The Chemical EOR Alliance Files a Genuine Formulation Patent Covering Improved Foaming Formulations for Gas Enhanced Oil Recovery
The Chemical EOR (Enhanced Oil Recovery) Alliance, a partnership among Solvay, Beicip-Franlab and IFPEN, announced today the design of a new performance solution that provides improved foam stability in gas mobility control processes. The new solution delivers a more robust and reliable formulation in oil, lower adsorption properties and increased thermal stability compared to traditional foaming agents.
A step forward in the mobility control of gas injection.
Along with thermal methods, gas flooding is the most widely used method for EOR. New environmental incentives, such as regulations on gas flaring, should dramatically boost the use of flue gas re-injection for oil recovery in the coming years.
However, this method has to cope with technical challenges at field scale. Indeed, the low viscosity and density of injected gas may not favor an efficient sweep of the formation. In response, the use of foamed gas, with higher viscosity, greatly enhances the horizontal and vertical sweeping efficiency.
The use of foamed gas for enhanced recovery (EOR) requires:
• foam stability in the presence of oil at high temperature
• long term stability when exposed to chemicals
• low adsorption of surfactants
The use of adequate products can provide an economically efficient process.
Based on the extensive screening of Solvay’s wide portfolio of surfactants, the Chemical EOR Alliance designed innovative formulations that provide improved foam stability in presence of oil, lower adsorption and increased thermal stability compared to classical foaming agents. The core of this patented technology relies on new amphoterics foam boosters offering superior performances at an affordable price.
A Flexible and customized approach to meet the specific needs of each oil company.
Based on this new technology, formulations can be tailored to adapt to various reservoir conditions, including high temperature and high salinity as well as carbonate and sandstone mineralogy plus various gas types including CO2.
The Chemical EOR Alliance proposes a full range of services for improved gas flooding using foams, from reservoir screening to formulation design and petrophysics evaluation in reservoir conditions, up to pilot simulation and deployment. The newly designed formulations are currently evaluated in that framework for a pilot application in hard reservoir conditions.
Source: www.ceor-alliance.com
