A simulation of enhanced oil recovery of surfactant flooding using sodium lignosulfonate by CMG-STARS

Many countries in the world still rely on crude oil as their major source of energy. In Indonesia, the production rate of crude oil decreases steadily with the current production rate of about 800 000 bbl oil/day in 2018. Current state happens because in Indonesia there are still a lot of old wells become mainstay to produce oil. Hence, there is an urgent need to introduce technology to improve oil production. Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) has been considered as the main alternative to boost the production of mature fields in Indonesia. A simulation study of EOR is an important support to the implementation of EOR in Indonesia. In this paper we demonstrate a simulation study of lab-scale core flooding test using Sodium Lignosulfonates (in-house surfactant product of Universitas Gadjah Mada) for EOR by using Berea core. CMG STARS software with Black Oil Model has been used as a simulator to track the fractional flow of water, oil, and surfactant in axial position. The result of the simulator model was validated with the experimental results from the lab. © 2019 IEEE.