Vol. 23, No. 3 (2024), IE24314 https://doi.org/10.24275/rmiq/IE24314

Oil recovery by emulsion flooding

 

Authors

O. Olivares-Xometl, I. V. Lijanova, P. Arellanes, J. R. Hernandez-Perez, N. V. Likhanova

Abstract

The present work analyzes enhanced oil recovery laboratory experiments by emulsion flooding after the secondary recovery process by water or brine injection. The prepared emulsion was of the oil-in-water type, where the dispersed oil phase had a droplet size of around 15 µm. The oil displacement experiments were carried out in Hele-Shaw cells at 20 °C, Ottawa sand cores at 25 °C and Berea rock cores at 80 °C. In the Hele-Shaw cells, it was possible to visualize that by injecting an emulsion slug, new paths were formed as a result of the blocking of the preferential channel, which had been shaped during the secondary recovery process by water injection, by the emulsion dispersed phase, thus increasing the total sweeping zone and displacing unrecovered oil. The injection of slugs between 0.1-0.4 pore volumes into the sand and rock cores allowed the displacement of residual oil and achievement of oil recovery between 20-50 %.

Keywords

oil-in-water emulsion, additional oil recovery, Hele-Shaw cell, Berea sandstone, sand-pack.

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