Suitability Evaluation of Locally Sourced Surfactants for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) in the Niger Delta

The use surfactant chemicals to improve oil recovery has been practiced both at laboratory and field scale levels. The results obtained have revealed an incremental oil recovery with surfactant injection. Surfactant injection aims at reducing the interfacial tension (IFT) between oil-water systems resulting to increase in the microscopic sweep of the reservoir. In this paper, a study was carried out to investigate the potentials of locally sourced surfactants as substitute for imported synthetic surfactants. Four different locally sourced surfactants; PBAS, RPAS, UPAS and SCS alongside two synthetic products were tested. Fourier Transformed Infrared (FTIR) Technique was used to identify the various functional groups present in the samples; presence of C-Br, C-CI, R-O-R, H2C=CH3, RNH2, RCOOR, RCOOH, R2C=O, R-S-C≡N, CH2, R-S-C≡N, R2N and RCHOH were observed. The effects of temperature, surfactant conc., salinity and polymer concentration on IFT reduction of a brine- oil system were investigated in order to evaluate the performance of the samples in reducing interfacial tension. The results obtained from the FTIR test revealed the close similarities in the constituents present in local and synthetic material which makes them good candidates to consider for chemical EOR. This finding was also confirmed by the IFT reduction test conducted.