Petrokimia Gresik Supplies 36 Thousand Liters of Green Surfactant for Optimizing Oil Production in the Walio Field, West Papua

Petrokimia Gresik, an Agroindustry Solutions company and a member of the Pupuk Indonesia group, supports the optimization of domestic oil production by contributing to the "Huff and Puff" injection project in the Walio Field, Sorong Regency, West Papua, using Green Surfactant. The project was marked by the departure of Green Surfactant by I Ketut Rusnaya, SEVP of Operations at Petrokimia Gresik, representing Dwi Satriyo Annurogo, President Director of Petrokimia Gresik, in Gresik, East Java, recently.

Petrokimia Gresik is the only domestic industry capable of producing Green Surfactant. The company currently has two Sulfuric Acid Plants with a total capacity of 1,170,000 tons/year. One of the intermediate products from these plants is SO3 gas, which is the raw material for Green Surfactant with abundant quantities and stable quality.

The Green Surfactant Plant at Petrokimia Gresik, established in 2020, has a production capacity of 600kL/year. The plant has undergone numerous improvements, resulting in a much more stable Green Surfactant product that meets the requirements for use in IOR/EOR or as demanded by the market. In the future, it is projected that by 2026, the production capacity of the Petrokimia Gresik Green Surfactant Plant could reach 5500kL/year.

Separately, on Friday (27/10/2023), Dwi Satriyo stated that the Huff & Puff project in the Walio Field with the No Cure No Pay scheme is scheduled to begin in November 2023. Petrokimia Gresik collaborates with several parties, where Petrokimia Gresik is responsible for supplying 36,000 liters of Green Surfactant. The Green Surfactant is then formulated by PT Dunia Kimia Jaya and injected into the field by PT Enerproco Global Indonesia.

"Before participating in this project, Green Surfactant went through several required trial stages, namely IFT 10-3 and Windsor type III in phase behavior tests, and in imbibition tests, Green Surfactant was able to produce promising recovery values," said Dwi Satriyo.

Furthermore, Digna Jatiningsih, Director of Operations and Production at Petrokimia Gresik, added that the Green Surfactant produced by Petrokimia Gresik is the only environmentally friendly surfactant product produced domestically to optimize oil exploration using Improved Oil Recovery (IOR) and Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) methods.

"In this Huff and Puff process, Green Surfactant is formulated with other chemicals and injected into the oil well, then left (soaking) for some time. Afterward, it is produced again in the well. This injection process can separate crude oil that is still attached to rocks, thereby increasing the recovery of crude oil," added Digna Jatiningsih.

After sending off the Green Surfactant supply, I Ketut Rusnaya, SEVP of Operations at Petrokimia Gresik, expressed that Green Surfactant not only increases the productivity of oil wells but also extracts crude oil from fields or old oil wells that are no longer productive.

"Oil drilling will eventually decrease in productivity, even though there are still many reserves in the well. This happens because oil is trapped in rocks or other substances. By using Green Surfactant, there will be an increase in oil production that was initially left behind because it was difficult to produce, and now it can be optimized. The Huff and Puff Green Surfactant in the Walio Field is expected to continue as an EOR pilot project that can further demonstrate the quality of our product," said Ketut.

Ketut further revealed that Green Surfactant has a large market potential given its competitive price and environmental friendliness. On the other hand, there are also numerous oil wells in Indonesia.

"This collaboration is one of the tangible forms and collective roles in building the nation's self-reliance and reducing dependence on the import of raw materials and auxiliaries, such as surfactants," concluded Ketut.