SURFACTANT AND SURFACTANT-POLYMER FLOODING FOR LIGHT OIL: A GUM ARABIC APPROACH

Literatures show that 40% to 55% of oil reserves are usually left insitu after primary and secondary recovery processes such as water flooding. This remaining reserve has to be recovered by Enhanced Oil Recovery process. Surfactant-Polymer flooding is one of the viable Enhanced Oil Recovery processes for recovering additional by lowering the interfacial tension between the oil and water and reducing water mobility. In this research, two sets of experiments were performed. First, the optimum surfactant concentration was determined through surfactant polymer flooding using a range of surfactant (Sodium Dodecyl sulphate, SDS) concentration of 0.1% to 0.6% and 15% of polymer (gum Arabic). Secondly, another set of experiments to determine the optimum flow rate for surfactant flooding was performed. The result of the first set of experiment shows a range of oil recovery of 59% to 76% for water flooding and a range of 11.64% to 20.02% additional oil recovery for surfactant Polymer flooding for a range of surfactant flow rate of surfactant concentration of 0.1% t0 0.6%. For the second sets of experiments, a range of oil recovery of 64% to 68% for water flooding and a range of 15% to 24% additional oil recovery for surfactant flooding for a range of surfactant flow rate of surfactant flow rate of 1cc/min to 6cc/min. The Optimum surfactant flow rate resulting in the highest oil recovery for the chosen core dimension and parameter is 3cc/min.