to target various existing thermal, chemical and gas methods. Finally, this review identifies the challenges and opportunities for future study regarding application of nanoparticles in EOR processes.

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Application of Nanoparticles in Enhanced Oil Recovery: A Critical Review of Recent Progress

This paper presents the results of imbibition tests using a reservoir crude oil and a reservoir brine solution with a high salinity and a suitable nanofluid that displaces crude oil from Berea sandstone (water-wet) and single-glass capillaries. The Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) nanofluid is specially formulated to survive in a high-salinity environment and is found to result in an efficiency of 50% for Berea sandstone, compared to 17% using the brine alone at a reservoir temperature of 55 °C. We also present a direct visual evidence of the underlying mechanism based on the structural disjoining pressure for the crude oil displacement using IIT nanofluid from the solid substrate in high-salinity brine. These results aid our understanding of the role of the nanofluid in displacing crude oil from the rock, especially in a high-salinity environment containing Ca2+ and Mg2+ ions. Results are also reported using Berea sandstone and a nanofluid containing silica nanoparticles.

Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) Using Nanoparticle Dispersions: Underlying Mechanism and Imbibition Experiments

Wettability alteration of oil-wet carbonate by silica nanofluid.

Towards hybrid nanofluids: Preparation, thermophysical properties, applications, and challenges

Nanofluid for enhanced oil recovery

Screening Evaluation of EOR Methods Based on Fuzzy Logic and Bayesian Inference Mechanisms

Recently, the development and implementation of efficient technologies and technical tools to stabilize and increase the production in new oil and gas, as well as in mature fields are one of the urgent tasks. Therefore, new advanced methods of increasing oil production in the fields are necessary. The issue of struggling with the complications may be solved due to the development and wide scale employment of progressive techniques in the sphere of intensification of production in existing fields. Thus, considering the fact that the great majority of Absheron oil fields are in the last stage of development, as time goes by the changes in the reservoir lead to the formation of some complications in the operation wells, the solution of which remain an urgent challenge.

The analysis of well stock and making immediate decisions towards increasing oil production in mature fields

During the filling-up and discharge, the transfer of oil products from one to another reservoir in oil gathering facilities and in the storage period, the losses of products due to the evaporation, as well as the environment contamination occur. To reduce the evaporation losses, the gas medium of a reservoir should be connected to the manifold pipe. For the condensation of oil vapor, the reservoir connecting the gas space of the tanks passing through the drain vessel, the reservoir of the crude oil or the reservoir of produced water should be joined with the drain vessel. The vapor passing through the overflow tank is condensed as a result of cooling.

F. S. Ismailov

Papers

Nanofluid for enhanced oil recovery

Screening Evaluation of EOR Methods Based on Fuzzy Logic and Bayesian Inference Mechanisms

The analysis of well stock and making immediate decisions towards increasing oil production in mature fields

The reduction of oil losses from evaporation in oil gathering facilities