Abstract

Surfactant as a successful enhanced oil recovery (EOR) agent has been widely used in many mature reservoirs. This research focuses on the description of surfactant solution at low permeability condition. A new three-dimensional, two-phase, three-component surfactant simulator is presented. The simulator is based on the non-Darcy flow characteristics of surfactant flooding in the low permeability formations. The change of threshold pressure and influences of surfactant on convection, diffusion, adsorption, and retention, are all considered. A new equation for the calculation of surfactant adsorption is employed, which can significantly promote the matching degree between the mathematical model and field practice. This mathematical model was adopted to conduct a field scale simulation modeling for a surfactant flooding pilot of the Chao-522 field, Daqing.

Key words: Surfactant flooding, simulation, threshold pressure, pilot test.