The limitation in the formulation and application of synthetic surfactants in petroleum industry is owing to their high cost of production or importation and their associated toxic effect which have been proven to be harmful to the environment. Hence it is vitally imperative to develop an optimum surfactant that is cost-effective, environmentally safe (biodegradable) and equally serves as surface acting agent. This study discusses the production of microbial produced bio-surfactant and its application in enhanced oil recovery. The bacteria Pseudomonas sp. were isolated from urine and allow to feed on neem seed oil as the major carbon source and energy. The crude bio-surfactant produced from the fermentation process was used to prepare three (3) solutions of bio-surfactants at different concentrations of 5 g/500 mL, 10 g/500 mL and 15 g/500 mL, and their suitability for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) was evaluated. Reservoir core samples and crude oil collected from the Niger Delta field were used to evaluate the EOR application of the microbial-derived surfactants. The sets of experimental samples were carried out using core flooding and permeability tester equipment, and the results obtained were compared with conventional waterflooding experiments. The three bio-surfactant concentrations were observed to recover more oil than the conventional waterflooding method for the two core samples used. Optimum performance of the produced microbial-derived surfactant on oil recovery based on the concentrations was observed to be 10 g/500 mL for the two samples used in this study. Therefore, eco-friendly bio-surfactant produced from neem seed oil using Pseudomonas sp. has shown to be a promising potential substance for enhanced oil recovery applications by incremental recoveries of 51.9%, 53.2%, and 29.5% at the concentration of 5, 10, and 15 g/500 mL and 24.7%, 28.7%, and 20.1% at concentration of 5, 10, and 15 g/500 mL for the two core samples, respectively.

Scaling is a major problem in water flooding caused by the mixing of incompatible injected and formation waters. The phenomenon results in precipitation and accumulation of oilfield scale around the well bore after water breakthrough at reduced reservoir pressure. This results in formation damage, which may influence reservoir well bore performance and success of water flood project. This article presents a modified model for predicting permeability damage due to oilfield scale precipitation at different operational and reservoir/brine parameters. The key operational and reservoir parameters that influence the magnitude of flow impairment by scale deposition are identified through the modification.

This paper presents information about the data obtained from the experimental research showing the effect of sunflower based biodiesel on rheological properties of Nigeria waxy crude oil. The information reported in the dataset depicts 0.1-0.7% dosing concentration of sunflower based biodiesel might be required for viscosity reduction of Nigeria waxy crude oil at operational temperatures ranging from 10 °C (at low temperature region) to 60 °C (at mid temperature region). It has also demonstrated that biodiesel derived from sunflower is technically viable to decrease the viscosity of Nigeria waxy crude oil appreciably, hence revealing its potential capacity to enhancing flow of the oil in pipeline and wellbore system.