Research progress of viscoelastic surfactants for enhanced oil recovery

Although new energy has been widely used in our lives, oil is still one of the main sources world. After application traditional recovery methods, there are a large number layers that have not exploited, and need to further increase meet urgent for world economic development. Chemically enhanced (CEOR) considered be kind effective technology, which achieved good results field, but these technologies cannot simultaneously effectively improve sweep efficiency, washing injectability, reservoir environment adaptability. Viscoelastic surfactants (VES) unique micelle structure aggregation behavior, high efficiency reducing interfacial tension water, most important viscoelasticity, etc., attracted attention academics field experts introduced into technical research recovery. In this paper, mechanism status viscoelastic surfactant flooding discussed detail focused, experiments under different conditions summarized. Finally, problems solved by introduced, countermeasures solve put forward. This overview presents extensive information about EOR, intended help researchers professionals understand current situation.