Foam Flood

Foaming agents are commonly employed in various aspects of oil recovery including drilling, fracturing, gas production and EOR. Surfactants are used in low concentrations to generate foams.

Foams are also used in gas reservoirs to allow gas to bypass water blocking the flow of gas to the surface. The surfactant is injected downhole and the gas dissolved in the water is used to generate foam and lift the water out of the formation allowing for increased gas recovery.

Foams have been proposed for use as mobility control agents and to improve conformance in various secondary recovery and EOR processes, such as steam floods, CO2 floods, Nitrogen floods and methane floods. Specialized surfactants and surfactant formulations are required to produce foams that are tolerant to oil and electrolyte and stable at downhole pressures and temperatures.

The foam can reduce the permeability of swept zones, forcing steam or carbon dioxide or other gas phase into un-swept areas of the formation. Foams are also employed in drilling and well clean-up operations to suspend and remove solids. Foams can also be employed in fracturing and acidizing to control rates of dissolution of carbonate rock.