Lessons learned from coreflood experiments with surfactant-polymer and alkali-surfactant-polymer for enhanced oil recovery

A review of coreflood experiments for chemically enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is presented in this paper, particularly surfactant-polymer (SP) and alkali-surfactant-polymer (ASP) processes. The objective of this review is to gain a general outlook and insight from coreflood experiments injecting SP or ASP slug as tertiary recovery. The discussion is separated into sections based on relevant core and fluid properties as well as surfactant selection and SP/ASP slug design and their impact on incremental recovery. Most studies in this review have been published within the last twenty years but few older coreflood works have been included for benchmarking. Parameters in each reviewed study have been summarized in tables to help readers gain detailed observation. Lessons learned from these past experiments should help other chemical EOR practitioners or students of the field in benchmarking or improving the outcomes of their future SP/ASP experiments.