An experimental study to measure oil recovery factor by chemical agents and carbon dioxide after waterflooding

Abstract

Development of tight formations would be one of the main priority for petroleum industries due to the enormous demand to the fossil fuels in various industries. In this paper, we provided a set of experiments on the generated foams by carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrogen (N2), cyclic CO2 injection, water alternating gas injection (WAG), active carbonated water injection (coupling surfactant effects and carbonated water (CW)), and introducing the impact of active carbonated water alternating gas injection (combination of WAG and CW injection) after waterflooding. Carbon dioxide is more feasible than nitrogen, it can be mobilize more in the pore throats and provided higher oil recovery factor. Generated foam with CO2 has increased oil recovery factor about 32% while it’s about 28% for generated foam by N2. Moreover, according to the results of this study, the maximum oil recovery factor for active carbonated water alternating gas injection, active carbonated water injection, and water alternating gas injection measured 74%, 65%, and 48% respectively.