Low cost surfactants for wettability alteration studies

Surfactants possess the ability to alter rock wettability which will improve oil& gas well productivity, however the cost of chemicals that serve as wettability alteration agent can be a major constraint to exploring the option for improved oil recovery. The goal of this study is to develop a surfactant from locally sourced and readily available reagents at low cost, with favourable potency levels, which can compete with synthetic surfactants. The core sample used for this experiment is water wet in nature. The sample was treated and aged for a specific period followed by physical property measurements and spontaneous imbibition experiment. Rate of imbibition before and after treatment had varying times indicating that the wettability of the core sample was altered from water-wetting to otherwise. Hence the anionic surfactant used in the study can be considered for improving recovery from multiphase petroleum reservoirs.