Experimental Investigation of the Effect of Surfactant–Polymer Flooding on Enhanced Oil Recovery for Medium Crude Oil

Abstract

High technical and financial risks are involved in exploring and exploiting new fields; hence, greater focus has placed on the development of environmentally friendly, cost-effective, and enhanced oil recovery (EOR) options for existing fields. For reservoirs producing high-density crudes and those with high interfacial tensions, water flooding is usually less effective due to density differences-hence the advent of polymer and surfactant flooding. For cost-effective and eco-friendly EOR solutions, a biopolymer and a surfactant synthesized from Jatropha seeds are used in this study to determine their effectiveness in increasing the oil recovery during core flooding analysis. The experiment involved an initial water flooding that served as the base cases of three weight percentages of polymers and polymeric surfactant solutions. The results for the polymer flooding of 1 wt%, 1.5 wt%, and 2 wt% showed an incremental oil recovery in comparison to water flooding of 16.8%, 17%, and 26%, while the polymeric surfactant mixtures of 5 wt% of surfactant and 1 wt%, 1.5 wt%, and 2 wt% of a polymer recorded 16.5%, 22.3%, and 28.8%, and 10 wt% of surfactant and 1 wt%, 1.5 wt%, and 2 wt% of a polymer recorded incremental oil recoveries of 20%, 32.9%, and 38.8%, respectively.