Vahid Kanani - National Iranian South Oil Company
Mohamad Reza Shishesaz - Petroleum University of Technology
Babak Dehghani - Tehran University

The oil recovery from fractured carbonate reservoirs is typically very low via conventional technology Injected water will not penetrate easily into the porous matrix and so can not displace the oil in place.Chemical and especially surfactant flooding is an interested method in this situation because of its effect on interfacial tension (IFT) reduction. Many previous studies of the IFT behavior of surfactants have also concentrated on rather low concentrations of NaCl, with little or no divalent ion present. But surfactant flooding of Iranian carbonate reservoirs is still a difficult proposition due to the harsh brine conditions and structure of carbonates.There are a lot of investigations on IFT prediction in hydrocarbon-water system to better understanding surfactant mechanisms, but there are not a lot of successes. In this paper we investigate the effect of Hexadecyl trimetyl ammonium bromide () on oil recovery and focus on its effect on IFT. In addition a model is presented to predict IFT between the desired surfactant aqueous solution and kerosene in different temperatures and wide range of surfactant concentrations.

Interfacial Tension, Wettability, Surfactant, Contact Angle, Sspontaneous Imbibition, Hexadecyl trimetyl ammonium bromide