An enhanced oil recovery process in

which a small amount of surfactant is

added to an aqueous fluid injected to
sweep the reservoir. The presence of
surfactant reduces the interfacial tension
between the oil and water phases and
also alters the wettability of the
reservoir rock to improve oil recovery.
Goals of a surfactant method

1. Improvement of Mobility Ratio (M)

2. Increasing the Capillary Number (Ca)

1. Improvement of Mobility Ratio (M)

it is better to have a low mobility ratio (less

than 1), since otherwise water or the displacing
fluid will pass through oil creating fingering or
channeling effects and thus reducing the
sweep displacement efficiency as shown in Fig
2. Increasing the Capillary Number (Ca)

increasing the capillary

number reduces the oil
saturation (residual)

Capillary number can be increased by

essentially reducing the interfacial
v is the velocity, tension between oil and the injecting

μ is the displaced fluid viscosity,

fluid.

σ is the surface tension

 Mechanism of surfactant flooding
Surfactant flooding, also known as detergent or micro
emulsion flooding, uses low concentration of surfactants
augmented water to lower the interfacial tension between oil
and water and in some cases alter the wettability of the rock
to create favorable conditions for efficient oil displacement.

It is the most complex and accompanied with high degree of

uncertainty among other enhanced oil recovery methods.
However, if designed optimally for the specific crude
accounting for factors such as salinity, temperature, pressure
and clay content, it would demonstrate a high potential for
maximum oil recovery.
lower the surface tension (or interfacial tension) between two liquids, between
a gas and a liquid, or between a liquid and a solid.

Surfactants may act as detergents, wetting agents, emulsifiers, foaming

agents, and dispersants.
 Designing Surfactant for EOR

Effect of salinity
Effect of temperature
Effect of surfactant (micelle forming)
Temperature

cloud point (above this effect of surfactant is not measurerable)

temperature

Optimum
temperature

Krafft point (below this temperature precipitation takes place

making it ineffective
Temperature Depending on the surfactant structure the cloud
point temperature can be between 30 °C and
160 °C.

Temperature can affect the IFT and

critical micelle concentration (CMC)
of surfactant systems and this effect
is greater for anionic surfactants.

Most of the experiments in the literature indicate that

temperatures above 120 °C results in either
degradation or precipitation of most of the surfactant.
Salinity
High salinity has an adverse impact on
the efficiency of the surfactant.

maximum oil recovery is obtained if the salinity of connate water or chemical slug is
maintained at the optimal salinity of the selected surfactant.

The optimum salinity as a salinity at which equal

quantities of oil and water can be mutually solubilized
into a microemulsion which results in equal IFTs
between microemulsion phase and excess oil or excess
water phase
Surfactant
The type and number of the chemical units in
a surfactant formula affects the ability of the
surfactant in reducing the IFT, altering the
wettability, decreasing/increasing the viscosity,
thermal stability and its resistance in high
salinity and hardness conditions.

Solving the problem of emulsion stability and viscosity in

reservoir is possible through choosing suitable chemical units
and their numbers plus tuning the pH level. Stability is
assessed by measuring zeta potential. The higher this
magnitude shows higher stability for the emulsion. For EOR
process slightly alkali pH is recommended.
Surfactants can be classified as:

1. Anionic (widely used): lower adsorption tendency on the reservoir rock.

2. Cationic (used in carbonate reservoirs)

3. Non-ionic (formations containing high salinity water or hard water)

 In the field implementation scale, other
chemicals including polymer and alkali are also
added to the surfactant slug in order to
maximize the project design efficiency.

Polymer deals Alkali produces in-situ

with the viscosity & surfactants
Maintain balance between Alkaline and surfactants

Alkali, on the other hand, would lower the

adsorption level of the surfactant and reacts
with the acidic components of the oil to produce
in-situ surfactant which as a result optimizes the
injected surfactant concentration.