Surfactant manufactured by a certain company (XAP)

Surfactant manufactured by a certain company (XAP) was supplied so as to establish the suitability for the recovery of Karamay oil. Obtained results were negative since the surfactant generated discouraging levels of crude oil. During this experiment, two evident problems of using high concentration of CJ2 were encountered. First encountered problem was the relation of the surfactant-polymer in the compound slug. The other difficulty associated with the use of chemical method in Karamay fields was the fact that the solution had to be stirred constantly throughout the process hence making it expensive. This was as a result of constant separation and precipitation of substances used in the regeneration of oil. This was also manifested when low surfactants concentration was used. The amount of precipitation was directly proportional to the concentration of surfactant polymer. There was the presence of surfactant and several polymers in the analysis of the precipitated materials. Therefore, surfactant polymer relation could lead to unknown amount of chemical, which could alter the blend properties like the ability to flow as well as injection difficulties particularly into the permeability rock. Despite the fact that thermal techniques still overshadow other EOR methods for heavy oil reservoirs, chemical methods are also viable and cheap in the reproduction of oil (Wever, Picchioni and Broekhuis 1558).