Effects of Reservoir Anaerobic, Reducing Conditions on Surfactant Retention in Chemical Flooding

Summary Surfactant retentions observed in four microemulsion-flooding pilot tests at the Loudon field were substantially lower than predicted from conventional laboratory coreflood experiments. This paper presents research results that explain this discrepancy. The oil reservoir was in an anaerobic, reducing condition, whereas laboratory corefloods were normally conducted under aerobic, oxidizing conditions. The difference in redox condition was shown to have a serious effect on surfactant retention. Laboratory corefloods conducted under reservoir-like, anaerobic, reducing conditions gave surfactant retention results significantly closer to those observed in field tests. The effect of redox conditions on surfactant adsorption was substantiated further by results from static adsorption experiments with various clay types. Exposure of preserved cores from a reduced reservoir to aerobic conditions can cause high surfactant retention in corefloods. Methods were developed to restore such oxygen-contaminated core material to its original, anaerobic, reduced state. These coreflood procedures simulate actual reservoir conditions better and give meaningful surfactant-retention results for process design optimization.