Novel Surfactant Formulations Tailored for Enhanced Oil Recovery Purposes: Physicochemical Properties at Various Salinity Levels

Surfactants are amphiphilic compounds that have distinctive characteristics making them suitable to be utilized in the process of enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Surfactants are commonly used in EOR from fractured carbonate formations as they provide advantages such as interfacial tension (IFT) reduction and mobility control. Before applying to core-flood experiments, surfactant formulations need to be optimized according to reservoir conditions (i.e., temperature, salinity and rock type) to predict their possible effects on oil recovery. In this paper, we present an experimental procedure to select and design surfactant formulations as potential candidates for EOR application in carbonate formations. The surfactants used in this study are a group of Alfoterra surfactants, SDS, CTAB, DTAB and Triton X-100. The procedure followed in this study can be applied to various surfactants, reservoir conditions and rock types. It can also be extended to include other physicochemical properties that may affect the performance of surfactants in hydrocarbon reservoirs.