Study on Screening and Performance Evaluation Technology of Salt-Tolerant Foaming Agent

Foam drainage gas recovery technology is one of the most important technologies in drainage and gas production of shale gas wells. The effect of foam drainage which the main component of foaming agent is surfactant mainly depends on the type and performance of the foaming agent. In Jidong, Zhejiang and other oilfields, the salinity of formation water is high, which has strong inhibitory effect on the activity of surfactants. Therefore, it is necessary to select surfactants with high salt resistance as foaming agents. In this paper, we screened a foaming agent that can be dissolved and stable in the formation water with high salinity by evaluating the foaming ability, stability, liquid carrying capacity, compatibility and surface activity of four different types and concentrations of foaming agents with Roche foam tester, liquid carrying rate tester and other relevant instruments. The results show that the foaming agent has good foaming and stability, better liquid carrying capacity and surface activity, and it can be used less with higher economic benefits than others, which provides a feasible scheme for the selection of foaming agent in shale bubble drainage process.