A comprehensive review of beneficial applications of viscoelastic surfactants in wellbore hydraulic fracturing fluids

A viscoelastic surfactant (VES) fluid is an important part of a water-based fracturing fluid. As oil and gas exploration expands into deep, high-temperature, low-permeability reservoirs, the conventional VES fracturing fluid has shown great limitations. The high-temperature-resistance mechanisms of the high-temperature-resistant VES fracturing fluids in publicly available literature were analyzed from five aspects: single-chain surfactant system, oligomeric surfactant system, counterion effect, blended surfactant system, and nano-enhanced VES system. The friction-reduction performance, sand-carrying performance, gel-breaking performance, and core-damage performance of these systems were summarized. The results show that oligomeric surfactants with a monounsaturated hydrophobic long chain (>C21) are most likely to be used for VES fracturing fluids in high-temperature reservoirs, but the loading of the surfactants is still relatively high (3–5 wt %). By reducing the repulsion among polar headgroups to effectively decrease the area of head groups, or/and penetrating into the nonpolar cores based on hydrophobic interaction to increase the average hydrophobic volume of hydrophobic tails, counterions affect the performance of VESs. The aromatic counterion salts are preferred choices for improving the temperature resistance, friction reduction, and suspended sand performance of VES fluids. The blended surfactant/synthetic polymer systems based on noncovalent interaction improve the temperature resistance of VES fluids and reduce the loading of the surfactants to a certain extent. Based on the “pseudo-cross-linking” of nanomaterials and wormlike micelles, a very small amount of nanomaterials can improve the temperature resistance of VES fluids and reduce the loading of the surfactants. The most essential and effective method to improve the temperature resistance of VES fluids for fracturing is the molecular structure design based on the packing parameter theory. However, the synthesis process or route still needs further optimization to reduce production costs. In addition, given the excellent performance of VES fluids enhanced by nanomaterials, further research should be conducted on the influence mechanism of nanomaterial type and geometric features on the performance of VESs, as well as the potential harmfulness of nanomaterials, to promote the field-scale application of nano-enhanced VES fluids. 

Review on High-Temperature-Resistant Viscoelastic Surfactant Fracturing Fluids: State-of-the-Art and Perspectives

To develop high-salinity, high-temperature reservoirs, two hydrophobically associating polymers as fracturing fluid thickener were respectively synthesized through aqueous solution polymerization with acrylamide (AM), acrylic acid (AA), 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropanesulfonic acid (AMPS), nonionic polymerizable surfactant (NPS) and double-tail hydrophobic monomer (DHM). The thickener ASDM (AM/AA/AMPS/NPS/DHM) and thickener ASD (AM/AA/AMPS/DHM) were compared in terms of properties of water dissolution, thickening ability, rheological behavior and sand-carrying. The results showed that ASDM could be quickly diluted in water within 6 min, 66.7% less than that of ASD. ASDM exhibited salt-thickening performance, and the apparent viscosity of 0.5 wt% ASDM reached 175.9 mPa·s in 100,000 mg/L brine, 100.6% higher than that of ASD. The viscosity of 0.5 wt% ASDM was 85.9 mPa·s after shearing for 120 min at 120 °C and at 170 s−1, 46.6% higher than that of ASD. ASDM exhibited better performance in thickening ability, viscoelasticity, shear recovery, thixotropy and sand-carrying than ASD. The synergistic effect of hydrophobic association and linear entanglement greatly enhancing the performance of ASDM and the compactness of the spatial network structure of the ASDM was enhanced. In general, ASDM exhibited great potential for application in extreme environmental conditions with high salt and high temperatures.

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Fracturing Fluid Polymer Thickener with Superior Temperature, Salt and Shear Resistance Properties from the Synergistic Effect of Double-Tail Hydrophobic Monomer and Nonionic Polymerizable Surfactant

Hydraulic fracturing is an important technology to improve oil and gas productivity for reservoirs of both conventional and unconventional. To minimize reservoir damage during hydraulic fracturing, researchers have aimed to develop clean fracturing fluids based on viscoelastic surfactants (VESs); however, reduced efficiency at high temperature and high salinity limits their wider applications. Here, an ultra-long-chain cationic surfactant docosyl(trimethyl)azanium chloride (DCTAC) was proposed to prepare fracturing fluid in the presence of high content of various inorganic salts to address this problem. DCTAC shows excellent salt tolerance, forming a homogeneous solution in 22 % NaCl or 55 % CaCl2 at 60 °C, which is several times higher than that for previously reported VESs. Salt can induce DCTAC to form an entangled three-dimensional wormlike micelles network, imparting the bulk fluid excellent rheological properties. DCTAC-thickened fluids show good sand-carrying and gel-breaking performance, and they can resist a temperature of up to 140 °C and a salinity level of at least 16 × 104 mg‧L−1. Compared with previously reported clean fracturing fluids, DCTAC-thickened fluid shows superior high-temperature and high-salinity resistance. The mechanism is elaborated and discussed. The findings in this study are helpful to understand surfactant aggregates stability and assist the development of novel stable supramolecular nanostructures. 

A salt-induced smart and tough clean hydrofracturing fluid with superior high-temperature and high-salinity resistance

Carbon Dioxide capture, oil displacement and Storage (CCUS-EOR) projects inject captured carbon dioxide into developed reservoirs suitable for gas displacement. However, due to the strong heterogeneity of the reservoir, the CO2 channeling is seriously. In this study, using tung oil as renewable chemical raw material, environmentally friendly surfactants and hydrophobic nano-SiO2 were synthesized as the main components of smart gel system. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), nuclear magnetic resonance spectrum (NMR) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were used to characterize the chemical structure. The smart gel system was obtained through the CO2 response experiment. The system can cycle back and forth between low and high viscosity multiple times, and a good temperature resistance and salt resistance. The results of rheological experiments and dynamic light scattering show that the nanoparticles promote the growth and entanglement of WLMs. The plugging capacity and auxiliary CO2-EOR performance of the system were evaluated through the laboratory displacement test. The intelligent response system has good gas channeling plugging ability, plugging efficiency reaches 97 %, and CO2 flooding oil recovery efficiency increases by 22.2 %. In addition, in the acute toxicity assessment, the bio-based gel system from plants showed slightly toxic, which is expected to become a new generation of green oilfield chemicals. 

Rheological properties and gas channeling plugging ability in CO2 flooding of a hydrophobic nanoparticle-enhanced smart gel system constructed with wormlike micelles

Abnormal thermally stabilized switchable aqueous foams

Polyhydroxy cationic viscoelastic surfactant for clean fracturing fluids: study on the salt tolerance and the effect of salt on the high temperature stability of wormlike micelles

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Abnormal thermally stabilized switchable aqueous foams

Polyhydroxy cationic viscoelastic surfactant for clean fracturing fluids: study on the salt tolerance and the effect of salt on the high temperature stability of wormlike micelles