SP Flooding EOR: slug ratio affected oil recovery: article

This study aims to analyze the effectiveness of surfactant-polymer (SP) combination by using an industrial wastewater treatment surfactant (Sulfocat BK80) and polymer which is Xanthan Gum (XG) at a different slug ratio on oil displacement in sandpack flooding. The residual oil saturation that is immobile even after waterflooding need EOR to extract the oil and ensure that an optimum value of oil recovery percentage can be achieved. With the correct SP formulation, the objective stated above are obtained. 16 different SP formulation in constant salinity are designed. The SP formulations are characterized in term of their density, viscosity, contact angle and shear rate. Through the screening process, it was found that at a 3000 ppm surfactant and 400 ppm of polymer was the optimal for the SP Flooding. The optimal SP solution was then injected into the column with a slug ratio of 0.3PV BK80 + 0.3PV XG, 0.3PV BK80 + 0.4PV XG and 0.1PV BK80 + 0.6PV XG in test 1, test 2 and test 3 respectively. The incremental oil recovery after waterflooding was in the range of 1.8% to 2.84%. With the same total volume of BK80, injecting a larger volume of polymer produced more oil. The highest oil recovery of 63.47% was obtained when a ratio of 0.1PV of BK80 and 0.6PV of XG used.