Shell Oil Comapny

David R Thigpen

Jimmie B Lawson

Richard Louis Nelson

Joseph Reisberg

Lawrence James Bielamowicz

Randolph H Knapp

Harold J Hill

Jeffery G Southwick

Calcium silicate filter aids have been found to be effective to remove colloidal iron suspensions from aqueous streams without plugging filters. Calcium silicate filter aid is made by heating diatomaceous earth with hydrous lime.

Iron hydroxide removal method

An aqueous alkaline flood for recovering oil from a reservoir containing acidic oil is improved by adding to the injected aqueous alkaline solution both a stoichiometric excess of the alkaline material and a kind and amount of preformed cosurfactant material that increases the salinity of that solution so that, in contact with the oil in the reservoir, it will form a surfactant system having a salinity requirement which minimizes the interfacial tension between it and the oil.

Preformed surfactant-optimized aqueous alkaline flood

An aqueous alkaline oil recovery fluid containing monovalent salt, and, optionally, preformed cosurfactant, is improved by using a mixture of alkaline silicate and carbonate salts in specified proportions as the alkaline material.

Preparing an aqueous alkaline solution for recovery of oil from a

Oil is recovered from an acidic oil reservoir by injecting an alkaline, saline, aqueous solution containing proportions of preformed cosurfactant which are decreased as increasing amounts of the solution are injected.

Staged preformed-surfactant-optimized aqueous alkaline flood

A process of recovering oil from a subterranean reservoir in which the oil is acidic but forms monovalent cation soaps of only relatively low interfacial activity when reacted with aqueous alkaline solutions, comprises displacing the oil toward a production location with a mixture of gas and cosurfactant-containing aqueous alkaline solution.

Recovering oil by injecting aqueous alkali, cosurfactant and gas

The injectivity of an oil-containing reservoir is increased by injecting successive portions of a solution or slightly turbid dispersion of reservoir-tailored amounts of polyalkoxyalcohol sulfate surfactant and lower alkanol in highly saline aqueous liquid and a reservoir acidizing solution.

Growing community of inventors

Houston, TX, United States of America

David R Thigpen