The article addresses a problem regarding the efficiency of waterflooding using surfactants. In author’s opinion, this effectiveness is not justified by scientific data. According to the results of studying the lessons of pilot flooding with the use of aqueous solutions of nonionic surfactants, the following conclusion was obtained. To obtain a real effect from reducing the interfacial tension at the displacement front, it is necessary to create surfactants capable of lowering the interfacial tension to values of at least 10-3 mN/m. Today, there are no such surfactants, and the task of synthesizing them remains super-urgent. This conclusion is not taken into account by scientists and manufacturers when designing industrial applications of surfactant flooding. The described mechanism is achieved by using gaseous agents, especially carbon dioxide. In addition, as practice and laboratory experiments show, highly effective surfactants should have low or moderate adsorption in a porous medium. Currently, chemical reagents that have the ability to influence radically the energy of intermolecular bonds have already been mastered by industry. But apart from isolated reports on the technological features of their application, convincing data on the results of their industrial testing and implementation are not published. The creation of effective physical and chemical methods for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) does not lose its relevance. In this regard, geological and field data obtained at Bashneft PJSC during the period of the greatest volume of work using physico-chemical EOR methods are presented.
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