Laboratory Investigation of Nanofluid-Assisted Polymer Flooding in Carbonate Reservoirs.

In the petroleum industry, the remaining oil is often extracted using conventional chemical enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques, such as polymer flooding. Nanoparticles have also greatly aided EOR, with benefits like wettability alteration and improvements in fluid properties that lead to better oil mobility. However, silica nanoparticles combined with polymers like hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) improve polymer flooding performance with better mobility control.