A general approach to estimate the cost of recovering crude oil by surfactant waterflood techniques
The paper presents a general procedure for estimating the cost of recovering crude oil by surfactant waterflood techniques. This general procedure is illustrated by working through an example in detail. The economics of surfactant flooding are a complex function of many elements such as the surface facilities, well operations, reservoir parameters and chemical cost. The paper identifies thirteen factors or elements and explores the interactions among them and describes a procedure for estimating the effect of these factors on the wellhead price a producer must receive for the surfactant flooding to be economical. Three actual reservoir stratifications were simulated using a surfactant-front tracking model. Oil recovery vs time vs surfactant injection were obtained. These data were used with the procedure outlined in the paper to illustrate the effect of injection rate, oil saturations at the beginning of the surface flooding, reservoir properties such as thickness and depth; well workover, infill drilling, fracturing, chemical cost, and the DCF rate of return on the required wellhead prices. The paper shows what favorable combinations need to obtain for an economical surfactant flooding.
- Research Organization:
- Mobil R and D Corp.
- OSTI ID:
- 6073515
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-8409104-
- Journal Information:
- Soc. Pet. Eng. AIME, Pap.; (United States), Vol. SPE13236; Conference: 59. annual Society of Petroleum Engineers of AIME technical conference, Houston, TX, USA, 16 Sep 1984
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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