Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Improved Maraflood process boosts profit potential

Journal Article · · World Oil; (United States)
OSTI ID:7301296

Six field tests using a micellar slug followed by a mobility buffer were performed on various parts of the Robinson sandstone, Crawford County, Illinois. The reservoir is a nonmarine Pennsylvanian Age sand of fluvial origin. Petroleum sulfonate was the surfactant in the micellar slug. Mobility control was obtained by a dilute water external emulsion for the first two field tests. Tests 3 and 4 used Dow Pusher 500, while tests 5 and 6 used Dow Pusher 700. Little additional oil was recovered for mobility buffers larger than 50 percent of pore volume. In the first field test, on the Dedrick lease (20 percent porosity, 200 md permeability, 11 cp oil viscosity), 384 bbl/ac-ft of oil was the predicted recovery after the micellar treatment. A waterflood would have recovered only about 200 bbl/ac-ft. A waterflood initiating the second field test, the Wilkin test (100 md and 340 md layers, 9 cp), recovered 60 percent of the original oil. Tertiary treatment produced 8 percent of the residual oil. The last four tests were in the Henry reservoir (20 percent, 200 md, 7 cp). Only qualitative results were obtained for the Henry-E tertiary recovery test. However, the Henry-W test produced 63 percent of the residual oil after waterflooding. The 119-R tertiary recovery test in the Henry reservoir has produced to date about 20 percent of the residual oil in place. Core tests drilled for the final field test (Henry-S) indicated that 2,100 bbl of oil had been displaced in the reservoir by the Maraflood process.

OSTI ID:
7301296
Journal Information:
World Oil; (United States), Journal Name: World Oil; (United States) Vol. 176; ISSN WOOIA
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English