1.1 ENHANCED OIL RECOVERY
Oil production is differentiated into three stages: primary, secondary and tertiary, which is also known as Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR). Primary oil recovery is restricted to hydrocarbons that naturally produced to the surface, or those that utilization artificial lifts, for example, pump jacks. The secondary recovery utilizes water and gas injection, dislodging the oil and driving it to the surface. US Department of Energy stated that by using these two systems can leave up to 75% of the oil in the well. The best approach to further increase oil production is through the tertiary recovery technique which is Chemical enhanced oil recovery (CEOR).
CEOR has been labeled as an expensive method and …show more content…
Surfactants targeted are the ones which when used in dilute concentration with injection brine (sea water) are able to alter wettability for a high temperature, high salinity carbonate reservoir. The motivation behind this approach is to keep the injection architecture similar to that of water flood. This would involve much lower capital investment and operating costs, leading to favorable economics compared to other EOR