Synergizing foam stability, gas mobility control, and oil recovery: A new approach combining silane-silica oxide and MFomax

Abstract

Oil reservoirs subjected to a gas recovery technique are commonly challenged by early gas breakthroughs affecting the production rate. Foam is injected to block and divert gas to reservoir sections, however, achieving this mechanism requires stable foam to withstand extreme reservoir conditions, such as temperature, pressure and salinity. In this work, synergy actions between aminopropyltriethoxysilane doped SiO₂ nanoparticles (NPs) and MFomax were investigated on rheology, interfacial tension (IFT), wettability, foam stability and quality to reduce gas mobility and enhance oil recovery (EOR). The formulation was guided by optimization, and the foam studies were carried out at optimum concentrations. Core-flood equipment was used to assess the gas mobility reduction factor (MRF) and EOR. From the findings, the foamability of the nanofluid is primarily governed by synergy action between the NPs and MFomax due to significant R² value (0.9; p < 0.05). Presence of NPs in the formulation resulted in good fluid properties such viscosity and IFT. The nanofoam stability has improved tremendously to 119% relative to MFomax foam. According to the IFT and contact angle, the detachment energy of the NPs (1.4 × 10⁸ eV) is higher than 1 eV suggesting strong adsorption at aqueous interface leading to foam stability. The nanofoam reached a maximum of 50 MRF, while MFomax was below 40 MRF. Subsequently, all the foam descended to lower quality regions around 5 PVI due to the change in foam morphology. Furthermore, the EOR recorded by nanofoam demonstrates a 7% increase on top of MFomax recovery factor. Thus, it can be deduced that the synergy of SiO₂ NPs with MFomax offer several benefits in improving the foam stability, quality, MRF and EOR.