NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF SURFACTANT/ALKALINE FLOODING IN AN EGYPTIAN OIL FIELD

Abstract

Surfactant flooding has been recognized recently as one of the most promising means of enhanced oil recovery. It can increase oil recovery through three major mechanisms: ( 1 ) miscibility between the slug and neighboring fluids, ( 2 ) by ultra-low interfacial tension, thus decreasing the residual oil saturation, ( 3 ) oil swelling or solubilization. In addition to these mechanisms, the capability for mobility control and the technical feasibility of the process also make it potentially a very attractive one. It can be used either for secondary or tertiary oil recovery. However, use of this process is

subject to a high degree of uncertainty and field pilot tests are lengthy and costly. Therefore, a mathematical model and computer simulation are needed to assist in the understanding of the process, to provide a scale-up tool for extrapolating laboratory results to field scale, and to aid in optimization of field tests. The objective of this study was developed to simulate reaction equilibrium model to do batch reaction calculations. This simulator, CHEM, is used to calculate the initial equilibrium state of the reservoir.