Formulasi Surfaktan Metil Ester Sulfonat sebagai Oil Well Cleaning

Abstract

Oil productivity reduction may be due to plugging in the oil rock formations. The plugging may be caused by the deposition of paraffin, asphaltene, and scale. Problem caused by the presence of the precipitate is the rock formation can be oil wet so that oil permeability decreases. The problem can be solved by well cleaning technique with surfactant formula. Surfactant MES is a type of anionic surfactant which has ability to lower the interfcial tension, surface tension, and able to change the properties of rock from oil wet to become water wet. Surfactant MES formula for well cleaning requires carrier agent. In this study, diesel oil and metil ester were used as carrying agent. Aromatic solvents were also needed. Xylene and toluene has ability to dissolve asphaltene that deposites in formation. Surfaktan formulation for well cleaning was done with several stages, those are determine the SMES concentration and aromatic solvents concentration. Surfactant performance tests for oil well cleaning were thermal stability, phase behavior, and wettability. The surfactant formula which gave the best performance was SMES 3% in metil ester carrying agent with xylene 15% as additive.