New Insights into Enhanced Heavy oil Recovery by Chemical Injection

Kevin Guo
Supervisor: Dr. Zhangxing(John) Chen
3KevinGuo1

Abstrat Polymer flooding can significantly increase heavy oil recovery. Surfactant flooding is not effective because the injected surfactant only flows through the water channels where oil saturation is already very low. S/P flooding produces lower heavy oil recovery than polymer flooding. Surfactant has a double effect on heavy oil recovery:1) Reduce sir and increase microscopic displacement in water channels; 2) Promote channeling and decrease macroscopic  sweep. Incremental heavy oil recovery correlates well with pressure drop. The higher the pressure drop, the higher the incremental recovery.