Enhanced surfactant polymer flooding processes for oil recovery in carbonate reservoirs
AssigneeSaudi Arabian Oil Company
InventorsSubhash Ayirala, Abdulkareem M. Al-Sofi, Jinxun Wang, Ali Abdallah Al-Yousef
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Abstract
A composition for use in surfactant polymer flooding processes in a carbonate reservoir, the composition comprising a surfactant, the surfactant operable to reduce interfacial tension, a polymer, the polymer operable to increase the viscosity of the composition, and a tailored water, the tailored water operable to alter a wettability of the in-situ rock, where the tailored water has a total dissolved solids of between 5,000 wt ppm and 7,000 wt ppm, where the total dissolved solids comprises a salt, where the composition has a viscosity between 3 cP and 100 cP.
Claims5
A composition for use in surfactant polymer flooding processes in a carbonate reservoir, the composition comprising:
- a surfactant, the surfactant operable to reduce interfacial tension, where the surfactant is selected from the group consisting of betaine amphoteric surfactants, cationic surfactants, non-ionic surfactants, biosurfactants, and combinations of the same;
- a polymer, the polymer operable to increase a viscosity of the composition;
- and
- a tailored water, the tailored water operable to alter a wettability of in-situ rock in the carbonate reservoir,
- where the tailored water has a total dissolved solids of between 5,000 wt ppm and 7,000 wt ppm,
- where the total dissolved solids comprises salts, wherein the salts comprise a combination of sulfate ions in a range between 400 wt ppm and 500 wt ppm, calcium ions in a range between 100 wt ppm and 200 wt ppm, and magnesium ions in a range between 50 wt ppm and 200 wt ppm,
- where the composition has a viscosity between 3 cP and 100 cP.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.