Status and assessment of chemical oil recovery methods

Over two-thirds of the original oil remains unrecovered in art oil reservoi r after primary and secondary recovery methods have been exhausted. Many ch emically based oil recovery methods have been proposed and rested in the la boratory and field. Indeed, chemical oil recovery methods offer a real chal lenge in view of their success in the laboratory and lack of success in the field. The problem lies in the inadequacy of laboratory experiments on one hand, and the very limited knowledge of the reservoir characteristics on t he other. Field test performances of polymer, alkaline, and micellar flooding methods are examined for nearly 50 field tests, results for which are tabulated Th e oil recovery performance of micellar floods is the highest, followed by p olymer floods. Alkaline floods have been largely unsuccessful. The reasons underlying success or failure are examined.