Application of triethanolamine in petroleum extraction

In petroleum extraction, due to the hydration expansion, dispersion, and migration of clay minerals in petroleum reservoirs. Permeability decreases, water injection pressure increases, and oil recovery decreases. At present, in the actual production of oil fields, the method of adding clay stabilizers at the initial stage of water injection is mostly used to reduce the damage of clay minerals to the reservoir. For clay minerals that have hydrated and swelled, traditional clay stabilizers, which are anti-swelling agents, have little effect on restoring reservoir permeability.

In response to this situation, acidification and deblocking measures are currently adopted to remove reservoir pollution. However, the conventional acidification method has the defects of  short validity period and large damage to the oil layer by the acidification liquid itself. The anti-swelling agent has the anti-swelling function of the traditional clay stabilizer, which can dehydrate and shrink the clay that has been hydrated and expanded, and restore the permeability of the reservoir.

A new polyhydroxyorganic ammonium clay anti-swelling agent, trihydroxyethylallyl ammonium bromide (TAAC), was synthesized using a solvent-free method using TEA and bromopropene from Shijiazhuang Haisen Chemical  as raw materials. This is an anti-swelling agent with multi-components of inorganic polymers and organic polymers. Its cost performance is much higher than other clay anti-swelling agents currently used in the market.