Household items may hold the formula for more efficient oil extraction.
Surfactants found in common household items, such as toothpaste and soap, are now helping to safely and efficiently extract up to 70% of the oil still trapped in high-salt oil reservoirs in the US.
Oil reservoirs which have reached the limits of standard pumping technology, still retain trapped oil. Whilst oil extraction methods such as fracking drive the oil towards the drill hole, it still cannot 'squeeze' it from the rock to push it into the production wells.
A team from the University of Oklahoma has formulated a compound that increases oil flow in previously pumped reservoirs. The crude within the rock is replaced with harmless compounds like brine, combined with surfactants, that maintain the integrity of the rock formation. The surfactant reduces surface tension, allowing the oil to be released from the rock so it can move with the injected water and be pushed to the production wells safely.
The process could have major benefits for areas such as the Pennsylvania oil sands - a focal point for the researchers - where a recent Geological Survey claims that only around 15 billion barrels have been extracted from the estimated 84 billion barrels of crude reserves in the area.
Several single-well operations have successfully tested the surfactant formulations and research is now moving to small, multiple-well testing. This could enable small oil producers to recover more oil efficiently and cost effectively, while leaving the formations environmentally sound.
While the Penn. scientists' technique is innovated, as previously reported by OATS the use of surfactants in oil recovery has already been explored in combination with CO2.