The effects of interfacial tension, injection rate, and permeability on oil recovery in dilute surfactant flooding

ABSTRACT Surfactant flooding as a potential enhanced oil recovery technology in depleted reservoirs after water flooding has been documented for several decades and has attracted extensive attention. This research explored the effect of interfacial tension among crude oil and surfactant, injection rate, and permeability on oil recovery in dilute surfactant flooding. The results indicated that the additional oil recovery increased with the reduction of the interfacial tension and the increase of the permeability. The additional oil recovery increased and later decreased with the increase of injection rate. The research is instructive for surfactant flooding application for enhanced oil recovery.