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Surfactant‐enhanced steam drives for heavy oil recovery
Author(s) -
Dilgren R. E.,
Owens K. B.
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
journal of the american oil chemists' society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.512
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1558-9331
pISSN - 0003-021X
DOI - 10.1007/bf02634447
Subject(s) - petroleum engineering , steam injection , enhanced oil recovery , superheated steam , pulmonary surfactant , porous medium , volume (thermodynamics) , waste management , environmental science , steam assisted gravity drainage , oil field , chemistry , chemical engineering , materials science , boiler (water heating) , porosity , engineering , thermodynamics , composite material , oil sands , physics , organic chemistry , asphalt
Abstract A steam/noncondensible gas foam formulation was developed to reduce steam mobility in the steam drive process as applied to heavy oil reservoirs with little or no dip such as the Kern River field. The steam/noncondensible gas foam process is intended to reduce or minimize the gravity layover problem in such reservoirs. Laboratory experimentation started with foam studies in the absence of both porous media and crude oil at a substeam temperature. Conditions existing in the application under actual field use were then added in a step‐by‐step manner, i.e., inclusion of porous media, existence of an oil saturation, and the addition of steam foam components to injected steam. Added salt was necessary for mobility reduction. Mode of noncondensible gas injection (constant mass vs constant volume) was not important. Adsorption of surfactant was shown to be quite low at steam temperature. The concentrations of steam foam components — Siponate DS‐10, salt and nitrogen — recommended for the Kern River pilot resulted in a steam mobility 0.18 of that obtained with steam alone.