(203e) Foam for CO2 Mobility Control for EOR Applications

The efficiency of the CO₂ in trapped oil mobilization process is severely effects by many problems including gravity override, viscous fingering, and early breakthrough. The said problems can efficiently be reduced by foam.

 A study has been conducted to evaluate CO₂ philic surfactants which have exhibited more practical advantages over conventional surfactants. The interfacial tension (IFT) between neat CO₂ and the newly produced surfactant solution was examined and is reported. By using the surfactant in 0.5 % concentration It was observed that the CO₂/ water IFT appreciably decreased from 30 mN/m to 2.41 mN/m.The static foam durability experiments in 1000 ml cylinder and by using foam analyzer at high temperature (95 ⁰C) in the presence and absence of the Dulang crude oil were conducted and are reported. The adsorption of surfactant formulation was investigated and was found 0.91 mg/g. The Coreflood experiment were also conducted to measure the mobility  reduction factor (MRF) and was found 3.3. In addition, 94 % oil recovery was achieved by conducting high pressure high temperature (HPHT) coreflood experiments by using Berea core sample by using the new CO₂ philic surfactant. 

Coreflood results showed that as compared to conventional surfactants, CO₂ philic surfactants significantly reduce the mobility of the injected CO₂ and can recover additional trapped oil at the same time helpful in CO₂ sequestration.