Back to results
US 7,652,073 B2Granted
Oil-in-water-in-oil emulsion
AssigneeExxonMobil Upstream Research Company
InventorRamesh Varadaraj
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An oil-in-water-in-oil emulsion (O/W/O) comprising a first oil-in-water emulsion dispersed in a second oil, and a method of preparing the same. The O/W/O emulsion can be used as a drive fluid in an enhanced oil recovery process. The O/W/O emulsion of this invention may also be used as a lubricant, and has the beneficial property of being resistant to shear forces.
Claims5
A method for preparing an oil-in-water-in-oil emulsion comprising the steps of:
- (a) forming a first oil-in-water emulsion comprising a first oil, water, about 0.1 wt % to about 10 wt % of an organic acid, and about 0.01 wt % to about 10 wt % of a salt of an organic acid, all based on the weight of said first oil-in-water emulsion, wherein said salt of organic acid comprises a salt of naphthenic acid;
- (b) dispersing said first oil-in-water emulsion in a second oil.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.