Abstract
In these times of growing world wide energy needs and declining new oil discoveries, new and improved recovery methods are needed to recover much of the known oil reserves left behind by conventional recovery methods. Micellar solutions are currently being investigated by a number of oil companies and research institutes as potential candidates for tertiary oil recovery processes. Micellar solutions can be used in either secondary or tertiary recovery operations. The process is being tested in some fields, but the results are inconclusive. In general, the limited field trials indicate that micellar solutions do not work as effectively as predicted form laboratory data. This research was to investigate the effect of presence of calcium ions in formation water on oil recovery using micellar solutions. Adsorption of surfactant on sand grain surfaces as a function of calcium ions concentrations was also investigated. A series of laboratory experiments were conducted in which oil was displaced from porous media by micellar solution (Amoco Floodaid 131) driven by viscous water and plain water respectively. Displacement experiments were conducted on consolidated Berea sandstone 2" x 2" in cross sectional area and 5' long and 1.5" in diameter x 5' long unconsolidated sand packs. Based on the experimental results, micellar solutions proved to be very effective in displacing oil from porous media. On the average, a 7 percent of a pore volume slug displaced 84 percent of the original oil in place from both sand packs and consolidated Berea sandstone or 10 bbl of oil per bbl of micellar solution. ...
Mobarak, Salem Aly Mohamed (1975). The effects of divalent ions on displacement of oil from porous media by micellar solutions. Texas A&M University. Texas A&M University. Libraries. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /DISSERTATIONS -183537.