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Product development
The development of ENORDET* surfactants for enhanced oil recovery has required years of surfactant development research across the spectrum of laboratory tests (including core flood tests to simulate the field) as well as field tests. In supporting these developments, Shell is building on its long standing experience in surfactant development and manufacturing and combining this with experience in the upstream on sub-surface aspects of the technology.
Research and development on the surfactant manufacturing process has been required to enable the production of large volumes of high performance, consistent quality, cost effective surfactants.
The following Shell Technology Centres are involved in surfactant EOR developments:
- Amsterdam (Netherlands)
- Westhollow, Houston (US)
- Bangalore (India)
- Rijswijk (Netherlands) - opens in new window
Additional research is carried out at Bellaire Technology Center (Houston).
| Product development timeline |
|---|
| December 2010: Two two-well tests completed in N America, one single-well test completed in SA Asia |
| September 2010: Shell presented papers at the Petroleum Engineers Association WGSO & Chemical EOR Forum, Italy (see the Technical papers) |
| April 2010: Shell presented papers at the Tulsa EOR symposium in the US (see Technical papers) |
| December 2009: Various single well chemical tracer tests in the Middle East |
| November 2009: Single well chemical tracer test in Russia |
| April - September 2009: Scale-up from laboratory to semi-commercial production of ENORDET surfactants O352, O332, O242, H771 and H991 for use in various single well tests |
| August 2009: Single well test in North America |