Chevron announced on 8 July that it has selected ZL Chemicals as its technology licensing partner to commercialize the supermajor’s enhanced oil recovery (EOR) surfactants, which are designed to increase crude-oil production from tight-rock reservoirs. The surfactant technology, the exact chemistry of which has not been disclosed, will be marketed under the brand name Vantis.
Over the past several years, Chevron has developed and deployed its proprietary EOR surfactants across its unconventional assets in the Permian Basin, where the company says the chemical program has generated an average 10% increase in production. At the recent Unconventional Resources Technology Conference in Houston, Chevron said it has applied the EOR technology in about 600 Permian wells.
“Technology creates more value when it can be applied broadly,” Ryder Booth, chief technology and engineering officer of Chevron, said in a statement. “Advanced chemicals are one of Chevron’s areas of differentiation and have supported innovation in our own operations. Through this licensing agreement, we’re creating a pathway for ZL to bring this technology to a broader market, and at scale.”
Chevron said the commercial version of its surfactant technology is intended for both shale and tight-rock reservoirs and can be deployed in existing wells as well as used in new-well optimization efforts.
"We are pleased to work with Chevron to expand access to this technology across a broader customer base," Echo Liu, president of Houston-based ZL Chemicals, said in the announcement. "At ZL Chemicals, we are focused on delivering enhanced oil recovery chemistry and field services designed to support operators’ production and reservoir management objectives. Vantis represents the type of technology our customers are seeking, and we are positioned to deliver it as a scalable, turnkey service—from lab evaluation and [quality assurance and quality control] through application design, on-site deployment, and field execution.”
Chevron noted that it will continue developing next-generation surfactant technologies for its own operations, while the agreement with ZL applies to the technologies covered under the licensing arrangement.
Earlier this year, Chevron shared new details about efforts to enhance its surfactant program through new formulations and the potential use of additives such as solvents and nanomaterials.